Turn off your phones

Posted by: Ted at 05:34 AM | category: Square Pegs
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It's time to visit

Posted by: Ted at 05:32 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Rocket Jones

Posted by: Ted at 05:30 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Burma Shave!

Posted by: Ted at 05:28 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Billboard blogging! LOL!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at April 21, 2005 10:46 AM (O65Bv)

2 Cool concept. Well done.

Posted by: JohnL at April 21, 2005 02:39 PM (Hs4rn)

3 Um, isn't it supposed to rhyme? [There's one in every bunch, and I'm it ]

Posted by: Susie at April 21, 2005 10:01 PM (I7fob)

4 Smack me upside the head with a limp zuchini! Phones...Jones....Duh! I think I better start taking my medication again....

Posted by: Susie at April 21, 2005 10:14 PM (I7fob)

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It was so warm inside my freezer that Ted Williams was complaining.

Posted by: Ted at 12:20 PM | category: Square Pegs
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I talked about getting together at a minor league baseball game and got several responses from folks interested in meeting up. Most suggested a Saturday game to make getting around the metro area a bit simpler. Sounds like a plan to me.

So, the official word is: I and the family will be attending Potomac National's games on May 14th and June 25th for sure. They're both Saturday games with fireworks afterwards. We'll probably be seeing other games throughout the season too.

Leave comments or email me at Rocket Jones (one word) at gmail dot com.

Posted by: Ted at 11:58 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 ME TOO! ME TOO! I love baseball and I'll have saturdays off from work! YEA!

Posted by: Robyn at April 20, 2005 02:11 PM (/AsC4)

2 Victor and I are in for the 14th for sure!

Posted by: nic at April 20, 2005 07:10 PM (Sx8zO)

3 I should be available for either or even both. I love fireworks. Is it BYOB or pay-$10-per-draft-there?

Posted by: dawn at April 21, 2005 02:08 PM (jFpDX)

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Remember I wrote about "Bad Surprises"? Specifically, when our washing machine conked out and dumped an entire cycle of water onto the basement lake floor.

Oh, the joy continues.

Last night we discovered that when they delivered the new washer, the guys unplugged the freezer in the basement. We hadn't gone into the freezer since and only found it last night. We lost everything.

We called and raised hell. Sears is supposed to call back this morning. I faxed them an itemized list of all the food in the freezer.

Pissed off is an understatement right now. They have one chance to make it right. If they screw this up they'll have lost a lifelong customer.

Posted by: Ted at 04:28 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Best of luck to him as he guides the Church through difficult times.

Posted by: Ted at 04:35 PM | category: Square Pegs
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I don't know much about the subject, but the only reason Pujols wasn't picked to be the top Cardinal right away has to be because of his age. Either that, or that bastard Rolen is campaigning behind his back.

Posted by: Ted at 06:07 AM | category: Square Pegs
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One of the things on our household "to do" list is to replace the dining room light. It's been on the list since the day we moved in fifteen years ago.

It's a nice enough looking light, all smoked glass and brass with those goofy bulbs that are shaped like candle flame, in fact it would be beautiful in a two-story home entryway or foyer where it could hang above everyone and cast it's gentle light upon the scene.

But in our dining room it's misplaced. It hangs too low. It's not centered in the room. It's not centered over the table. And on those occasions when the dining room table has been taken out (like for painting) I crack my skull on it repeatedly. I hate it for physical reasons. My wife hates it for ascetic. She just thinks it's ugly.

There are only two of the eight bulbs currently burning. I discovered a while back that my wife's plan was to let it die a slow lingering death, and when it finally goes dark it will be replaced by something newer, smaller, neater and easier to keep clean.

I joked that she's probably got the same plan for me. She didn't deny it.

Posted by: Ted at 08:08 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Last time I'll mention this, I promise.

Right now I'm feeling like Rusty's bragging on me, "I am the *Extreme*, Baby. The. Extreme!"

The wireless network is up and running. Yesterday, amongst my other chores, I figured out MAC addressing (even better security) for the laptop, Mookie's PC (she went wireless because her wired connection went wonky) and even for Liz's iPaq!

Yes, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. And I didn't sit in front of a monitor all day either. Yardwork got done, laundry is almost caught up and I cooked a pretty darned good roast chicken dinner (look for a new recipe in the next day or two). Met Mookie's new boyfriend too. He seems like a nice guy and the dogs like him, which says a lot. Sam has a nitwit detector that's so accurate that it's scary.

At the end of the day I was beat. I fell asleep halfway through Lon Chaney's Indestructable Man, but did see Phantom from 10,000 Leagues first. An excellent Saturday.

Posted by: Ted at 06:47 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I'm sitting here in the master bedroom, as physically far away as is possible to get from our new wireless router switch and still be in the house, getting used to this new laptop keyboard. Signal strength is good, wireless security is about half implemented (I still have to set specific MAC addressing, 128 bit encryption is in place. Major thanks to Victor, Rich, Stephen, Shank, and GEBIV for steering me to the know-how to do this the right way).

The new router switch has wired ports too. Maybe they all do, but when I saw that I did the happy dance because everything that was connected stays connected.

The other day for Liz's birthday I asked her over lunch what she wanted as a gift, and she kind of freaked when I offered her a choice of laptop of DVD burner.

The laptop solves a couple of problems for the family. Liz's embroidery machine uses input files that she stored on her PC in the living room, which meant she had to run up and down the stairs when doing her sewing. Big pain in the butt, metaphorically and physically, especially when her fibro is flaring up. With this new magic beastie, it sits on the desk next to her sewing table and everything she needs is right at hand.

I've also installed the Sims2 on it. I got it for Christmas, and then we realized that we didn't own a PC with enough horsepower to actually run the darn thing. I piddled around playing God for an hour last night. It looks like it could be fun.

It's going to be a beautiful day, so I'll close for now. There's yardwork and rocket fins to cut and laundry to catch up on (still). If you see me outside you might notice something different about me, a certain extra coolness (if that's even possible), because I have a laptop.

Well, I do when my wife lets me use it.

Posted by: Ted at 07:04 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Nowadays, being rich means you become a celebrity, as if that were a career.

John Jacob Astor, the great-grandson of the famous fur trader and financier of the same name, was one of the wealthiest men on earth, with assets somewhere around $100 million (compared to J.P. Morgan, who had amassed a fortune of only $30 million). Astor was an inventor (of a bicycle brake, a storage battery, an internal combustion engine, a flying machine, a machine for removing surface dirt from roads, and an improved marine turbine engine) and also founder of the Astoria (later the Waldorf Astoria) Hotel in New York City. His pneumatic walkway invention won a prize at the 1893 Chicago WorldÂ’s Fair, and he was one of the first Americans to own a motor car. One of his dreams was to find a way to create rain by pumping warm air from the surface of the earth into the upper atmosphere. His fascination with science led him to begin writing his only novel, A Journey In Other Worlds when he was only 28 years old, and spent over two years writing it. He served in the Spanish-American War, and lost his life in the Titanic disaster, leading his wife to a lifeboat but returning himself to the sinking ship.

I'm almost through his book, and it's pretty fascinating. Besides the extrapolation of then-current science (most of which, understandably, is gotten badly wrong), the most interesting part is the difference in attitude and viewpoint compared to today. Piety vs Pragmatism runs as a theme throughout, and the main characters think and act as if the entire universe is already theirs in the ultimate extension of manifest destiny. Americans still possess that can-do spirit, although it's been softened somewhat over the last hundred years.

AstorÂ’s novel, with descriptions of an antigravity device, aeroplanes, television and space travel was widely read and became a bestseller on publication in 1894. Set in the year 2000, the book is a futuristic novel of three utopias: a Christian heaven on Saturn; an Eden-like new world on Jupiter; and a technologically-oriented, businessman's paradise on Earth.

The writing isn't too terrible, and once in a while he really nails it.

"... they looked up at the sky. The Great Bear and the north star had exactly the same relation to each other as when seen from the earth, while the other constellations and the Milky Way looked identically as when they has so often gazed at them before, and some idea of the immensity of space was conveyed to them. Here was no change; though they had travelled three hundred and eighty million miles, there was no more perceptible difference than if they had not moved a foot."

For all we've accomplished, for all our collective greatness, we're still a humble speck in the grand scheme of things. It's good to be reminded of that once in a while.

Most of this came from here.

Posted by: Ted at 05:26 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 That sounds like my kind of fiction.I'll have to add it to my to read list.I have to admit i don't read that much fiction though.The next on my list is Rama 2 by Arthur C. Clark.My modus is usually factory service manuals or mechanical text books,books on outdoorsy stuff,machines,rocket mags,car mags,etc.etc......

Posted by: Russ at April 15, 2005 11:02 AM (ObxzR)

2 That last quote really nails it, like you said. Thanks for posting it!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at April 16, 2005 01:54 PM (edXnv)

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To the love of my life.

See ya tomorrow.
Ted

Posted by: Ted at 09:51 AM | category: Square Pegs
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After watching The Incredibles this weekend (and as good as the movie is, the extras on the DVD are just wow), I've been tagged with my new super-hero name. Just call me Lobster Man, in honor of my sunburn.

Posted by: Ted at 05:56 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Clever, as always.

Posted by: dawn at April 14, 2005 09:13 PM (Dh1V0)

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Nine out of ten doctors surveyed believed that a daily visit to Rocket Jones was good for stress relief. Doctor Kevorkian suggested a radically different approach.

Posted by: Ted at 05:57 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I heard a commercial where AIDs was described as a "life challenging" condition.

Terminal. The word is "terminal". You get AIDs, you're gonna die from it. Eventually it's going to kill you. Coming up with yet another polite phrase to sugar coat reality isn't doing anyone any favors, it just degrades the message being communicated.

Update: From the comments and email, I've been reminded that more people die "with" than "from" diseases these days. While I understand the point and even agree with it somewhat, I think that our medical arts have advanced enough to prolong life despite whatever the terminal disease is. I'd guess that more HIV positive people die from pneumonia than from the actual AIDs itself, but that doesn't mean the AIDs didn't kill them, just that another complication facilitated by the AIDs was the final step.

People who succumb to cancer don't get that kind of consideration. And in the end, does it really matter?

Still, maybe "terminal" isn't the correct term to use. My objection (badly put it seems) was to the politically correct term "life challenging". The attempt to not offend anyone is vague enough to encompass everything after conception (or birth, depending on your viewpoint). I commuted to work this morning in the fog and rain on an interstate highway, that also fits the definition of life challenging.

Posted by: Ted at 11:35 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 I respectfully beg to differ. You are going to die with it (for now), but not necessarily from it. It was a goal, back in the days when I worked on the clinical trials, to make HIV/AIDS a manageable condition like asthma or diabetes (albeit an infectious one, adding more levels of education and support to the management).

Posted by: nic at April 07, 2005 12:10 PM (etHvD)

2 I don't know - I have good friends now who have been living with AIDS for 10, 15 years now. It seems to me to be a completely changed landscape than it was in the 80s and 90s, when it was most definitely a death sentence (and one that would come relatively quickly). I agree with the diabetes analogy above.

Posted by: red at April 07, 2005 12:16 PM (qxKkx)

3 I have to agree with Nic, and not just because I live with her She's pretty much nailed it: with proper management, it seems as if HIV/AIDS is no more fatal than diabetes is. I concede she and I may be dreamers, but as Red said, people are living longer now with HIV/AIDS than they were expected to twenty years ago.

In fact, nowadays there are, IMO, very few truly terminal "common" diseases, save one: Life--No one has gotten out of it alive.

Posted by: Victor at April 07, 2005 06:32 PM (etHvD)

4 Hmmm.
I volunteer at what used to be an AIDS service organization, but in the last couple of years they have expanded their services to include clients who have "other live challeging conditions," I believe is how they phrase it. That includes cancer, ALS, anything where the clients are unable to shop for their own food and prepare their own meals because of their condition. Some clients need the services for a specific period...e.g., right after a round of chemo until they regain strength...others until they end up in institutional care or, well, die.
I don't see the phrase as politically correct B.S., I see it as a shorthand way to describe the situation.
And when I said that people may die with AIDS and not from it, I wasn't talking about pneumonia or another opportunistic infection that was fatal because of the HIV-compromised immune system...I'm talking about someone having a heart attack at 80.

Posted by: nic at April 08, 2005 08:30 AM (JijW0)

5 I want to aplogize if my last comment is too troll-like. I admit this is a hotbutton issue for me; and I probably hit "post" a little too fast there. Sorry, Ted.

Posted by: nic at April 08, 2005 08:58 AM (JijW0)

6 Nic, we've disagreed before and we both know that's ok. Your experience in this area is obviously greater than mine. I'm learning a lot from your comments, so fire away.

Posted by: Ted at April 08, 2005 09:34 AM (blNMI)

7 This reminds me of one of my favorite moments in radio.

Bob Edwards was interviewing a doctor on Morning Edition, who was describing some sort of long-term survey the details of which I forget. The doctor said (this is from memory, but close), "Four percent of the test subjects underwent the mortality experience."

There was a sound from Edwards that was probably a spit-take. He interrupted the good doctor. "Excuse me. They 'underwent the mortality experience?' Do you mean that they died?"

"Well, yes," said the doctor. "They underwent the mortality experience."

Edwards made it through the rest of the interview; he's a pro. But you could tell it was one of the most absurd things he'd ever heard from a guest.

Posted by: Doug Pratt at April 12, 2005 12:30 PM (D6ZyB)

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It's been so bad the last couple of days, that Spork posted on it too.

Here's a relavant quote from the Tagline Archives:

Imagine standing at a street corner and spitting on people to get their attention, then trying to sell them something. Spamming is a better marketing method than that only in that you get punched less often. -- Esa A. Peuha

So true.

Posted by: Ted at 06:11 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I heard a commercial on the radio advertising half-off plastic surgery.

That's like "buy one tit, get the second tit free".

Posted by: Ted at 08:33 PM | category: Square Pegs
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1 How does this apply to nose jobs or breast reduction surgery?

Posted by: Brian J. at April 06, 2005 10:01 PM (V04ml)

2 A woman in my neighborhood had breast enhancement. While in there, the doc told her if she wanted her eyes done, he'd give her a discount if she got everything done together.

I said to my husband, "What is this? Get one set of eyes done, get the other at 1/2 off?"

The guy was a quack and botched up her eyes... the ones on her face. Too bad. She was all of 36.

Posted by: Boudicca at April 07, 2005 12:00 AM (z7nbM)

3 Perhaps Tom Green can finally get himself a pair of stunt doubles!
Or,if I get an extension do they have to be parallel or in series?HAHAHA!!!!

Posted by: Russ at April 07, 2005 12:04 AM (ObxzR)

4 At a meeting today, someone mentioned getting "a hummer for a whole weekend." Imagine the men's dismay when the speaker was talking about the car as an item in a silent auction.

Posted by: dawn at April 08, 2005 03:57 PM (jFpDX)

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I heard on the radio that 5,000 people are attending Johnny Cochran's funeral. That's impressive.

Then I heard that an estimated one million people have stood in line to view Pope John Paul II's body in state.

Posted by: Ted at 04:10 PM | category: Square Pegs
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