Pretty sure this isn’t what was meant by “climate change.” However, this is the first time I can ever recall a frost this late in May since I’ve been in New England. Just sayin’.
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Category: Misc
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Good Stuff
Another item thanks to John Gruber.
The following video is from a commencement speech by a guy named David Foster Wallace. I’d never heard of him prior to seeing the link. Listening to the video, which is about 8 minutes long, led me to read the actual source material.
It’s well worth the read. I found the following bit interesting:
Or, of course, if I’m in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, forty-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] (this is an example of how NOT to think, though) most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers. And I can think about how our children’s children will despise us for wasting all the future’s fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on.
Highlighted portion is what I found interesting. His audience is actually actively missing the entire point of his speech. To the point he feels compelled to break in and remind them that he’s not actually ranting about “evil, SUV-driving” whatevers.
Man, college kids are dumb.
Here’s the video:
THIS IS WATER – By David Foster Wallace from The Glossary on Vimeo
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Wine Tasting- The Science is Settled
Here’s a hilarious look at wine tasting, and the fact that it’s a bunch of crap. With science to back it up!
After siting a study by MIT behavioral scientist Coco Krume on how the price of wine affects the words used to review it, comes this gem:
Using her scientific metric, Krume goes on to create the most expensive-sounding wine review ever penned: “A velvety chocolate texture and enticingly layered, yet creamy, nose, this wine abounds with focused cassis and a silky ruby finish. Lush, elegant, and nuanced. Pair with pork and shellfish.” If that sentence made you yearn for a glass of classy red, congratulations, there’s a very real chance you’re a pompous asshole.
All I can add is she forgot “oaky.”
Do go read the whole thing.
(hattip: John Gruber)
The local weather guy is bragging about hi’s getting near 80, some time next week after the cool off from the rain passes. It’s going to be mid-May shortly. I’m having a hard time remembering the last time we had a May this cool. Usually we’ve had numerous 80 degree days by now.
I’m beginning to wonder if we really are experiencing “climate change”, just not in the way expected.
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Murphy REALLY Sucks
Yeah. Remember that starter that supposedly went bad?
Well, I went and picked up a new one this morning, as well as a couple of 3 ton lifts so I could get under the car without fear of it falling on my chest while I was pulling the old one out. Spent just shy of $200.
I was getting ready to start the whole repair process, which was going to be not uninvolved. Since I couldn’t start the car, I was going to have to jack it up in place, then use the 3-ton lifts I’d purchased to stabilize it. Probably wedge the wheels in the process. The last thing I wanted was to have a 2-ton car drop on me while I’m working on it.
Once it was securely propped up, then the fun would begin. Finding the starter, pulling it out and replacing it with the new one. Having done this once before, I was prepared for the fact the it would take most of the morning. Last time, the starter was in a tight spot and getting it off was half the battle, getting it out of the car was the other half. I was prepared for a similar experience.
With the prospect of crawling back and forth under a car on a gravel drive looming, I opted to try the Hail-Mary of auto repair and attempt starting the car one more time. I placed the key in the ignition, turned it ON and something seemed… different. Were the dash lights a little dimmer? Did it seem like the starter was trying to fire but just couldn’t? Was it just the 2nd cup of coffee coursing through my veins?
Was it possibly a drained, but not dead, battery?
Cutting to the chase, I hooked up the jumper cables between the cars and lo-and-behold, the car fired up. Drained battery it was.
I was elated and pissed at the same time. I wasn’t going to have to replace anything at the moment. But I still had to get the other car to the mechanics and I’d spent nearly $200 in prep this morning for work I, suddenly, didn’t have to perform.
Murphy was a mad genius.
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Murphy Sucks
Apparently, I displeased the car Gods in some way. I’m not really sure what it was. I took care of the car window on Friday. Today, we were supposed to drop off our other car for some maintenance from the local mechanic. I thought I was being a good car owner.
I said “supposed to drop off” because when we went to do so, our second car wouldn’t start. It seems like the starter croaked since I don’t get anything at all except lights when I turn the key. We’d had the car out earlier today, but apparently we weren’t going to get it to run again.
I tried to run out and get a new starter, but the auto part stores were all closed by then.
Good ol’ Murphy.
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Pictures on a Spring Morning
As of roughly 10AM this morning, it was 60 degrees out. That’s after a night where it dipped into the 30’s again. The Sun is out, not a cloud in the sky.
Our Dwarf Weeping Cherry is in all it’s glory:
As is the forsythia:
Even though I grow less fond of our pines each year, they look downright majestic this morning:
Welcome to Spring, 2013.
It’s late April and we’re about to sink below freezing for the second night in a row. I’ve been running the fireplace in the evenings to keep the house from getting too cold. Checking the local forecast, looks like we’re gonna stay this way for another day or so.
The temptation to make a snarky “climate change” reference…
Ah hell- it’d be nice if we could just get some seasonal warming at the moment.
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And Now for Some Levity
Well, after a week that saw a bombing in Boston, a fertilizer plant blow-up, a ridiculous assassination attempt on the President, an earthquake in China and I’m sure I’ve missed something… how about something completely mindless.
Well, almost.
I received all of these via email and they were amusing enough that I figured why not put them here.
First up, here’s a link to a video of some pendulums. They are setup with a so that the frequency of each successive pendulum is 1 greater than the previous. Some very cool patterns result.
If that doesn’t tickle your wick, then try reading the following paragraph:
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
Taht prgaarpah jsut aubot csaherd my selpl cehcekr.
Enough of that. Finally, another reading assignment:
7H15 M3554G3
53RV35 7O PR0V3
H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N
D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5!
1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!
1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG
17 WA5 H4RD BU7
N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3
Y0UR M1ND 1S
R34D1NG 17
4U70M471C4LLY
W17H 0U7 3V3N
7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17,
B3 PROUD! 0NLY
C3R741N P30PL3 C4N
R3AD 7H15.
PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F
U C4N R34D 7H15.
No hints- I’ll only say it can be deciphered and read.
Enjoy.
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Incredible
Consider that 4 days ago, a bomb went off at the 4 hour, 9 minute mark of the Boston Marathon and everything was chaos. A second bomb went off seconds later, there were reports of other bombs found; reports that other devices had been detonated in a controlled explosion; reports that another device went off in the JFK Library in another town. There were no reports about suspects or motives.
Police and investigators had nothing.
Three days after that, we got our first pictures of some suspects. Think about that- three days! They went from nothing to suspect pictures from surveillance cameras in three days. It’s like something out of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.
One day later, one of those suspects is dead and the other in custody.
It’s breathtaking to think how fast authorities were able to go from knowing nothing to closing the case. Seriously, did anyone really think it would be resolved in under a week?
I monitored Twitter most of the day- it was hard not to as the realtime reporting of events was very compelling. I stopped for awhile towards the late afternoon and early evening. It seemed like things were stuck. After being out and about, I arrived home and decided to turn the news on, and promptly saw that things had taken a dramatic turn for the better. The suspect was basically pinned down: the police knew where he was and he had no leverage for escape. In short, it was all over but the waiting and the only real question was whether the suspect would be killed or not.
So we sat down with the kids and let them watch the news as things unfolded. They both knew about the bombing from earlier in the week. We figured this was a chance to let them see something simple and poignant: the good guys catching the bad guy. They asked lots of questions (surprise!) about what was going on as we waited. They were even concerned about our safety, wondering if “that place was close to where we live” (I guess some more geography lessons are needed.) The main point I kept telling them was that it would all be over tonight, it was just a matter of when.
When the moment arrived, they noticeably relaxed. They understood the ramifications of the moment: the bad guy was caught and it was over.
When I tucked the boy into bed a little while later, he said “It’s good that the good guys won, because they [the bad guys…] hurt all those people.” Even at that age, they understand that it isn’t a total victory. I agreed with him, and almost added something. But I decided not to.
I decided I’d let him realize on his own that there is always another bad guy.
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Some Observations
Keep in mind I’m making these observations based on small sample sizes. Obviously, I have one daughter. The lass’ coach pitch softball team has 11 girls on it. I have one son, who played coach pitch baseball for 1 year. His teams had 10 or so players on them.
All of that, clearly, adds up to me being an expert.
For one, the girls seem to have slightly better attention spans than the boys did at a similar age. I make this observation based on how well the kids paid attention during drills and how long we tried to keep practices. I remember trying to keep practices to 45 minutes or so with the boys. The girls have gone through 2 1-hour practice sessions so far, and haven’t been any the worse for wear.
I generally only have to ask once with girls. With boys, sometimes it seemed like I needed a tape recorder set on an infinite loop to serve as my voice.
Physically, the boys have a wider spread in abilities. There were some very talented kids who could throw, catch and hit well. The girls all seem to be bunched in a tighter band ability wise- the standouts are not that much better than the average. Also, with boys the ones that could do one thing well tended to do everything well. By which I’m referring to throwing, catching and hitting. With girls, the same pattern doesn’t seem to exist. There are a few who throw well, but they won’t necessarily hit the ball as well as they throw.
For now, the girls don’t have as many questions about how to play the game. When we started explaining the games to the boys, they started asking questions with wild scenarios. We basically had to shut them down. The girls are, for now, content to take the info we give them and work with that.
Finally, overall ability wise, I’d say the average girl is about equal to the average boy. I was somewhat surprised by this because I figured throwing and hitting would both tilt towards the boys. But at the ages we’re talking about, the average strength and muscle coordination isn’t so much greater for boys that they are clearly superior. There were no infield outs from third base with the boys (unless they happened to tag 3rd with a force out), and I’m guessing it will be the same for the girls.
As far as catching goes, it appears to be a dead heat. Apparently, at the ages of 6 and 7, the average kid cannot catch a fly ball to save their life.
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Another Memory
I’ve noted it before, though not necessarily here, that my parents generation had the JFK assassination as a permanent memory. They could still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news.
My own first experience with the sort of phenomena was, to no one’s surprise, September 11, 2001. I still remember being at work, browsing news sites on my computer when I came across NBC’s site and saw a picture of the Twin Towers with smoke billowing out of it. The headline was simply “Plane crashes into World Trade Center”, or something similarly alarming but unremarkable. I also remember thinking “Great, some yahoo…” The rest, as they say, is history.
I realized at that time that I would have been fine if I never had another memory like that.
Yesterday, I was watching the boy and the lass struggle with the fine art of roller skating when I happened to glance at my Twitter feed. I saw a tweet from our local news stations that “Two powerful explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.” I had early hopes that it was some kind of gas main accident or some such, but it quickly became apparent that the cause was nefarious.
The history of this event is still unfolding. But it’s already another day I won’t ever forget.
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FIQUE and QAID and QADI
Hopefully I don’t regret sharing this too quickly.
I just finished a game of Words with Friends with a rather unusual play that allowed me to win pretty comfortably. The letter pile was exhausted and I only had 5 letters left in my rack: Q, I, F, U, and E. The game score was close enough and the layout was such that I a ended up putting a bit more effort into figuring out how to play my last letters.
After puttering around, I managed to form the word FIQUE, which I thought unusual because it’s rare that the Q gets played in the middle of a word. To make the play even more unusual, I hooked onto the word AID with the Q! I’m pretty sure outside of hooking to make the word QI, I don’t think I’ve ever hooked with a Q quite like that.
Naturally, I decided to look them up. Seemed the least I could do, seeing as they allowed me to win the game.
The word fique can refer to two things: the plant or the fiber that the plant yields. The fique plant is a member of the pineapple family with long, spiky leaves. It grows in South America, where it is used to create fique fibre. The fibre is very strong and used for weaving. Here’s an article with some pictures of the plant as well as the fiber and some photo-documentation of how the fiber is harvested from the plant. Interesting.
The word qaid is more straight forward- it’s a Muslim leader and can also be spelled caid (another word that could come in handy). There’s an anagram for QAID– QADI. It’s also a Muslim word and refers to a Muslim judge.
Considering the word SUQ is also a word of Muslim origin, it seems the Muslim language is the place to go to find unusual Q words.
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On Connecticut’s New Gun Laws
As I type this, new laws are expected to be passed here in the state some time late in the night. Originally, they expected it to sail through quickly, but some legislators in the House are throwing sand in the wheels by introducing amendments and the like.
There’s ton’s of analysis out there, but I’d say this one captures my own feelings on the law. Nothing in it would have prevented the Sandy Hook shootings. Overall, I’d say the new law falls under the old adage “something needs to be done, and this is something.”
The weather has been cool here, as I guess it’s been everywhere. We even have some snow in various places throughout the yard. Despite that, where the Sun is shines bright the yard is greening up. The gardens are full of evidence that Spring isn’t far off.
A silver mound:
A bleeding heart:
Some day lillies:
Some other lillies:
A daffodil:
The kids have been spending more time outside of late. The snow that is left they’ve been trying to melt by hosing it down. They’ve also been having fun with mud, making mudballs and the like. It makes for extra laundry for the Wife and I, but it’s nice to be sending them out.
As for the cool weather, it will come to an end soon.
Hilarious:
Oh and “A SPATULA! They’re just making it up now!”
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Lock Picking
I love stories like this. There’s something about the popping of stuffed shirts that I find appealing I guess. Really, they are stories about hubris, and the clever interloper who comes along and exposes it- “the emperor has no clothes” moments.
The second half of the article, linked at the bottom of the above story, is longer still but just as much worth a read.
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Drywall Reinforcement Howto
The Wife has decided it’s time to update the lass’ room. With the exception of rearranging it and changing the curtains a couple of times, it’s been largely unchanged since she was born. We’ve begun the process of repainting the room and that’s afforded me the opportunity to address the crappy drywall we’ve got.
I say we have crappy drywall because it does not take kindly to wall anchors. Or, more correctly, wall anchors tend to ruin the drywall. The paper seems to be a sub-par variety that tears easily, the drywall itself, once compromised by the hole that any anchor requires, crumbles over time to the point of making the anchor useless.
This is most evident where the curtains are hung.
The Wife doesn’t want the curtain rod supports attached to the casing surrounding the window, which means we have to anchor the curtains in the drywall on either side of the window. Curtains are a double whammy because they are an active load on the anchor- they are always being shifted and moved and the stress on the anchor wears out the drywall that much quicker.
Here’s what the wall looks like after removing the curtain rod supports:
That area is now basically unusable for when I need to replace the supports.
So I’ve taken to fixing the problem by installing a backer-board behind the drywall. It’s just a rectangular piece of wood that goes behind the drywall that I can screw into to secure the curtain rod supports. Thus, eliminating the need for drywall anchors.
To start, I cut some pine boards that are roughly 3″x10″ and trace the width onto the wall. I locate the cutout an inch or so away from the widest part of the casing:
The length, or height, of the rectangular cutout should be about 1/2 the length of the board. This gives enough space to insert the board behind the drywall while also allowing for anchoring it in place.
Now, it’s pucker up time because we’re going to cut a square out of the drywall, which means things are going to be temporarily worse before they get better.
Surprise! Turns out there was a stud right to the right side. No matter, we’ll just extend the cutout so so we can slide the pine board in next to the stud. We’re already committed to patching the drywall, another inch or so isn’t going to matter.
This is the piece of wood I’ll be inserting behind the drywall, a simple piece of pine. The screw will serve as a handle and position setter when we slip it up behind the drywall. It’s a little detail because without it, once we get the wood behind the drywall, the screw may well be the only thing that keeps it from falling down and disappearing behind the drywall.
Here, the wood’s been placed behind the drywall. Notice how the screw help to keep it in place. On the right side, I’ve also slid the wood back towards the window a bit.
The next step is to secure the wood in place with some drywall screws, like so:
And now, the job turns into a drywall patch job. I cut out some pieces to fit into the cutouts:
The pictures don’t show it, but I did tack the drywall patches in place with a couple of screws. No need to go crazy, just a couple will do. Anything we hang here will ultimately served a similar purpose.
Then it’s just straight up tape-and-spackle. For the patch on the right, I was able to cover the cutout entirely with 2 vertical strips of tape:
With the left side patch I first place 2 horizontal pieces of tape, allowed the spackle to dry and then placed 2 vertical pieces of tape:
A more talented spackler could probably place all 4 pieces of tape at once and get it to look nice.
Now it’s just a matter of finishing the spackling and a little sanding.
This isn’t the most complicated drywall job in the world, especially since the pieces involved are small. For that small inconvenience, I won’t ever have to worry about wall anchors for the curtains again. Also, should the Wife decide she doesn’t like the curtain rod supports anymore, I can just patch the holes without worrying about the surrounding drywall being compromised. I could even install something into the exact same holes.
I’ve done this in quite a few of the rooms and it makes a big difference. In fact, if I was building a home, I’d probably just request the builders throw some kind of two-by up there between the studs on either side of the window to serve the same purpose. That way, I wouldn’t have anything to worry about when it came time for the window treatments.
Heck, doing that I could install a chin-up bar without worrying about compromising the wall. Not that I would, because doing chin-ups in front of a window like that would be silly. I’d just like knowing that I could, because there’s no way the curtains would be coming down, even with some runt hanging on them while playing George-of-the-Jungle.
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They Missed This One
UPDATE: When I originally posted this, at the end I noted updated accumulation forecasts for 6-10 inches, which was incorrect. They are 4-8 inches as noted in the weather statement I quoted. We’re already sitting at 9″, so even the update was incorrect.
I never took down the measuring stick after the Blizzard of 2013.
For everything the forecasters got right about the Blizzard, they seem to have gotten this storm entirely wrong. First, it was supposed to start snowing on Wednesday and last into Friday. We were going to get 6-10 inches of snow. Then, it was supposed to start Thursday and last into Friday and we were only going to get 3-6 inches of snow. We started with a “Winter Storm Warning” and were downgraded to a “Winter Weather Advisory.”
Here’s the latest:
…WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW…WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON. THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.
- LOCATIONS…NORTHERN CONNECTICUT…INCLUDING CENTRAL AND WESTERN PORTIONS OF
- MASSACHUSETTS AT LOWER ELEVATIONS IN THE CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY.
- HAZARD TYPES…HEAVY SNOW.
- ACCUMULATIONS…STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 4 TO 8 INCHES.
- TIMING…HEAVY SNOWFALL TO CONTINUE INTO MIDDAY FRIDAY.
- IMPACTS…UNTREATED ROADS WILL BECOME SNOW COVERED AND SLIPPERY. ANTICIPATE
- IMPACTS TO THE FRIDAY MORNING RUSH HOUR.
- WINDS…NORTH 10 TO 20 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH.
- VISIBILITIES…ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE AT TIMES.
- TEMPERATURES…AROUND 30. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER STORM WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN AN AVERAGE OF 6 OR MORE INCHES OF SNOW IS EXPECTED IN A 12 HOUR PERIOD…OR FOR 8 OR MORE INCHES IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. TRAVEL WILL BE SLOW AT BEST ON WELL TREATED SURFACES…AND QUITE DIFFICULT ON ANY UNPLOWED OR UNTREATED SURFACES.
Here’s a radar snapshot:
So, back to a “Winter Storm Warning” and accumulations of 4 to 8 inches. It’s 9:15AM as I type this and we’re sitting at 9 inches or so and, looking at the radar, the block of moisture doesn’t seem to be letting up. We’ll be lucky if the upper limit is what we end up with.
Obviously, the kids have no school today. The boy is happy about this because it interrupts the standardized testing they’ve been doing this week. But this is one more day to makeup and the Governor may have to decide whether to allow for a shortened school year.
Winter isn’t giving up without a fight.
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No More Beard
I’ve been sporting a full beard for the Winter this year. I don’t normally do so, but for whatever reason this year was different. Honestly, I had a feeling in my bones this would be a cold Winter. It wasn’t the coldest Winter we’ve had, but it was pretty good.
As far as quality beards go, mine is OK. I’m not one of those guys who shaves and then has 5 o’clock shadow a couple minutes after completion. But given a month or so, it fills in pretty good.
But I’m not a year-round beard kind of guy. When it hits the point that in the mornings I feel like one of those fuzzy-topped pencils that have just spun-up a few times, it’s getting old. Mine had hit that point a couple of weeks ago and coupled with Spring only being a couple weeks away, I finally decided it was time for a change.
Results below the fold.