January 29, 2006
Partial Explanation
So, where the hell have I been? I can hear you asking, or maybe it's just the voices. It's partly complicated, and partly work-related, and partly none of your business (which I realize goes completely contrary to my blogging style, but oh well).
Work related part: If you've gotten your W2's or 1099's already, then find the person responsibile for it in your universe and hug them or buy them lunch, for they probably worked their asses off to get it done. Trust me on this one.
Complicated part: I have claimed the small bedroom upstairs as my own. It was originally my son's bedroom, and then became the sewing room when he left home. When the girls flew the coop left the next, Mom took the big bedroom as her sewing room and the small room became the guest room. Screw that. Guests can sleep on the floor.
The room has been renamed the "North Den" and I'm in the process of moving in. So far it contains an ultra-comfortable couch/hideabed, a large television with DVD and VCR, bookshelves, and my entire collection of cinematic masterpieces.
What it does not contain is a PC, although I tried this weekend to remedy that, but the *#^@&!!! wireless refuses to detect our network. One possible solution is to move the PC into a corner of the sewing room where there is a wired connection to our network. Less than optimal, but not terrible.
I've also been experiencing some wrist pain, ala early warning signs of the dreaded carpal tunnel. I've cut back on my computer time, which means surf time at home because my profession means mucho working with at the office. I have a new wrist brace, which is working well. I'm considering dying it black and adding chrome studs. Or maybe I'll just claim excessive masturbation due to a viagra addiction. Either has to be better than the truth.
None of your business part: self-explanatory, except that it has nothing to do with viagra addiction.
So I'm around, just not as much. Been really, truly, insanely busy. I had some cool movies lined up to watch and then review, but got wonderfully distracted by the Mummy Legacy Collection (watched six Mummy movies since Thursday night).
Not enough hours in a day, not enough years in a lifetime. I've got to get hold of some of those tannah leaves.
Posted by: Ted at
05:23 PM | category: Square Pegs
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January 26, 2006
Fruit of my Loins
For those who may be curious, here's an update on the girls.
Our oldest daughter Robyn is quietly putting the finishing touches on her college education. She's working two jobs, getting good grades, and is looking forward to graduating, after which she'll prosper. I have no doubt about that.
Rachael (Mookie), on the other hand, does nothing quietly. She made the Dean's List in her first semester and is preparing for a three week-long school trip to London this Spring. As exciting as that sounds, she may be even more hyped over a possible summer job. She's been offered a chance to be Wardrobe Mistress at an opera house near Montecello in central Virginia. Besides pay, the job comes with an apartment. A lot of it will be the typical scut work that all newbies have to endure at the start of a career, but all experience is valuable.
Proud Papa, signing off.
Posted by: Ted at
12:02 PM | category: Square Pegs
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1
Congrats, Dad, and best regards to the kids.
While it's not as spectacular an achievement as your girls, Brian has been training new people at his Starbucks and is in line for a supervisor job when he turns 18. I'm just as proud of him as I would be if he was a nuclear scientist. Besides, I get a family discount on my mood-altering beverages. What could be better?
Posted by: Doug Pratt at January 26, 2006 08:55 PM (ia2zV)
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I know a bit about Brian's background, and it's easy to imagine him becoming a regional manager for Starbucks in Japan. He's got his act together.
Posted by: Ted at January 27, 2006 12:11 PM (blNMI)
3
Honestly, Ted, which do you prefer: Embarrasing your kids, or bragging about them? ;~)
Posted by: Victor at January 27, 2006 10:23 PM (l+W8Z)
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Actually Dad, It's officially mine. It was agreed yesterday, so I'm all good to go with the job. I'll be working for Ash Lawn Opera as Top Hand and Costume Mistress.
Not as much scut work as you'd think, though still a lot.
Posted by: Rachael at January 28, 2006 09:59 AM (lhDGd)
5
Victor, if I really wanted to embarrass the kids, I'd have mentioned that Rachael was conceived in Luxembourg.
Posted by: Ted at January 28, 2006 10:54 AM (+OVgL)
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January 21, 2006
Snippet a trois
Recently, at my wife's work:
Lady: Those are beautiful earrings.
Wife: Thank you. They were a Christmas present from my husband.
Lady: He's either very nice or he was very naughty.
Wife: He's very nice.
Lady: Then *you* must have been very naughty.
LOL
Posted by: Ted at
09:53 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I would not presume to select earrings for my wee wifey. She buys her own. I do, however, drive her to the piercer every time she wants the ability do display more of them.
Posted by: triticale at January 22, 2006 07:15 PM (BB1Rq)
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Life is like a box of chocolates...
...skewered onto the pointy nose of the Concorde. It's been insanely busy and hectic around the ol' homestead lately, hence the relative quiet around
Rocket Jones. Count your blessings, people.
I have been doing *some* visiting, but at the end of the day I'm usually so burnt out that I just fire up the aggregator and skim sites that way.
What Ahnold said.
Posted by: Ted at
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January 15, 2006
That sucked...er, blows
Our power just came back on a little bit ago. It went out early yesterday afternoon. In almost 16 years living here, that 22 hour stretch sans electricity exceeded the old record by about 16 hours.
The culprit is the wind. It's been relentless for the last couple of days, and trees and power lines are down all over the area. Throw in intermittent rain, some blowing snow and bone-chilling wind chill temps, and it's been fun fun fun.
We couldn't get an estimate on how long before power would be restored, so I took matters into my own hands and this morning headed to the grocery store for bags of ice. Not two hours later the lights flickered on. It always happens that way, you just have to use it to your advantage, eh?
In the meantime, our monthly club rocket launch was scrubbed. We can deal with rain and snow and most everything else Mother Nature can fling, but we can't launch in high winds. And of course, today is bright and sunny and the wind is still whipping ass, so no rockets for Ted this weekend.
On the plus side, it's amazing how much stuff you can get done when you're not parked in front of the computer.
Posted by: Ted at
03:47 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Yeah,Ted,I was one of the few who did manage to get in a flight before it was called off.I figured that with high winds and all I was gonna go the cheap and disposable theme this weekend so I started with my newly built Flis Tumbleweed.I figured I might stand a chance of keeping an eye on it if I "just" flew it on a 1/2A-2.Weeeeell it may as well have been an M motor.In typical mosquitoish fashion it jumped to put it mildly.Now with the Tumbleweed the motor isn't supposed to kick out on ejection but rather just to shift rearward.Well mine did come out.As light as it is it absolutely took off on the wind.It had to because two kids found it(thanks again fellas!)way out past the high powered pads down over the hill.I'm very fortunate.I probably don't have to tell you what the recovery rate is on those style rockets even on a perfect day.
Besides that Ken and I where again the last to leave.I have to thank him for sticking around to take care of totalling an order for me.All kinds of goodies on the way as well as already recieved.Kid in a candy store!Something else I probably don't have to explain,huh?
Anyhow I stuck around and helped him pack up and by the time it was done we where frozen solid.Our hands where so numb we could hardly move `em.Maw nature must not have thought the wind wasn't raw enough so she decided to water it down a bit.One of the last things I said to Ken before leaving was;"I'll bet it's snowing on the mountain".Sure enough!We wound up with around four inches last night and the wind chill was brutal.It was already down to 22 degrees when I got home yesterday so I can't imagine how cold it was at about 6 this morning.I forgot to look.
Posted by: Russ at January 15, 2006 08:57 PM (ObxzR)
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I hope nothing ended up spoiling in the 'fridge! Did you all stay nice and cozy, at least...?
I grew up in a very rural area of Texas, and the power lines were notorious for going down at the least hint of ice or lightning. The longest stretch was three days. To this day it's still the family habit to stock up on canned goods and non-perishables, just in case. Never mind the fact that the area filled up with people and the roads got paved and the power lines were overhauled...Mom still insists on keeping the pantry filled and emergency contingencies planned. I can see her reasoning, though--sometimes ya never know, yanno?
I hope you weather the weather fine and get a chance to blow stuff up soon, hon!
--TwoDragons
Posted by: Denita TwoDragons at January 15, 2006 10:35 PM (hxlbJ)
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I'm curious, since it was bone chilling weather outside why didn't you put transfer the refrigerated items outdoors? When ts happened to me I simply get a box and put them out in the fire escape until the power comes back. Heck it was so cold this weekend in nyc I could haved made my own ice out doors or used the snow before the puppy's got to it! : )
Posted by: michele at January 16, 2006 08:29 PM (v0KRJ)
4
bone chillin' winds up here, too. And with the holiday bus schedule, I mistaken ly got to the bus stop 5 minutes before I thought the bus would arrive and ended up waiting 50 minutes for it.
Brr-rr-rr-rr!
Posted by: Tuning Spork at January 17, 2006 12:01 AM (i1jt5)
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January 11, 2006
Didn't we already go through this once?
I talked about
Freedom Park in Rosslyn, Virginia, and how one of the exhibits is an actual segment of the Berlin wall (nine complete sections) and an East German guard tower.
For the last couple of days, they've had the street blocked off so that they could remove those pieces of the wall and relocate them to the new home of the Newseum in downtown DC. Not that anyone asked me for my opinion, but I personally think those historic barriers belong in Freedom Park, not in a museum dedicated to news.
Posted by: Ted at
05:19 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I bet they are trying to get credit for bringing down the wall.
Posted by: michele at January 11, 2006 08:42 AM (WXYbs)
2
I've been to the Newseum and I agree with you. Not that anyone asked me, either, but something like that would not "go" there at all. WTF?
Posted by: dogette at January 11, 2006 09:35 AM (0ckUk)
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DAMMIT... that was one of the only cool things there in Rosslyn! Stupid museums...
Posted by: Princess Cat at January 11, 2006 09:40 AM (leeb2)
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Well actually it may be the perfect place for it.Most of the modern media is liberal biased.Liberals have a real boner for communism.Perhaps they put it there to remind themselves of their ultimate goal.Or,perhaps,they felt like any reminders of what communism means would be better off in some place where nobody's gonna go anyhow as apposed to standing in public for many to see.Sweep it under the carpet right on top of the Second Ammendment and any other law that doesn't suit their own greedy assed purpose.
Personally I think they should put it to good use and use it as a starting point to just build a new wall around D.C.Don't forget Prince Georges and Montgomery counties either.Any place that gives you a ticket for leaving your car idling in your own driveway or leaving Christmas presents in the same car because it "encourages crime" should be walled in.Watch out ladies!Don't wear that low cut thingy.If you get jumped walking home you may get a ticket for encouraging it.
Posted by: Russ at January 11, 2006 09:59 AM (ObxzR)
5
Yeah that is sad. Everyday to and from work I walk past them. It is sad that they are so hidden in the first place. But it fits with how most people view history. They tend to forget it in some back alley or hidden corner.
Posted by: Blogless Wonder at January 16, 2006 12:53 AM (Qcd/j)
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January 05, 2006
snippet
My wife calls me on her way to work every morning. From the other day:
Wife: My battery's dead.
Me: How did that happen?
Wife: I don't know.
Me: Did you leave your lights on?
Wife: My cell phone battery, not my car.
Me: Oh.
Wife: You think like a guy.
To be precise, I think like a guy who doesn't own a cell phone.
Posted by: Ted at
04:36 PM | category: Square Pegs
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You just think logically. If somebody calls from their cell phone and says that their battery died the last battery you would think of would be their cell phone since they're using it to call you.
So, how did she call you on a dead cell phone battery?
Posted by: Jim at January 05, 2006 04:52 PM (tyQ8y)
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I assumed she was talking about her fantasy league pitcher and catcher.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at January 05, 2006 07:29 PM (kaxtS)
3
LOL Less than a minute later, the call was cut off.
Posted by: Ted at January 05, 2006 07:36 PM (+OVgL)
4
Cell phones typically have a battery power meter on the display. Anyone who pays attention to their phone has plenty of warning, and if not they give you a warning shortly before they run out.
Cell phones are communicating with the network even when "hung up" and thus consuming power when you don't expect it.
One cellular company I worked for had a site right on the building. Our office was right on a sector node line, and being as the technology was GSM, there was a spot in the office where you could set your phone and it would do a hard handover every cycle. Battery charge didn't last long.
Another time I was working on a CDMA launch and we were doing continuous cluster map drives. Someone screwed up and got us trickle chargers to run off the inverter. I had two phones rigged to the laptop, one doing short calls and one keeping a long call up. The short call phone could grab enough power during the 15 second pause between calls to hold a charge for an hour. We had to stop for 15 mnutes after each file to cool, swap and charge the batteries.
Posted by: triticale at January 06, 2006 01:10 AM (5k/sM)
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January 04, 2006
Mildred never bought into the "war bride" excuse
(
in the extended entry)
more...
Posted by: Ted at
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January 02, 2006
Best of Rocket Jones - 2005 Edition
As they say, read the whole thing.
more...
Posted by: Ted at
12:02 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Ted, You may have already seen these, but if not, check 'em out:
Soviet-era aer0space postcards. Lotsa rockets. Found the link at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy (perfidy.org).
OOPS! You'll have to change the first 0 in aer0space0 to an o. Evidently your questionable content editor doesn't like "eros"!
Happy New Year!
Chris
Posted by: chris hall at January 02, 2006 01:05 PM (laRRX)
2
ok, I got that silly Sharks logo up...
dammit.
Posted by: Derek at January 03, 2006 12:09 PM (FloaD)
3
I have my Thrashers logo up.
Are they even playing?
I've been too much of the jamboree and not enough of the whoopass I think.
Posted by: Tricia at January 05, 2006 02:55 PM (I7ISM)
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January 01, 2006
Dang, lost that bet
The ball dropped before Dick Clark did.
Posted by: Ted at
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