« September 2003 | November 2003 »
If you're reading this, then that means we have survived the solar onslaught unleashed by that glowing lightbulb 1.426x10^-5 light years away from us. I saw this picture on wired today and just had to put this thing up. From the article.
"It's like the Earth is looking right down the barrel of a giant gun pointed at us by the sun ... and it's taken two big shots at us," said John Kohl of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts.An anomaly? Perhaps. Perhaps also part of the first salvo in the Martian Invasion Strategy! Only time will tell.
Kohl, the principal investigator for an instrument aboard NASA's sun-watching SOHO spacecraft, said the probability of two huge flares aimed directly at Earth coming so close together, as they have this week, is "unprecedented ... so low that it is a statistical anomaly."
Jenn and I just finished carving up our pumpkins 15 minutes ago. Click here to see the results. Unfortunately we only got enough candy for one small family (minus our usual "candy buyers fee"). Hopefully it will last...
Total trick or treaters:3
I really don't like Internet Explorer. Having switched to using Mozilla I really don't have the patience required for IE anymore. For those of you who've never heard about it, Mozilla is an open source browser that is, and I repeat, standards compliant. This means that when I write code for a page on my site, I know exactly how it will behave in all versions of Mozilla. This article sums the problem up best.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for IE. That is why I just spent the last hour or so resizing fonts and rewriting code to make IE stop cutting of letters in my entries. This was not a fun process, but I had heard enough feedback about it to make me invest the time.
Since 95% of computers come preinstalled with IE, M$ really has no compulsion to keep their browser up to date and bug free. If standards or convenience don't interest you, then perhaps the litany of computer bugs discovered on a routine basis in IE will.
Jack Kapica, in his usual right-on-the-mark fashion wrote an excellent article in the Globe today. From the article:
It might be wiser then to target the sellers as well as the spammers. While spammers are adept at hiding their identities, the drug pushers, anatomical enhancers and porn merchants have to have some point at which they can connect with the public, leaving themselves more vulnerable to law enforcement. Slapping merchants as well as their agents with fines could prove effective, too.I think hitting the advertisers is the ONLY way to stop spam dead. If the spammers have no customers I don't think they'll have much to spam over. Unfortunately this won't have a direct effect on the multitudes of virus infected *.com, *.scr, *.bat files that I get, but that is mostly the fault of my technologically-challenged friends not having antivirus software with updates.
After an hour of stripping and threading and stapling I finally ran a new electrical outlet over to my dartboard area for the express purpose of hooking up a second television. I also led a coax line over. After all that worked, the tv I had ready to go seems not to be capable of picking up the signal from the cable. [insert gritting teeth]. Back to the drawing board.
Read this over at the Globe & Mail today. Seems that sauropods possessed air sacs along their vertebrae. This in effect would have acted like a personal lifejacket, allowing these giants (think 5 times bigger than an African elephant) to bob along in deeper water.
What I think is really neat is that this finding goes a long way in explaining a set of fossilized footprints that appeared to be of a sauropod walking only on its front legs. From the article:
That ability to float was probably due to the sauropod's unique respiratory system, said Dr. Henderson, who is doing postdoctoral work financed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. The series of air sacs along the spine and inside their vertebrae allowed the creature's body to absorb oxygen more efficiently as it travelled down their long necks to their lungs, he said. The air sacs might also have allowed sauropods to get rid of excess body heat.The researcher also has a nifty animation on their site.
This really got me thinking back to an old book I had as a child. You know the kind with the gold and black edging along the spine. It was probably a hand me down from older cousins, so circa 1970s. In that book (which I read fanatically) it always showed the brachiasaurus floating in a big steaming bog. Later on I read that they walked on land. Now things have come full circle.
As promised, here is the newest addition to my collection. It currently measures in at about 12" tall and is probably about 5 years old.
Today is a day for self-medicating. I saw a beautiful specimen at Home Depot (don't laugh). I think that's going to be a present to me, as a way of marking this time of my life. I'll be able to look at it 5 years from now and see how far it has come and compare that to me. Hopefully we'll both have done some growing by then.
Goodbye dad.
Over the past weekend I worked on our basement, with the goal of turning a dank and musty dungeon into a dank and musty rec. room. A major step of this involved vacuuming the entire basement. Helping me out in a supervisory role was Bannah, perched atop the furnace. Long story short, when she finally comes down our calico cat is turned into a grey one.
We decided that rather than her ingesting 20 lbs of accumulated god-knows-what that was trapped in her fur, we'd bathe her. [Sarcasm]Wow, wasn't that fun, and didn't she have the time of her life! [End Sarcasm]
To make matters worse, since she now smells faintly of Johnson & Johnson, Nikko is convinced that she is an entirely new organism, and so does not appreciate her chasing him around. (I admit I'm not fond of strangers running after me). The take home message here is pretty simple: Bathe Nikko first!
In other words, they should probably be built to withstand an I - M - P - A - C - T. As in hitting things. I propose this radical idea because in the last hour I have been back to exchange my brand new darts when a member of the oringinal set smashed its shaft to pieces after contacting the board. A dart from the second set has met a similar fate. Next item on the to buy list: replacement shafts. Now I see why they're so cheap - it's like print cartridges, you get the printer (darts) for a huge discount, but need to keep replacing accessories such as cartridges (flimsy stupid plastic shafts) until the day you die.
This weekend flew by, mostly becase I spent it flying from one mess to another. I decided to tackle the basement, finishing my plant area, and my dartboard/man's domain project. It took 2 days, but the basement is mostly carpeted, 50% spider web-free, and the dartboard area is perfect. All that's left to do is recieve a bar/keg fridge for Xmas (hint hint).
I created this list so as to make the life of those around me a little easier. My birthday coming up? Christmas on the way? If you feel compelled to get me something, anything at all, then look no further.
** Last updated: Dec. 02 2005 **
Why would anyone bother watching a "full screen" movie anymore? Especially when that movie is The Matrix Reloaded? I ask this question for a very simple reason: I snagged a copy of the above DVD last night for only 25 bucks at Loblaws, opened it up, dropped it into the PS2 and....watched in horror when a screen popped up and said, "This movie has been edited from the original...".
After much obfuscating of perfectly good English words, I decided I'd try and return it. I figured that Loblaws would say so sorry, but too bad. As it turns out, the manager put aside a widescreen edition for me to pick up - which I just did. I'll post a review here shortly.
Bottom line: Let's put fullscreens out of their misery, shall we?
Went to see Tarantino's new flick Kill Bill yesterday. After finishing Shogun I was excited to watch this movie, what with the swords and the kung fu, etc. I was not disappointed in the least. The action was simply amazing, and the film is definitely son of Quentin. There wasn't a point in th movie where someone wasn't snickering a little - not because the movie was funny - but because of the presentation of the material.
I don't want to give away too many nitty gritties, but audio and visual cues are reused to set the mood for every face off and show down - all to great effect. The choreography is astounding, and the dialogue - despite reports to the contrary - is quite strong. All in all this movie rocks.
****/5
Congrats to the Scottish rugby team! They took out the U. S. of A. at the 2003 Rugby World Cup match in Brisbane on Monday. Final score: Scotland 39 U.S.A. 15. Next game is against France, followed by Fiji on Nov. 1st. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Alba Gu Brath!
This is me some days.
Had these at the farm over Thanksgiving. Very tasty! Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com
Makes 1 cup
Pumpkin seeds must be completely dried out in the oven before combining with spices. Whether for cooking or carving, choose an unblemished pumpkin that feels heavy for its size; it will store well, uncarved, at room temperature, for up to a month.
1 medium pumpkin
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch cayenne pepperto taste
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
1. Preheat oven to 250?. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut pumpkin open from the bottom, removing seeds with a long-handled spoon. Separate flesh from seeds, and reserve the flesh for another use (see Pumpkin Pie). Pumpkin should yield 1 cup seeds. Spread seeds on parchment in an even layer. Bake until dry, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Let cool.
2. In a medium bowl combine 3 tablespoons sugar, salt, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne. Heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook until sugar melts and the pumpkin seeds begin to caramelize, about 45 to 60 seconds. Transfer to bowl with spices, and stir well to coat. Let cool. These may be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Got back from Stellmar Farms yesterday. It was a great trip, the weather cooperated (mostly), and the business was brisk. Jenn and I even made some dried flower arrangements of our own that people bought (suckers).
As if working our butts off wasn't reward enough, Joseph (with aid from Jenn) managed to put together 2 Adirondack chairs, to be delivered in November (I'll be sure to post pics).
The crowning achievement of the weekend was definitely the production of the "DNA Pumpkin". Check it out here.
If all goes according to plan, I'll soon be on my way to Stelmar Farms to help out with my Uncle Dave and Joseph's pumpkins. These aren't your typical pumpkins - these things are huge. The best part of their operation is that they take weeds - milkweed, goldenrod, etc. - throw them together with some corn stalks, then charge yuppies from Toronto 20 bucks a pop. Gotta get me some of that garden weed selling action.
I'm hoping the leaves will have started to turn. I'll bring pics no doubt - but the trade off is no posts this weekend.
Had the lovely pleasure of bringing Nikko to the vets today for his yearly checkup/freakout. We were doing good at first. He sniffed, he saw, he didn't hiss. Then the vet came into the room and all hell broke loose. It reached a point where the vet tech had to done these elaborate leather gloves that went up to her armpits.
Try as he might, he couldn't rip her arms off. Things are mostly back to normal now - although Bannah has decided that to hell with him wanting time alone - she needs to practice pouncing (on him).
Aggghhh! Forgot to hit the "Resume" button on an RTPCR this morning. Had to redo it now. Technology bites. Or I'm just forgetful.
So the freeze out has ended officially today. At 7:20 am! What the hell? We were supposed to get hooked up between noon and 4pm. But no, Union Gas had to come by extra early to get things going. Of course I'm always up that early. It's amazing how horrible a service you can provide when you run a monopoly. Oh well, can't do much about it, and now the place is toasty warm. Hopefully return to regular postings on Monday.
Today marks day three with no working internet connection at home. To make matters even worse, the dummies at Union Gas turned off our natural gas (and therefore heat) on the 1st of the month. This is a problem, since we only managed to get through to a "customer response rep" today, October 2nd for reactivation. It strikes me as funny (or infuriating) that a Union Gas monkey can come by on the first of the month by 8 am to disconnect the gas, but it takes 2 days to reconnect it - despite the fact that everyone at Gas knows that no one can get through to them - around a moving day. There is a god - he doesn't like me for discounting him (I think Einstein was wrong - he does play dice).
Our house is currently at 13oC. That's cold! I'm showering at Wendy's house, and starting to feel better - I've spent the last 2 days in bed nursing some sort of cold. That's all for now - I get to resume regular posting on Monday (ie. 4 days).
