Still alive. Saints season is done, and they’re in the playoffs. Got so disgusted with the stupid rally flags and getting bopped in the head by them that I left a game early for the first time in quite a while on Saturday, and am actually having to think about whether I want to renew my season tickets for next year.
And that’s about it for this morning. I’m running late, and haven’t been finding much on the web lately that I have comments about. Hopefully that’ll change once I have a few more evenings to myself.
- There’s a flickr photoset of the August 24, 2006 Hail Storm from Northfield, MN. Pretty impressive what baseball-sizes chunks of ice falling from the sky will do. [kottke]
- I posted photosets from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Santa Cruz Mountains that I took two weeks ago. Maybe a few folks will be interested in them.
Weather in Minneapolis for August 28, 2006 August 28 in History
Lots to do this weekend. Got a friend in town, a visit to mom to make, a gun show to possibly check out, and all the household tasks that got ignored during the work-week. Plus the Saints start their final regular-season home-stand tomorrow. Which is all a lame explanation for why I still don’t have pictures for you from the California trip. Not that they’re all that exciting in the first place. Oh well.
The only other real news around here is that I had a friend drop by last night unexpectedly. Her hubby was hosting a poker game, and she needed to get out of the house for a while, so she stopped by for a drink. That was a nice surprise.
- This article on Digital Face Beautification is kinda creepy, but interesting.
- In local news, a Sword proves mightier than robbers (who had a fake gun). Talked to a friend Wednesday night who says three of the four little angels are running around the neighborhood together again (the fourth was still on the lam, last I heard). Kim had mentioned the story earlier, which was how I’d even known about it in the first place, but it seems more than a little outrageous that these goblins made bail. [kim]
- The Register takes a look at the recent terror-plot involving binary-liquid-explosives and asks was the plot feasible? Not so much. I’m not an expert on TATP, but it sounds to me as though its tendency to go unexpectedly exothermic doesn’t make it an especially good candidate for mixing up on an airplane. That’s not to say there isn’t a binary (or trinary) liquid explosive that would work, but I don’t know of one off the top of my head, and I’ve taken more chemistry than most. Others have come to the same conclusion. [colby cosh]
- Finally, with my birthday coming up, did you know that Rémy Martin X.O. Excellence runs about $130 per bottle here in Minneapolis? Or heck, there’s a really nice lens on my amazon wish-list if you’re feeling generous…
Weather in Minneapolis for August 19, 2006 August 19 in History
I was at WWDC last week, and am just getting back into the swing of things around home today. Saturday and Sunday were spent running around with friends out in California, Monday was a visit to the home office, and yesterday was spent either sleeping after I got no sleep on the red-eye home, being woken up by a co-worker who was wondering if I’d beamed up (who wasn’t aware I was in San Jose on Monday) or running errands so I might have a productive rest of the work-week beginning today.
I wasn’t entirely successful, having left the big stack of mail in the bag that the post office put it in for me, which means that I’m going to have a spell of bill-paying this evening, but I got the barest essentials done, and that felt like enough.
And that’s going to have to do it for today. I’ve got a couple hundred pictures taken over the weekend, a big stack of bills, and work to deal with today, so I’d better get moving here. Hopefully I’ll have more before the last home-stand of the year begins for the Saints on Sunday.
- I’ve been looking for some Gaffer Tape for a project, and discovered that either Shurtape PC625, Permacel P-672 or Hosa GFT447 or 3M #6910 would all work. But where does a guy find ’em in the Twin Cities?
- I haven’t been reading Maciej much lately, but in I Spy, he explains how he lost his walk-taking priviledges in Beijing. It’s a pretty damned funny story. [kottke]
- It’s no real surprise that Technorati’s Numbers are Wrong when they say there are fifty million blogs out there. Yes, technically there are, but you have to count the forty-eight million dead blogs, and spam blogs / link farms, etc., to get to fifty million. [kottke]
- Not only are there all the new restrictions on what you can carry with you when you travel, NorthWest flight attendants may be causing CHAOS. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to my flight home. It went more smoothly than I expected, though, and there were even extra seats on the plane. [papascott]
Weather in Minneapolis for August 16, 2006 August 16 in History
Busy life, few postings lately. Lots has been up, but not much of it all that interesting. While I was away, I watched the Saints go from first to last in their division, and back to third. It was a tight division at the time. Now they’re seven and a half back, and Lincoln’s running away with the division (again), which means the Saints are probably already out of it for the year, unless they can somehow squeak out the second-best finish overall. Doesn’t seem likely to me.
That’s actually okay, though. It means that I can think about making other plans for the playoff dates. Even if those plans are nothing more complex than “spend a day sitting on the patio.” While that’s still a few weeks off, and there’s a chance the boys will rally to make the playoffs, I’d bet the other way, even though two-thirds of their remaining games are at home.
- Have you heard about The Environmental Paradox of Bicycling (PDF) ? Because folks who bike regularly tend to live longer, the energy they save by not driving is offset by the fact that they’ll have more years to use energy, and they end up using more overall. So by spending my summer not biking, I’m saving the planet? [flutterby]
- Tony Bourdain was Watching Beirut die. He’d planned to film an episode of No Reservations there, and just after they arrived,
everything went sideways
as Hezbollah grabbed two Israeli soldiers and the bombs started falling shortly thereafter. [boing boing] - The Sony GPS tracker for photography looks pretty cool, especially if there’s integration with Lightroom or Photoshop so I can tag my pictures as I import them from the camera. [flutterby]
- Kirsten’s Contagious and slapped me with a book-related meme-thingie. Since I’ve been looking for an excuse to post something anyhow, it’s just below. [kirsten]
One book that changed your life?
The Way Things Work: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology
At least I think this was the one. There was a twenty-some volume set that was offered on a subscription basis (by Time-Life Books, perhaps?) that I started ordering while I was in high-school. I’d done the math, and figured out that I could pay for it with the earnings from my job washing dishes at the local ice-cream parlor or delivering papers or whichever job I had that summer, and had subscribed. I received three of the individual volumes and paid for them quietly, with my parents not really paying attention. Then the company shipped the remaining twenty-some volumes all in a single box, which my dad and step-mom looked at and immediately returned without ever consulting me or even telling me that they’d done it. That was the point at which I quit believing people when they told me “We know what’s best for you.”
One book you have read more than once?
My Name is Legion by Roger Zelazny. ISBN:0345295226 or ISBN:0345278054.
The idea of a man outside the system tweaked my brain back when I found the book in high school, and I like to reread it periodicaly. This was also a close contender for the “changed your life” entry.
One book you would want on a desert island?
Has Tom Brown written a book on the edible plants available on a desert island? If so, that’s the one I’d want.
One book that made you laugh?
Kitchen Confidential by Tony Bourdain. ISBN:0060934913.
I was just a lowly dishwasher when I worked in a restaurant, but the stories still hit close enough to home to make me laugh.
One book that made you cry?
John Barleycorn by Jack London. ISBN:0192837176.
I empathize too much with the “habitual drinker” who narrates.
One book you wish had been written?
I don’t have a choice here. I’m still working through the books that have already been written.
One book you wish had never been written?
Again, I don’t have a choice. Even the most worthless piece of trash-writing has an audience somewhere. Who am I to deny that audience a few moments of pleasure while reading?
One book you are currently reading?
Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 ISBN:0140284583.
It’s a slow slog, but I’m making progress.
One book you have been meaning to read?
There’s a whole list over on Amazon.
Weather in Minneapolis for August 6, 2006 August 6 in History