A literal description of my state of mind
A literal description of my state of mind
Found these over at Random Nuclear Strikes.
Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all. -- Nikita Khrushchev
All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person. -- Vladimir Lenin
We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society. -- Hillary Clinton
Frightening, innit?
Phase 3 of my "Secret Plan to Increase Our Emergency Food Supply" is now complete.
Just kidding. We've officially adopted Ozzie the rabbit as our own. This points out the major flaw in the "Foster Care for Homeless Rabbits" idea, which is that we wind up falling in love with 'em and don't want to give them up.
Fire melts steel and reinforced concrete collapses. I wonder when Rosie will claim that the government secretly wired the overpasses for demolition?
Just to get even with those lefty Californians, no doubt.
I turned on the Vs. network this afternoon, looking for the hockey game, but instead they were showing professional Bull Riding. These guys are wearing helmets and face masks instead of cowboy hats. What the hell?
Today, from Spaceport America in New Mexico, a commercial rocket blasted into space carrying the remains of two people who are forever linked to mankind's reach for the stars. James Doohan, beloved as Star Trek's Scotty, made the trip for real that most people from his generation only dreamed of. Also aboard was Gordon Cooper, one of the original seven US astronauts, making his third and final flight.
By "they", I'm talking about Mapgirl and Sarah of Trying to Grok, who are both avid knitters.
By "what", I'm talking about yarn porn. Or more correctly, some anatomically-correct naughty bits you can knit for yourself. Apparently some of the items are used as training aids in various childbirth classes, but some are just... naughty. And funny, like this Willie Warmer (that link opens a pop-up window, and yes, the pun is intentional).
A little helpful advice from the comments there:
Just don't make that Willie Warmer out of an itchy wool!
I am a San Fransisco Giants baseball fan. I could also have said, "I loath the Los Angeles Dodgers", which means the same thing. It's more than a rivalry, it's a universal constant, a diametric opposite, much like (to borrow a pop culture reference) Buffy against the evil soul-stealing vampires (which is more apt than the average baseball fan realizes).
"Oh sure", I can hear some of you saying, "Ted, you're really blowing this out of proportion." You really think so? Thanks to Grant, over at the McCovey Chronicles, we have solid proof (for you non-Giants fans). Take a gander at this:
It's no accident that the Dodgers are *the* team for Hollywood.
I rediscovered Madfish Willie's excellent banner rotation script yesterday, and remembered that I had modified it to display banners of differing sizes (like, oh, here!), but never implemented it on Rocket Jones.
Until now. I've installed the script, and have begun the process to add all the banners to the mix. So far, it's just eight of the early ones, and I'll add more as time allows this weekend. All told, there have been 45 banners flying over this site!
Hit refresh and you'll probably see a new banner. If not, try it again because you probably reloaded the same one again (random will do that sometimes).
Enjoy!
I'm sure there's an innocent explanation...
...but where's the fun in that?
"Ooooh yeah, Bossy... harder, harder... Tenderize that flank-steak!"
Cartoon Law 1: Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.
Thanks to a commenter at QandO for pointing this one out.
Movie: The Tripper.
Premise: Ronald Reagan stalks and murders hippies.
Review: courtesy of Joe Horror.
Snippet:
I'm not the King of Stupid, but I am on the ten-dollar bill.
I stole the title from I Travel By Bubble, where I found the link too.
The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on goverment-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.
Food and Drug Administration investigators say the Chinese companies may have spiked products with the chemical melamine so that they would appear, in tests, to have more value as protein products.Officials now suspect this possibility because a second ingredient from China, rice protein concentrate, has tested positive for melamine. So has corn gluten shipped to South Africa.
Thanks to The Ministry of Minor Perfidy for the pointer (in the comments).
The newest fad at the supermarket is "All Angus Beef". That's right, if you eat those inferior breeds of cow, you aren't getting "All Angus Beef", and that is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable in some vague way.
But what about those other poor inferior breeds of cow? Who's looking out for their feelings? What about their self-esteem? My God, you insensitive bastards, you could be permanently damaging their self-image! It's not their fault that they're born other than "All Angus Beef"! Who are you to judge that cow? Thanks to you, who knows what horror that poor bullied and picked upon cow could inflict upon an unsuspecting herd when he goes *Mad Cow*?!?!?!?!?!
See how fucking stupid that sounds?
Over at QandO, in reference to France:
...a country that fought Disney and McDonalds harder than it fought the Nazis still has a reason to blush a bit.
Zing!
Weather-wise, it was nice enough to (almost) make up for the lousy weekends we've had lately. Bright blue skies, gentle breezes, temps in the 70's... absolutely beautiful.
Saturday morning was spent sleeping in, which is something I almost never do. Once I dragged myself out of bed, we went to work in the front yard. Staking new trellises, planting things, fertilizing and readying the beds for the arrival of the new flowers. It was very pleasant and great therapy to help me relax after the stress of the work week (and it was a total bitch of a week at work).
On Saturday evening Liz and I went to see the Potomac Nationals take on the Frederick Keys. It was a pretty good game, and the handicap seating at the stadium is almost at field level, right behind third base. Not too shabby. I also realized that I wasn't shocked at the concession prices, mainly because for stadium prices, they weren't outrageous. My biggest problem at sporting events is that I forget that as soon as you buy that ticket, all prices are calculated in Italian lira but paid in American dollars.
The after-game fireworks show was glorious, and even better than last year. There were a lot of folks down from Maryland for the game - the Keys are a Baltimore Orioles farm club - and they were amazed at the show, and even more amazed that the fireworks are done every Saturday during the season.
On Sunday I took Liz up to Baltimore. Her and her sister are flying down to Florida (in the air as I type) for their parent's 50th anniversary. Brother-in-law just put his boat in the water on Saturday, so we spent a lazy afternoon cruising the Cheasapeake bay on their 32-footer. Three years after Hurricane Isabel put a hurt on the area, there are still many homes being repaired. A lot of hideous "McMansions" are going up too, as folks with money buy property from old-timers who couldn't afford to rebuild after the storm wiped out their retirement dreams. Danny has been boating in the area his whole life, and I loved his little bits of history and background story he dropped into the conversation. "Back in the 50's, that island had a small amusement park on it. Those pilings are all that's left of the railroad bridge that used to connect to the mainland." "Those houses are all less than five years old, and that bar has been there for at least thirty years. Live bands every weekend since forever. And now the new homeowners are raising hell about the noise."
Got home last night refreshed and recharged, but still not ready to go back to work. It's even harder when you know that it's just as nice out today as it was all weekend.
What did Canada ever do to us? Two words: Northwest Passage. Two more words: Global Warming. Oh yes, there are patterns within patterns within patterns.
Speaking of which, courtesy of Zoey Brain, this uber-cool interactive star map. Go check it out. Really, this is amazing.
After spending most of a year swearing that I was going to plant boxwoods in the front of the house, eliminating the need for anything but an annual trimming and mulching, I ordered flowers for the front yard last week.
Not a shrub in the lot. What can I say? I'm a flower guy.
Two new clematis to share a new trellis, one pink and one white, hopefully their bloom season will be different enough to extend the color. I love clematis, and already have one growing in another bed.
In the bed along the front walk will be blue asters, white dragonflowers (variety of snapdragon and a Virginia native, according to the catalog), and pink "pincushion" flowers (a much nicer name than the scientific scabiosa.
The front bed is getting a hedge of lavender. Should smell wonderful, attract butterflies and maybe hummingbirds, and tons of bees too, to keep the (bleepin') neighborhood kids away so they'll quit teasing the dogs.
Not a simplification in the garden plan... not by a long shot. But, they're all perennials. I'll take my small victories when I find them. And the flowers this year should be gorgeous.
As I was finishing lunch at my desk, it dawned on me that I haven't had any meat since Wednesday.
When granny drives, all you can see through the back window is her hair and hands on the wheel as she peers over the dash.
When homey drives, all you can see through the back window is his do-rag and one hand on the wheel as he peers over the dash.
Either granny is hot shizzle, or homeboy looks like a silly fool. I know which way I'm leaning.
Hey there, friends and family! It's time for our 42nd Annual* Blogger Meet at the ballpark!!!
Invitations are going out to DC metro area friends and bloggers for the first blogmeet game of the year which will be Saturday, May 5th at 7:05pm as the Potomac Nationals take on the Wilmington Blue Rocks. After the game they have a pretty good fireworks show and you might even see Buckethead's son whack me in the jewels with a bat. Again.
No invitation? No problem! Just email me and I'll add you to the list. We've always managed to get a block of seats together ($9.00 a ticket), but that's not garaunteed (never can spell that word).
The P-Nats (I cringe every time I hear the team nickname) play in Woodbridge, Virginia, in Prince William County (directions here).
Liz and I will be going to the game this Saturday, May April 21st, if anyone is interested in meeting up. We're going to check out the wheelchair access seating and see what it's like.
Also, if anyone would like to set up something similar with another local minor league team, let's do it!
*42nd Annual? Yep. If 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, then baseball is the answer to why we bother.
Don Ho passed away at the age of 76.
Most famous for his song "Tiny Bubbles", the man was a high school football star good enough to get a sports scholarship on the mainland. During the Korean war he piloted cargo planes between Hawaii and Tokyo.
When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request."I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. Every weekend there would be lines down the street."
Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots in Hawaii, then had a breakout year in 1966, when appearances at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood helped him build a mainland following, and the release of "Tiny Bubbles" gave him his greatest recording success.
Soon he was packing places such as the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.
Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."
"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. "I feel real guilty about it."
He did his final show last Thursday night.
Greek theatre was originally sung, not the mindless droning usually associated with it nowadays. So the chorus wasn't just a lump on the stage not doing anything besides repeating what was said previously, but they sang and danced to the delight of the crowd; and everything was highly refined.
Unfortunately though we do have music from the Greeks that are connected to some of the plays that remain, no one knows how to read them.
Opera was created as people tried to approximate the original Greek theatre experience at a time when the Greeks were the idols and Aristotle was studied almost religiously.
I updated some links in the sidebar for folks who've moved and pruned away a few dead branches.
I'm also (still) playing over at my Minx beta site.
Down below, the title "I Vaaaaant to Suck Your Blooooooood", about the Dracula opera... while I was typing that, I was singing it in my head along with some quickie made-up song lyrics...
...to the tune of the theme from Ice Castles!
For those wondering, Robbie Benson said "We forgot about the flowers" to Lexie at the end of that movie. Welcome to the Rocket Jones Sensitive Moment.
And here's a page chock full o' midi files, including *three* versions of "Through the Eyes of Love." The middle version - labeled (1) - is the best.
Maryland's governor is set to sign into law today a bill that will award the state's ten electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate gets the most 'popular' votes nationwide.
In simple terms, the rest of the country will now decide whether or not your vote counts. Cal Ripken could get 90% of the vote in Maryland and if George Steinbrenner gets the most votes nationwide then that's who gets all of the Maryland electoral votes. In simplest terms: screw you, Maryland voters!
Think about the implications of this for a minute. Maryland isn't the only state considering this kind of legislation, which means that future elections will almost certainly be decided by the courts as candidates will automatically file lawsuits to have every vote counted or suppressed, depending on the situation.
Third party candidates just became even less likely. Why bother campaigning in Maryland if you know you don't have a chance to win their votes?
This is a terrible decision, and just because it's "popular" doesn't make it correct.
From the host of K's Lounge (NSFW), a new site featuring videos of sexy asian ladies dancing and doing, er... naughty things.
I felt like crap all weekend and spent most of it sleeping and laying around.
The recently added "recently viewed" box over on the sidebar is longer than normal now, because I watched more movies than I usually get a chance to see. There will be at least one new movie review coming up too.
It's going to be ugly this year for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Fielding a team mostly comprised of cast-offs, wannabe's and never-were's, a lot of preseason pundits proclaim them the worst of the league this season. So far, they're playing like it.
I don't hate them, but I have no love for them either. For all the talk about how much baseball means to DC, the fact remains that on opening day they drew 40,000 in a 56,000 seat stadium. It's not going to get better, and they need a miracle of biblical proportions - ala the Amazin' Mets - just to reach up to the level of lousy. Opening day may well have been their high point for the next couple of seasons. So much depends on this new ownership.
...Last in the American National League.
Here's hoping for a Washington/Baltimore World Series in the very near future.
Over at Dawn's Place.
2. You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and, pointing at you, says, “She’s fantastic in bed.” That’s Advertising.
The explanation for Junk Mail is priceless.
The forecast called for a little snow, more towards our end of the area. I woke up this morning to about an inch of the fluffy white stuff. It's already mostly gone now, but the return of cold weather means I get major snuggles all night. And when the dog moves, I can cuddle my wife.
9:00 on a friday night, freezing, while I prepare copies of portraits to be printed on printers that are out of ink and out of paper.
A security guard just asked how big my project was... answer? "Self Inflicted 9th Level of Hell."
If I have to look at another portrait I may kill something.... I'm up to 450...
Brewer Anhauser-Busch comes out with a new energy drink called Spyke, which contains 12 percent alcohol. The packaging is miniature, since the product is sold in 2 ounce portions. Naturally, some people who just want to "protect the children" are insisting that the product be removed from the market.
"Saying that it is the parent's responsibility to keep it out of the hands of young people is absolutely ridiculous," Hacker said.
Parenting? Why bother, when we can just pass a law.
I mean, how can you *not* wanna see a movie that has a coffin for a llama?
I suspect that Robbo and Steve and the rest of the crew over at The Llama Butchers are nothing like the characters in this movie. But it's only a suspicion.
Why not a Burl Ives Double Feature?
Kick it off with Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Finish up with Ensign Pulver.
Two characters with hearts of ice, played by a man with a heart of gold.
Last weekend was a two-day club launch at Great Meadow Equestrian Center in The Plains, Virginia. The weather was beautiful both days, and even though the forecast called for rain on Sunday, it stayed dry and the winds stayed light.
Saturday was definitely the busier day, with upwards of 50 cars there, many filled with students making flights for the upcoming Team America Rocketry Contest. Lots of practice flights and more than a few qualification attempts.
Fifty cars might not sound impressive, but for a rocket club it's an almost unheard number, and it's become our norm. It wasn't too many years ago when a typical club launch was a dozen people. Very relaxed. For NOVAAR, those days are long gone, which is both good and bad.
On Sunday the crowd was lighter, but we were joined by a Cub Scout pack who upped the energy and enthusiasm levels considerably. I volunteered to work a shift at safety check-in both days, and in between socializing I still managed to get in quite a few flights of my own.
Saturday
1. Snitch - D12-0 / C6-0 - I CHAD-staged (CHeap-And-Dirty) this Estes ready-to-fly UFO saucer. Great flight and recovered very close, but I cracked the plastic after recovery while pulling out the motor. A little epoxy will fix it good as new.
2. Pacifyer - D12-5 - This is my flying blood-dripping battleaxe and as usual it got a lot of attention. Nice quite boost but the ejection sounded very loud and the bottom half of the rocket (with fins) came tumbling down as the rest drifted slowly under the parachute. A "bonus" ejection charge blew out the baffle and scorched everything inside, including burning through the shock cord. Easily fixed.
3. Flying Jenny - B4-2 - The Jenny is a balsa bi-wing rocket glider that originally came out in the 60's or 70's. I love 'em, and this is the third or fourth I've had in my collection. She hasn't flown since last year, and winter can do some strange things to balsa, so I wasn't sure what kind of flight to expect. Straight boost and really high altitude, but not much glide. She went into the (soft) grass nose first and snapped the upper wing off. I found that the tail weight was missing, which probably accounted for the poor glide performance. No problem, I'll just build a new one.
4. Saturn Wannabe - A10-3T x4 - This original design turned in my first "perfect" flight of the day. All four motors in the cluster lit and at apogee it sounded like popcorn as the ejection charges went off. Perfect recovery under chute, and I got it back undamaged.
5. Angel - D12-5 - Sweet flight from this original design ring-fin. Recovered undamaged.
6. Groove Tube - C6-5 - Typical flight profile from this rocket: arrow-straight boost and recovered undamaged. This is a clone of the 70's model tube-fin originally offered by Centuri.
7. Der Red Max - C6-5 - Another clone, this one from Estes. Another great flight and excellent recovery.
After a shaky start I quit breaking everything I flew. The winds were very cooperative, so I was using maximum motors for almost everything (except the Flying Jenny).
Before heading over to do my shift as range crew I talked to Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies. He's been dealing with some very directed harrassment from the BATFE, who're still fighting our hobby every step of the way through the court system. We keep winning the judgements, they keep throwing up new and inane regulations in an effort to maintain their "power". Ken finally quit selling high-power rocket motors because of their actions (including confiscating his phones and computers) and has gotten more into kits and parts. In a wonderful development, his business is thriving even moreso than before, which is the best way I can think of to get back at those government assholes.
Saturday night I got home very tired and very happy with a day well spent.
Sunday morning I woke up to find that tick in my arm.
Sunday
Another great day watching student teams make practice and qualification flights. Next weekend is the last day to submit results, so these kids are working hard and achieving impressive turnaround times between flights. Once again I put up several of my own.
1. Vampyre - A10-3T - I think this is the oldest rocket in my fleet that I still fly regularly. I designed it to fly on mini-motors and it's very quick and gets super altitude. The ring-fin makes for great stability too, even in windy conditions. Today we notice early on that the ground-level winds are blowing about 10mph, but maybe 100 feet up the air is still. Recovered nicely under a streamer.
2. YJ-218 - C6-7 x2 - Another cluster, this one an upscale of the Estes Yellow Jacket. Both motors lit. Great flight, fine recovery.
3. Edmonds Tinee - 1/4A-3T - This glider needs a 1/2A for altitude, but all I had was the 1/4A. It did glide, but pulled out of it's dive just above head level and made a strafing run on the people around the check-in table. It's light enough not to hurt if it had hit anyone. It landed in the grass about five feet from where I was standing.
4. Alchemy - D12-5 - Folks are noticing that I like ring-fin rockets. This one was an experiment in paint finishes. The aft end is done in that textured granite spray paint, and fades up through hammered silver to chrome at the nose. Flies great and recovered undamaged.
5. Dynamic Carrier - C6-5 - This is an interesting kit design. I finished it as an alien spaceship and she looks pretty cool. Nice flight, but the chute didn't open fully and she came down quickly. No damage because she landed on the soft grass.
6. Honest John - C6-5 - Scale version of the old US tactical nuke. She took a big arc off of the rod, but the chute ejected on time and I recovered her undamaged.
7. Sparrow Upscale - C6-5 - This is a slightly larger version of my very first rocket. It's not all that big, which points up that the original was *tiny*. Nice straight boost and good recovery.
8. Barenaked Lady - E11-3 - Super flight with a big honking motor in a very light rocket , but she drifted a long way because of the extreme altitude. Still got her back and she was fine and ready to fly again.
That was it for my weekend. I flew everything I'd brought, and after helping to take down the range went home very very tired but happy. Plus, I get to do it again next weekend! Yay!!!
Over on the sidebar I've added a blip that lists the last few movies that I've watched. Where possible, I'll include links to IMDB or other reviews.
For the complete collection of reviews, articles and posts about those crappy movies that I love so much, check out the Rocket Jones Cult Flick Archives.
There is something for everyone on this big ol' internet, and one my hang outs are the personal finance blogs.
This week, the loverly Mapgirl is hosting the 68th edition of the Festival of Frugality. I highly recommend you go check it out. Who knows? You might discover a new addition to your blogroll.
PS: A great demonstration of frugality is our semi-regular minor league baseball game blogmeets. I mean, why pay major league prices for minor league quality? And yeah, that's a slam on the Washington Nationals.
A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead.
Thanks to Dustbury for the pointer (and he saw it here).
A lot of people say they don't hate Wal-Mart, per se, it's the Wal-Mart customers that they can't stand. We went last night and that was an apt description.
My wife brought up that in our experience, compared to suburban Wal-Mart's, the small town Wal-Marts are friendlier and less likely to be overrun by the freak show. In her words, "less teeth, more genuine smiles". That too is an apt description.
Smalltown, USA might have the occasional oddball or two, but suburbia has more of them packed into a given area and they all want to shop at Wal-Mart. At that level of concentration, we don't call them 'eccentric', we call them assholes.
True story: Checkout lines were very long and slow, and I'm standing behind some guy and his wife. Among the items in their cart was a package of some sort of Easter candy, you know, six or eight individually wrapped chocolate whatevers. After a while, he opens the package, unwraps a candy and eats it. Several minutes later he eats another, and then another. They finally get to the checkout, and he was disappointed that the scanner charged him full price for the half-empty package of candy.
His wife proudly crowed, "see? Told'ja!"
Judging by the amount of Easter candy in their cart, I think it's too late to prevent them from breeding.
There's a screech owl that lives in the woods behind our house. I don't know if it's an actual screech owl, but if I were naming owls then this one would definitely get that name. It sounds like a man in abject terror, and the throat-ripping scream is cut off mid-sound as if he were suddenly decapitated.
Eerie and disturbing. Frequent too. I've kinda grown to love it.
I have my Windows installation set up to check for updates and let me know when new ones are available. I don't let it do automatic updates.
This evening I finally got around to looking at the update that had been sitting there for a couple of days. A helpful text box popped up explaining that this latest oh-so-very important update would scan my computer and if my copy of Windows was bootlegged, then a friendly message would appear periodically to remind me to upgrade to legal software.
Now if I have a legal version of Windows installed (I do), why would I need it? And if it's a bootlegged copy, why would I let you install an update to annoy me about it? I guess they're going after the dishonest *and* stoopid people out there.
No thanks. Cancel install.
100 Best of all time (Sidd Finch is #2).
The Lincoln Memorial has also been sold, though to a different corporation, and would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial -- White House press secretary Mike McCurry, when asked about the supposed sale of the of the Liberty Bell to the Taco Bell Corporation, who announced plans to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell.
Imagine reading that your husband or brother who has been held in a squalid Romanian prison for years is finally going to be released. You make the long journey to the prison and stand outside the prison gates, waiting desperately for the moment you'll be reunited with your loved one, only to hear... 'April Fools! No one's being released!'
Those wacky Romanians.
