Archive for October, 2007

Anniversary

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

My iMac came home one year ago today. Now, I’m thinking about a MacBook or MacBook Pro to replace the laptop I killed recently.

Looky here!

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

It’s the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.

And for more to look at, here’s a set of links to astronomical image galleries.

Mmmmmm…

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

I do love mincemeat pie. It’s just about time to start thinking about Christmas baking, too – it’s been a couple years since I’ve done anything special for Christmas. Maybe this year I’ll finally get around to trying to make Christmas pudding, which has to be started about now.

Another song site

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

Aaron Parson’s A Compilation of Sing-Along, Folk, & Rock Guitar Songs (with chords and lyrics)

There are 186 songs there at the moment, and you can transpose the songs and produce printable versions of them in different keys. Neat.

How can they not know this stuff?

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

I took this civics test, and got the following result:

You answered 56 out of 60 correctly — 93.33 %
Average score for this quiz during October: 70.5%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.5%

While I’m disappointed that I didn’t score higher (two of my four missed answers bother me significantly more than the other two), the fact that the school whose seniors placed highest only scored 69.56% is horrifying. In the breakdown of individual questions, you find that the question that received the highest number of right answers (“Which of the following are the unalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence?”) still had 15% wrong answers. How many might have gotten it wrong if the test were some format other than multiple-choice for each question?

One might get the impression that the sort of civics education I had in my childhood is no longer in vogue. Actually, given that I have a college-age daughter, I know for a fact that she didn’t have the same type of civics and history instruction I did.

And these are the people who will have to take our country into the future.

I’m waiting for the tunnel paint

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

… but these are good to have while I’m waiting. I wonder if you can fold or stack them for storage?

I didn’t know pumpkins came in a Skaros varietal

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

This is a cute idea, but it’s more work than I want to do for a Jack-o-lantern.

Via about:blank.

I’ll try to keep this in mind

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

… the next time I travel anywhere: How to find out why your flight is really delayed.

Fun with language(s)

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

Stay tuned for tonight’s feature. But first, a word from our sponsor:

And, now, back to our feature:

Via Bookworm Room and Absolute Moral Authority.

What a difference a day makes

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

Yesterday, I got sunburned while running a garage sale. Today, I have an inch and a half of snow on my lawn, and no sign that it’s going to stop anytime soon. It’s 32 outside at the moment (11:30am), heading for a projected high of 35. According to the DJ on the station I’m listening to, it was still 65 at 4am.

I’m glad I ran the sale yesterday. Got rid of some stuff, but, unfortunately, very little of the bulky stuff. Several men stopped by before the official opening time to ask if I had any jewelry or military memorabilia. They were disappointed.

Got rid of some LPs – I had one box out for the sale, marked at $1/LP. There was one older couple that was amusing to watch. The wife stayed in the pickup. The husband would search through the box, periodically calling out the name of the artist and holding up the album. She’d either wave him over or wave him off. After she’d looked at an album, he’d either put it back in the box, or come over to me with a dollar, then go back to looking through the box again. This happened about half-a-dozen times.

I was sitting in a chair, playing a uke most of the day to keep occupied while nobody was there. I don’t remember how many times people asked how much I wanted for the uke. Two asked me if I had any other instruments. The only one I had out for the sale was a kazoo, but they didn’t want it.

Got everything put away afterward. I had to re-organize the garage – Marion brought down a computer desk she doesn’t want anymore, and I had to make room for it. Maybe I’ll get my garage emptied out enough that I can get the car in again someday.