E.G.

Viking Long Boat

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:47:20 GMT

The Washington Post has a video story on a recently constructed long boat sailing the Chesapeake.

I assume this is the one Fred Blonder has described.

(The link might not work. The Post makes it hard to tell while it is the most recent video. I'll fix it when necessary.)

Edit: Found the text version, with a link to the video.

Happy Birthday To...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:27:34 GMT

Happy belated birthday to chesuli!

(This belated thing is a trend. I missed my parents' anniversary too.)

Birthday Wishes

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:42:12 GMT

Happy belated birthday to chameleon613!

End Of An Era

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:35:20 GMT

K, who started as an intern under me and over 4 years became Lab Coordinator has left the building. He's off to a new job in DC. I wish him well.

Traffic Alert - Eastern Shore

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:41:24 GMT

Route 50 in Talbot County, Maryland is closed in both directions due to a "hostage situation" in Trappe.

New York and the Natural History Museum

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:22:48 GMT

I went to the Natural History Museum in New York yesterday. My parents had four free passes to the special exhibits and for the first time in years a friend was willing to meet them. (They have a reputation - deserved at the time - passed from friend to friend. It bugged me that my family and friend lives had separated that much.)

We saw a small part of the museum. werewulf and I saw the planetarium show. All four of us saw the IMAX sea dinosaur movie. I found the human ancestor/fossil exhibit fascinating (they have Lucy and a Flores "Hobbit" among other things) and had my first in person look at a cuneiform tablet. They are small.

We also went to the American Girl store. My parents got the doll matching my niece's name (left out because this is a public post) and I picked up the intro book about her. I can already envision my mom taking my niece and her doll there in 5 years for a tea party at the cafe. It's like a Russian Tea Room/English garden party for little girls and their grandmothers.

It rained but the street umbrellas were cheap. Dinner was at an Italian place a street or two away from Wicked, where my parents at when they saw that show a month or two ago. Very nice and the waiters didn't treat us differently for being dressed more casually than the other patrons.

Left home at 7 am, arrived back after midnight. I'm used to making that drive alone and having to stay overnight. It was good having someone else to do the return driving so I could sleep.

My mom and werewulf got along famously. My dad and I got along well.

Quicky

Thu, 22 May 2008 15:47:50 GMT

Off to Balticon as soon as I get Cat1 into the house. I'm not rushing her - at her age she deserves time in the sun.

Finished all the weekly assignment for Biopsychology. The term will be done when I finish the mid term and final paper - both deadlines extended with an incomplete.

The accent meme is whipping around again. I got the same, almost correct, result as last time.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Northeastern.
You're probably from somewhere near New York City, possibly north Jersey, or Connecticut or Rhode Island. If you are from New York City you may be one of the types who people never believe when you say you're from New York.

If you are not from here, you are probably one of the following:
(a) A Philadelphian who can't stand the way other Philadelphians say "on";
(b) A Yat from New Orleans; or
(c) Someone from England, Australia, or New Zealand, in which case why are you doing this quiz in the first place?

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

But when I'm using my "family accent" (the one that comes out around my aunts and uncles) I get their result:

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

New York City. You are most definitely from New York City. Not New Jersey, not Connecticut. If you are from Jersey then you can probably get into New York City in 10 minutes or less.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

Progress

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:25:37 GMT

I am looking out my office window at a Prius taxi.

Scrabble - Have Set Will Travel

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:37:02 GMT

Seeing leemoyer's regular posts about Scrabble has stirred up my desire to play. I've got a still shrink wrapped set dying for use. Anyone else in the Baltimore/Washington/Columbia area interested?

(This is another step in my de-hermiting.)

Another Thursday

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:08:00 GMT

The latest catchup went to May 8.

Most of my new lab-full of computers has arrived and works, despite running Vista. (One of the 7 machines has gone missing in transit. The vendor is tracking it down. Jackie@GovConnection++)

I've been limiting my social contact for over a month. I know why, which helps a little. But it still means missing a lot of dancing.

Much of my superhero knowledge comes from television - after school and saturday morning cartoons and live action. Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Flash stand out. I had forgotten Iron Man until the movie came out, so I didn't notice them using the 60s theme song.

According to IMDB "The theme song from "Iron Man" (1966) is played in several shots (in the casino scene; in Stark's bedroom scene and finally it is the personalized ring tone for Stark on James Rhodes cell phone)."

(Note to werewulfmom: IMDB lists quotes again. Instead of linking to the character name they put it at the bottom of the movie's page.)

Work Spending, Part II

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:32:42 GMT

I've finished the ordering. It totals $24,077 and some cents, including replacements for all the lab computers, a rack to house them, enough cables to centralize the computers but put the monitors & keyboards in different rooms, several laptops, a new scanner/printer, and an Apple Time Capsule.

I have no idea what to do with the last item, showing a serious flaw in the "use it or lose it" system. Unspent money reduces your future budgets since you obviously didn't need the extra this year.

Work Spending

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:06:02 GMT

Spending $100: easy

Spending $1,000,000: easy

Spending $20,000 in three days: hard

The money belongs to work and comes with the restrictions that individual items must cost less than $5000. Making it easier, the money comes from "Office Supplies". This includes not only paper and toner, but also computers and anything else not attached to the building. (I can only buy so many computers before they go to waste.)

Tuesday is Monday at your participating Carvel

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:11:35 GMT

An hour into the work day and I have (in no order):

caught up on LJ from Thursday

printed a picture of my niece

set up my laptop, containing the picture, to use my work printer (yay Macs and 5 minute setup!)

searched for the gaff tape to put up the picture of my niece

greeted the other lab person (who is not my minion anymore) back from Germany

panicked over homework

read today's comics

skimmed today's news, including this story on the 3D body atlas from the 60s being put on the 'Net http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/science/22bass.html

transported enough Passover food to work for a couple of days (gross shortage of egg kichels made up for by an abundance of oranges)

written this entry

contemplated (again) a brain update

panicked several more times over homework

Family

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:34:07 GMT

I have a niece!

Details in a locked post.

Good work news

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:54:58 GMT

Our grant at work has been renewed.

It's been a nervewracking couple of months. This is the second renewal and we are one of the better projects in our grouping. However between the lack of clarity in manned space program funding and NSBRI[0] dumping all the completed reviews last fall[1] we had been concerned.

[0] NSBRI = National Space Biomedical Research Institute, the part of NASA that funds us.
[1] Conflicts of interest - The first review teams were picked from currently funded projects. They had to find start over with less partial experts.

24 hours

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:34:36 GMT

We've finished another 24 hour experiment.

Raw data so far:
Artists will spend 24 hours in a lab for $1000
They will be very tired when they finish
Assistant lab managers will stay awake overnight but go home as soon as possible
Lab managers will stay awake during the day but sleep at the lab overnight (I was the backup and am the one who can fix the computers)
Expensing sushi is good

The actual data awaits analysis till tomorrow.

And now... Paperwork!

24 hours

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:30:11 GMT

We've finished another 24 hour experiment.

Raw data so far: Artists will spend 24 hours in a lab for $1000

CTHULHU FHTAGN CHEEZBURGER

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:43:50 GMT

http://lolthulhu.com

Courtesy of phil_g

Commuting Cat?

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:25:16 GMT

A story from London:
Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops

Phone Found

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:46:41 GMT

By definition everything is in the last place you look. This time it was in the first place I should have - the dirty laundry.

My phone didn't turn up when I called it because the battery had drained.

In other news, I woke up extra early and am at work.

This last month

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:25:37 GMT

This last month was busy. Much of it was taken up by the Rude Mechanicals' The Importance of Being Ernest and a course on Human Motivation.

Doing lights for the play was fun if time consuming, but the course was utter Hell. The text read like a self-help book, the teacher wanted descriptions of things in our lives that went poorly, and so I slipped and told parts of my psyche that are in the "don't talk about until the bipolar stuff is in better management" box. The cascade led me to avoiding the work, blah blah blah, and I got a B instead of an A because of late penalties.

The play on the other hand leaves me wanting more.

Anyone at the show or party Saturday: I lost my cell phone. It's a Sony with a blue back, blue lights around the rim that turn on when it rings, and I left it on vibrate.

Medium Day

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:07:58 GMT

Last night's schedule was overambitious.

I tired out quickly on the garages. I got a few braces in and one of the sheets of plywood removed, but that's all. I watched a lot of TV, read a little for my class, and pseudo-napped.

Kiki is feeling better, although Penelope has been agitated. She's been that way for weeks and I haven't figured out why.

Today's been mildly productive. I finished setting up the work backup schedule and I'm figuring out some mild network issues.

I thought my OLPC laptop would be here today, but the delivery was something else. I called, finding out that the previous customer rep told me a fictitious date. That turned out ok though because she had written down Mayline Ave instead of Maryland.

Good, Packed Weekend

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:48:29 GMT

Firstly,

Happy Birthday leiacat!

Crowded weekend. I stayed home and did homework Friday night. Good thing because the rest involved little sleep.

I woke up late Saturday, due to staying up to do the homework and chilling afterward to de-stress. Writing takes a lot out of me and all my online grad classes involve written discussions (complete with source references). As I go along with the classes I'm getting better at writing but the energy I need has remained constant.

Unfortunately due to the late wakeup I didn't have time to work on the garages before going out for an excellent dim sum lunch in Columbia in honor of said leaicat's birthday. selki brought her OLPC XO laptop, which generated much oohing, ahhing and demoing. True to form I crashed it. I'm eager for mine to arrive (thanks to work).

Afterwards I went to werewulf's and kdsorceress's for the afternoon where I hung out doing more homework. Every week, in addition to our own discussion post, we have to comment on at least one classmate's post. They have to be thought out and relevant so things that should take 10 to 30 minutes take me 2 hours.

Afterwards I watched a few people play Rock Band (quite fun to see and I know many of the songs) and talked to the other early arrivers.

The movies included the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean, which I've been eager to see. Much Thai food, cuddling, comfortable non-cuddling but proximity with seeya, and fun were involved. In the last year I've discovered that I like cuddling.

The third movie was The Dancing Pirate, which involved waltzing, Alta California in 1820, but very few pirates. The waltzing caused scandal, but I can't tell how the rest of movie was (although the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz was a fun, if Anglo, town leader) because I fell asleep 1/3 of the way through.

After the movie I shuffled off to the guest room and was up early enough to shock the next person who woke up. For most of Sunday I worked on the final part of the week's assignment (they mysteriously end the week on Sunday instead of Saturday). The two page paper took me from 9:30 am till 2:30 pm. As I said, writing takes a lot out of me, so when I finished I was too tired for much else.

I hung around for dinner but I was still to exhausted for dancing. That was unfortunate because I had been looking forward to the cross step waltz lesson. On the good side I stayed around werewulf's long enough to watch three more movies and finish de-stressing. She keeps lists of movies friends have to see, so four are off that list, one was added and immediately watched, and I fell asleep for one that wasn't on the list.

I returned home though to find I was a poor cat parent. Penelope had run out of food (I'm not sure why she's been eating more lately) and Kiki had been outside the whole time. I had left her water but no food, and since it started raining at some point she was wet, cold, and tired. When I left for work she was uncharacteristically still asleep in my bed.

So I'm here at work now, slowly getting tasks started. I plan on some wet weather work on the garages tonight, including bracing rafters, removing poorly positioned plywood, and cutting some metal for the soffit. Since it's wet I have to wait before adding more plywood (four hours or less now that J's fixed the air compressor) and I still need to choose the roofing material.

Alternative Energy

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:50:49 GMT

Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to add solar power to a house. My parents wouldn't go for it but now I can. With the way BGE (formerly Baltimore Gas and Electric) prices are rising I'm going from youthful idealism to enlightened self-interest.

Recently I've been looking into residential wind power as well. I found out from a city zoning planner that there he knows of no rules.

The only restriction he knows about is structural - residental houses plus masts must be less than 35 feet tall. Surrounding trees are taller than that but I still get a good amount of wind. Next conversations are about city building codes and electric company tie-in.

On the technical side I plan on starting with out batteries and the power goes straight into the grid. Once I see how the system works I'll consider adding a battery system. The do it yourself side of me wants to use as much battery power as possible, but economically it may not make sense. The other reason to go with batteries is to ride out power failures but since my neighborhood has most of the region's TV stations we get electricity restored fast.

QoTD - Terry Pratchett

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:02:33 GMT

"I know it's a very human thing to say 'is there anything I can do', but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry."

--Terry Pratchett

This is zipping about the Internet:
"Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer's disease" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7141458.stm