Ok, I was able to see Mr. Helpful from work (during lunch), but from home I get a 404 Forbidden screen. Apparently my IP or something has been banned by his server.

Posted by: Ted at 04:06 PM | category: Links
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So the California legislature has passed a bill to limit textbooks in the state to 200 pages. *sigh*

You realize, of course, that this effectively limits them to 100 useful pages, since half will be printed in Spanish.

I'm not even sure if that's a joke or not.

Update: Oops, I wasn't clear. The bit about 200 pages tops is true, the part about half being in Spanish is my (poor) attempt at humor. If it were true, there'd be 25 pages in English, 25 in Spanish, 25 in Vietnamese, 25 in Ebonics, 25 in ...

Posted by: Ted at 11:18 AM | category: Links
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Squipper, aka Cindy, is enjoying her homemade cinnamon bread. Inexplicably, the USPS delivered it to her yesterday morning. Odd, that.

What the heck happened to Mr. Helpful? I must've missed the memo, did he move into a new place on the net?

In vacation news, I had a long list of things to take care of while I was off, and I got about 90% of it done. I also brought work home, but only spent about 15 minutes with it before putting it away again.

I also went to a very cool picnic on Saturday for my friend Bob, who recently got his associates degree in IT and is ready for a career change. Bob is a quiet guy, he and I knew each other for years before we did more than nod good morning in the hallway. He's been going to night school for awhile, sticking to it through new kids and family and work and everything else life could throw at him. Congrats, Amigo!!! (he reads this blog, but seldom - if ever - leaves a comment... like I said, real quiet)

Posted by: Ted at 05:53 AM | category: Links
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From the plaque "To Honor U.S. Servicemen and Women Held Prisoner by Terrorists", in memory of Colonel William Richard Higgins, USMC:

He died far away,
Before his time,
But as a soldier and for his country.

I posted this piece about Quantico National Cemetary last Memorial Day.

Update: Nic has posted some wonderful pictures of the various memorials around Washington D.C.

Posted by: Ted at 06:04 AM | category: Links
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A group of historical flight enthusiasts are flight testing the first of five Me 262's that they're building. This Messerschmitt design was introduced near the end of WWII and was the first practical operational jet fighter.

Thanks to Transterrestrial Musings for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 01:12 PM | category: Links
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Got a *lot* done yesterday and finished up the evening by watching one of Misty Mundae's more recent efforts, Bite Me! Giant mutant spiders in a strip club. You know I'm loving it.

Boss: What's gotten into you?

Crystal: Spider venom, and I like it.

Consider that a mini-review and recommendation.

Speaking of clitorises... clitoris's... clitorii... what's the plural of clitoris? Oh well, doesn't matter... Speaking of female anatomy, wegglywoo points out an article that proves once again that there are always new things to discover right under our noses (ahem).

Sorry, I was up way late and up way early. Sleep deprivation makes me silly. It's a serious article though, and has some interesting implications for current surgical techniques.

Since we're navigating around the female form, it might be useful to be able to actually navigate, eh? And what better way than by sextant, especially an actual working sextant you build yourself using AOL cd's, mirrors and lego? Thanks to the Ministry for this nifty link.

Mookie picked up the soundtrack to Spamalot. Excellent. I especially enjoyed "The Song That Goes Like This". By the way, that is also one of the best home pages I've ever seen.

One Hit Wonder Central, courtesy of the Llama Butchers.

Gir has tagged me with another meme that goes on the ol' "get to it later stack", alongside the one from Elisson.

Squipper (who has a loaf of home made cinnamon-raisin bread heading her way at the speed of USPS) points out an amusing list: "Things I'd Probably Say If the Bush Administration Were Just a Weekly TV Show and I Were a Regular Viewer". In a completely non-partisan manner I'd like to mention that you can replace "Bush" with "Clinton" or even "Republican" or "Democrat" and the list would still be perfectly spot on.

(I know that contest was a long time ago and I'm just getting around to sending Cindy her prize, but I prefer to think of it this way: I take a long time to satisfy a lady.)

A while back I linked to "By Ourselves, For Ourselves" over at Random Nuclear Strikes. Basically, it's a series of practical essays on survival if the shit ever hits the fan. I consider these a must-read, and the latest installment is up.

You might not like guns, but you should understand the purpose of the 2nd Ammendment. And if you think it's terrible that the government tells you who you can or cannot marry, or what you can or cannot do in the privacy of your own home, yet you remain anti-gun, then I say you're foolish to discard the ultimate Constitutional remedy provided by the men of wisdom who designed that document. Another link from Random Nuclear Strikes.

The Everlasting Phelps has a new advertiser that sells Japanese products. I got a kick just browsing the catalog, and just might order the "Respect the Emperor, Expel the Foreign Barbarians" t-shirt.

Lynn S has been on a roll lately, with links to this page of vintage pulp Octopus covers, and this group blog called Drawn!, which is all about illustration, and which led me to By It's Cover and The Planet of Sardines.

I love the internet.

Posted by: Ted at 06:01 AM | category: Cult Flicks
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Professor Chris Hall appears after a long absence at his new site, under the same old name: Spacecraft.

You've been missed!

Posted by: Ted at 07:24 PM | category: Links
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We've heard that term used a lot lately. There are the personal variety ("I've had enough!") and the group version (Lebanon is an excellent example, as is the Ukraine).

Here is one Canadian's declaration of having reached their tipping point.

Wow.

Thanks to Debbye for pointing that out.

Posted by: Ted at 11:45 AM | category: Links
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Speaking of baseball, over at the McCovey Chronicles, Grant tries to explain the rivalry between the Giants and Dodgers.

It's something so ingrained, so automatic, I can't even prevent myself from sneering when I see a child wearing a Dodger cap. It's ridiculous. There but for the grace of geography go I, you know? The reason most of us are Giants fans is because of where we were born, where our parents were born, the careers they might have pursued, the twists and turns of relatives seven or eight generations back, and little more. At times, the rivalry seems completely arbitrary.

Also, the Dodgers are objectively evil and wrong. That also has something to do with this whole rivalry thing.

Amen.

Posted by: Ted at 05:11 AM | category: Links
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Alien Loves Predator.

Thanks to Red Ted for the pointer.

Posted by: Ted at 05:10 PM | category: Links
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1 That's pretty funny, I'm not even close to being a New Yorker or baseball fan so most of the jokes seem to go over my head.

I just say lookit the funny posable figurines

Posted by: Oorgo at May 24, 2005 06:30 PM (lM0qs)

2 I almost fell out of my chair laughing when the Yankees signed Jesus and then Pedro drilled him!

Posted by: Ted at May 25, 2005 06:14 AM (blNMI)

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The tapestry up top was done by yours truly and entered anonymously into the banner contest.

If you'd like, follow this link to make your own Bayeaux Tapestry (needs Flash).

Posted by: Ted at 04:45 AM | category: Links
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The airshow is one of the biggest events of the year in the Washington DC metro area, but it's always kind of melancholy and bittersweet time for my family. We don't attend, and haven't been to an airshow since 1988.

I suspect that others' thoughts go back as well, since comments on the original Flugtag '88 series of posts increase as this event approaches.

Read the posts, read the comments. Count your blessings.

Posted by: Ted at 06:13 AM | category: Links
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Today and tomorrow and, hell, I'm gonna be swamped until Monday at least...

Weg noticed that someone is proposing to make a Ray Bradbury short story into a movie, and hopes that they'll do it justice. I hope so too. Personally, I hate Bradbury with a passion, but he's done a few stories that I like, and one of them is A Sound of Thunder. Head on over to her place and read the background, plus she provides a link to the story online. It's a good read.

Moving from Science Fiction to science fact, the guys at Random Nuclear Strikes point the way to a nifty experiment in reality vs. Hollywood-reality. We've all seen the bit where the guy confronts a padlocked door or gate, whips out his pistol and, kapow!, removes the lock with a well-placed shot. Does it really work that way? Head on over to Life, Liberty, Etc. to read about the test and see pictures of the results. Way cool.

Rich puts up the best analysis of each episode of Survivor that I've seen on the net. I've never watched an episode, but his posts were good enough to know what was going on.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Minor Perfidy has overplayed their hand and it's now obvious that they desire nothing less than world domination under Canadian financial control. A most excellent writer who began as a commenter, became a blogger, then returned to commenting only has now been assimilated into the MoMP collective. As such, the call has been put forth:

...think of clever and mildly (mildly!) deprecating snippets to include in the random list of capsule bios that appear under every ministerÂ’s name...

Take 'em up on their generous offer to mock Patton before you actually read any of his posts. It's the Democratic way!

Oops, almost forgot. Buckethead posted his take on the blogmeet/demolition derby we had last Saturday night.

Nic is posting uber-cool pictures!

Gotta run. See ya when I get a chance.

Posted by: Ted at 05:41 AM | category: Links
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Michele:

News Editors need to dig deep into their values and go back to a place before news was a commodity; before news became earnings, ratings and subscriptions competition, to a place where a News Editor's role is once again that of a vanguard and protector of the truth. For that is what the American people want, and that is what our system of democracy demands.

There's more.

Posted by: Ted at 11:31 AM | category: Links
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I haven't heard a whole lot so far, but I'm really beginning to like the music of Lisa Loeb.

Posted by: Ted at 11:27 AM | category: Links
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1 I liked that "Stay" song of hers, but...Well, that's where the fascination ended.

Posted by: Derek at May 18, 2005 04:13 PM (wEVXE)

2 I thought she was pretty hot on Saturday Night Live.Haven't heard too much of her stuff beyond that though.BTW,the dude in the pic named Dweezil is Frank Zappa's son.He does the voice of Ajax on the show Duckman.

Posted by: Russ at May 18, 2005 04:20 PM (ObxzR)

3 Lisa Loeb?!

She was a cutie ten years ago.

I know nothing of her music. But, jus' judging by her choice of eye-glasses, she's one politely ornary chick.

My kinda gal!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at May 18, 2005 11:27 PM (gStd8)

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And Gir provided not one, but two!

Posted by: Ted at 11:17 AM | category: Links
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When putting together your color pallete, don't forget that about 1 in 12 people who visit your site will be color blind.

Here's a good page with ideas on how to incorporate color blind awareness into your design.

Posted by: Ted at 11:59 AM | category: Links
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Sometimes when you get together with friends it doesn't matter what's going on, nothing is going to spoil a good time. Raging flood? Lash the cooler to a tree so the beer doesn't wash away. Alien invasion? Lash the cooler to a tree so the beer doesn't get captured. You get the idea.

Last night's get-together was just such an evening for me. Mookie, oldest-daughter Robyn and I arrived at the stadium to find Dawn already there. A few minutes later near simultaneous calls from Victor and Buckethead came in, letting us know that they were stuck in traffic but on the way.

We managed to get a block of seats, and when the game started an actual baseball game was just background to the great conversations going on all around. Altogether, it was Victor and Nic, Buckethead and his lovely wife and son (who was seeing his first ballgame), Dawn, Mookie, Robyn and myself.

The sky had been threatening for quite awhile, and the first wave of thunderstorms had missed us, but the second wave rolled in during the second inning. The groundscrew unrolled the tarps and everyone in the stands headed under cover while the lightning put on quite a show.

I have no idea how long we spent together, packed in with the rest of the crowd under the grandstands, waiting out the rain. It didn't look like it was going to end anytime soon, so we headed over to a restaurant for more great conversation over drinks, chips and guacamole.

Nic easily told the funniest story of the night, about recognizing people in old photographs. I'm still chuckling over that one. I'll add links to the others blogs if they give their version of events, because I very much skimmed over lots of what went on.

Damn people, lets do this again real soon. Saturday, June 25th is already marked on my calendar for another game.

Dawn tells her version here, it involves emperiled children, road rage, and a seriously screwed up back bumper.

Nic and Victor decided to get most of their adventures out of the way early in the evening.

I gotta tell you, Victor's is *much* bigger than mine. In fact, I'm a girly-man in comparison to the tool that Victor totes around.

Also, I'd like to thank Buckethead publicly for his foresight and wisdom. While buying souvenirs (jeez that word looks wrong, but the spell checker ok'd it), he picked up a miniature bat for his son, but thought of the potential for damage and put it back down. Instead they bought him a set of those inflatable thunder sticks. Later, his son whacked me right in the strike zone with it. Recap: thunder stick = hilarity; baseball bat = I might still be in the fetal position.

Posted by: Ted at 08:34 AM | category: Links
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This week it's hosted by fellow-Munuvian Boudicca, who is automatically tres chic because she and I share the same birthday.*

So go visit, I've already noted several new dishes that go straight into my "to try" recipe binder.

*Better than some cheap parlor trick, that it happened is a statistical certainty! Look it up! Now. You're on the freakin' internet, get your lazy butt over to Google and look. It. Up. And if you ask me how to spell "statistical" I'll answer

"d...i...c...t...i...o...n...a...r...y".

Kids these days. Sheesh.

Posted by: Ted at 12:02 PM | category: Links
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1 I realized we had the same birthday when I first started reading you.

I think if you go back 9 months you'll find we're definitely holiday party babies!

Posted by: Boudicca at May 13, 2005 09:17 PM (z7nbM)

2 Well, a near certainty.

Give us a few more months and it will be a certainty!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 14, 2005 06:30 AM (+S1Ft)

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Photographed in a way you may have never seen before, by x-ray. Thanks to Lynn S for pointing this one out.

Posted by: Ted at 04:16 AM | category: Links
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