Hmmm, That's A Good Place To Hang My Shirt!

A Rick Pic

Say That 10 Times Fast...

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters: "NASA intends to break its own aircraft-speed record for the second time this year by flying X43a scramjet ten times faster than sound. On November 15 the X-43A supersonic-combustion ramjet - or scramjet - will again take to the skies aiming for Mach 10."

Mobile Nerd Station

A Rick Pic

Fall in the Mountians of Northern California 

Oh, You'll Love California!

Well here I am once again captive in my Hotel Room in the Heart of Vacaville California. Just finished my delightful In-N-Out Burger while surfing the 13 channels of quality TV. Bed meets the softness requirements, toilet has the necessary pressure to handle the 'out of town' gift I plan on leaving it once (or twice) a day, and, I smell NO smoke! This establishment does have an indoor pool as well as wireless internet and a breakfast area, so it ranks well on my all time list of fine hotels in the under 100 dollar range. I find that I am starting to change with all of the travel I do. I still get a thrill every time I come back to my room and the bed is made, but I have lost the desire to bring home small bottles of shampoo or bars of soap. I think if I had to design a hotel there would be some improvements that I could offer. One would be more plugs, lots more plugs, and put them at waist level. The fatter I get the harder it is for me to get down on my hands and knees, crawl under a table and plug in my laptop! Also,

If you are going to run Wi-Fi in your hotel, at least make the signal strong enough to reach the friggen desk in my room!

Oh, and why does every light in the place have different kind of switch to turn it on and off? So, at night when I need to get up and address the above mentioned gift it takes me an extra 15 seconds of fumbling to get the light on? And... what is a man or woman to do if he or she wants to eat his or her take out food in front of the TV? How about the super high tech idea of a TV Tray? No, it is much better for me to try and balance all of this stuff in my lap while I sit at the edge of my bed squinting at my 15 INCH SCREEN WATCHING 13 FRIGGEN CHANNELS while catsup drips down the front of my SHIRT!!!

Now, I am sure that all of you sitting in your own homes right now, reading this entry of my blog, are starting to wonder about my mental health. I'm fine, don't worry about me... much.

Great For The Nerdary!

"New Scientist reports that you can now buy your own automated Room Defender. 'Who would like this gift? Any child, or anyone who saw the director's cut of Aliens and dreamed of owning one of those automated sentries.'" The New Scientist gift guide looks pretty useful.

Things That Make You Go Hmm.

"The Seattle Times has an article about Microsoft's Foundation and their new partnership with Comcast to provide a TiVo-like service."

Attacking The Pile...

I have now completed all of the computer building projects in this cycle! Packed up the last one for set-up tomorrow. Now that the computer room has 7 more feet of desk space I can now give Deb back her kitchen table and dining room table. It has been my morning project to liberate these downstairs surfaces and put everything away. This being my last day off for quite awhile due to the coming store opening makes getting all of this done feel all the better. Back to the projects.

I Want One!

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters: "The US Army is testing robots armed with shotguns. The robots are called Packbots and have already seen some action in Iraq. It also has chemical sensors that detect nuclear, biological, and chemical contaminants. Maybe I've seen a few too many bad sci-fi movies, but robots with shotguns scare me."

I've got a protrusion for ya!

kgw.com | News for Oregon and SW Washington: "A lava formation inside Mount St. Helens' crater has a new, glowing protrusion the size of a 30-story building. The protrusion, which glows red at night, has risen by 330 feet in the past nine days, pushed up by magma, or molten rock, within the volcano. "

Good Deed Done!

About 2 weeks ago I came home from work and and small black and white cat came up to me and begged for attention. She was very skinny and looked like life was not going well for her. I went into the garage and put down a handful of cat food... it was consumed in seconds. So began the pattern of the cat hanging around the house and greeting me everyday when I got home for me to feed her. I was obvious that she was an indoor cat at some time, as she was happy to be petted and was not afraid of me.

Deb wanted to adopt her, but I figured this would be very hard on our 2 cats that are now almost 10 years old. So Deb went to plan B and proposed to her new employer that the City of Happy Valley needed a cat! They accepted, "City Kitty" was moved to her new home, visited by a vet, and now will be the mouse hunter for the office space. Just thought you should know.

Shrek 2 is out on DVD Today! I picked mine up at Best Buy For $15.99

The Glory Of A Day Off!

Here I sit in my sweats, cat in my lap, heater at my feet, plugging away on my computer! My entire day is mine, ALL MINE! Last night I was so dog tired that I was in bed by 9:00 and asleep by 9:01. It is now time for breakfast.

DVD's That Can Take A Licking!

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters: "'NewScientist reports that TDK has developed a transparent polymer for LCD screens and optical media that is impervious to general neglect and abuse. Quoth the reporter, 'In one of the most convincing technology demonstrations this reporter has witnessed, I was handed a CD, a wire-wool pan scourer and some permanent marker pens, and invited to scratch or mark the discs. Hard as I tried, I could not make a single mark on the disc with the scourer. And the ink simply wiped off.' The coating is apparently responsible for Blu-Ray's new caddy-less form factor.' "

The Time Change Blues

Here I sit at 4:30am in the morning, pitch black outside and me wide awake! Now, remeber, it is really 5:30am due to the time change and if you factor in that I am over 40, this up at the Ass Crack of dawn thing doesn't seem that far out of line!

As a child... hell... 3 years ago, I could sleep until noon, wake up for a 5000 calorie meal and hit the sack again two hours later. I would then wake up the next day with a tan, a new car and not a care in the world. Now, things are not quite the same, I wake up at 3 in the morning with the thought of 'did I rotate the tires in the last 3 months?' or, 'My leg hurts, it must be from sleeping WRONG!' Sleeping WRONG? How the hell do you sleep WRONG?

Sleeping is so simple that they don't even include instructions with the mattress!

After 40 however, I can't even do that right!

Well, I am off to try my hand at the art of sleep again... wish me luck!