My favorite user
We have this lady who comes in almost every day. Her name is A____. I always hated when Edgar Allan Poe did that. A____ is from somewhere in eastern Europe, I believe. She is in her late fifties and messes around on dating sites looking for her one true love. I never have understood how people like her can ask a librarian to proofread what is essential a love note to another stranger. Maybe people look on us like they do doctors. They think we are as incurious and unemotional about their personal correspondence as a doctor is about a patient's body and its peculiarities. We are but we still can laugh on the inside just like your doctor does when he sees you without your pants.
The best thing about A____ is her inability to read a computer screen. When she wants to add a picture to her profile on one of the dating sites will she will call one of us over and say, "I want to add picture. How do you do that?" We will then point to her screen and say "click here where it says 'add photo.'" For a while she was trying to sell a fur jacket on Ebay and that was even worse. Do you know how hard it is to walk someone through the Ebay sale form when they have no desire to read it?
At least she is polite. That goes a long way. I will spend a lot of time with her during one of her internet sessions because she is thankful and polite after you walk her through a process you did the week before.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Funny Dick
I wasn't one to really jump all over the Dick Cheney shooting an old man in face thing. I thought it was funny and I thought that it was nice that for a week the Bush people had to concentrate on that rather than their sick agenda. However, I did find the following picture and it's just damn funny.
I wasn't one to really jump all over the Dick Cheney shooting an old man in face thing. I thought it was funny and I thought that it was nice that for a week the Bush people had to concentrate on that rather than their sick agenda. However, I did find the following picture and it's just damn funny.
A tragedy
I just learned a few minutes ago that one of my favorite writers, Octavia Butler, died Friday from a fall at her home. She was one of the best. I don't know what to say other than the world of fiction has been robbed of some classic books.
I remember that Orson Scott Card in his book on how to write science fiction and fantasy said that the opening paragraph to Octavia's book Wildseed was one of the best opening paragraphs of a novel he had ever read. At least there are a few books of hers I have yet to still read. That is now my only option, I reckon.
Here's more on what happened from USA Today.
I just learned a few minutes ago that one of my favorite writers, Octavia Butler, died Friday from a fall at her home. She was one of the best. I don't know what to say other than the world of fiction has been robbed of some classic books.
I remember that Orson Scott Card in his book on how to write science fiction and fantasy said that the opening paragraph to Octavia's book Wildseed was one of the best opening paragraphs of a novel he had ever read. At least there are a few books of hers I have yet to still read. That is now my only option, I reckon.
Here's more on what happened from USA Today.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tom of Tomorrow
Excellent write up by Tom Tomorrow concerning the most recent debacle in Iraq. May god continue to bless our fucking idiotic president.
Excellent write up by Tom Tomorrow concerning the most recent debacle in Iraq. May god continue to bless our fucking idiotic president.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Gorilla get the 'pause
Stole this link from John Hawks but I had to share it since it's so interesting.
"Many biologists believe menopause evolved because it gave human grandmothers more time to help care for their grandchildren, said Steve Austad, a researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio who was not involved in the study.
The new findings argue against the so-called "grandmother hypothesis," because female gorillas in the wild migrate away from their family groups and don't hang around to care for the grandkids.
Instead of an evolutionary adaptation, menopause could result merely from humans — and captive gorillas — living longer, Austad said.
"It's going to make evolutionary biologists think long and hard about what this suggests for humans," Austad said. "Right now, they're saying humans are unique. It may turn out you can get gorillas to live 75 years, and 25 years of that is post-menopausal.""
Stole this link from John Hawks but I had to share it since it's so interesting.
"Many biologists believe menopause evolved because it gave human grandmothers more time to help care for their grandchildren, said Steve Austad, a researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio who was not involved in the study.
The new findings argue against the so-called "grandmother hypothesis," because female gorillas in the wild migrate away from their family groups and don't hang around to care for the grandkids.
Instead of an evolutionary adaptation, menopause could result merely from humans — and captive gorillas — living longer, Austad said.
"It's going to make evolutionary biologists think long and hard about what this suggests for humans," Austad said. "Right now, they're saying humans are unique. It may turn out you can get gorillas to live 75 years, and 25 years of that is post-menopausal.""
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Bit Torrent
Allow me to rave (once again? I'm not sure) about bit torrent. If you haven't delved into the magic of bit torrent, give it a shot. You can read up on how to get started on Wikipedia and, if you are into bootlegs like me, then jump on over to Dime a Dozen and bask in the glory of what is offered by the websites's users. I have downloaded mad Led Zeppelin, especially early stuff. It may sound rough due to the limitations of audience recording back then but the shows are always amazing. I just can't say enough about how you can fill every little niche of your musical taste. Until I started messing around with bit torrent I could never find a Georgia Satellites bootleg. Now I have two. I never have been able to find a Was (Not Was) bootleg until tonight. You can find jazz on this site, obscure metal and blues bootlegs you never knew might even exist. It's a revelation.
There are bit torrent tracking sites out there where you can find illegal music and movies but don't waste your time with that. All you usually find there is mainstream stuff you can get anywhere and it's illegal and immoral to download that material according to our government and they know all about what is illegal and immoral, believe me. That's what is beautiful about Dime a Dozen, all the music indexed on that site consists of unreleased live shows and demo recordings so on one is losing any money. We all know that if you care enough about an artist to download their live bootlegs and takes 5, 6 and 7 of Strawberry Fields then you probably have all their albums anyway, so enjoy.
Other collecting goodness
I found a group on Yahoo! of guys that trade old NASCAR races. I just received in the mail today a copy of the race at Talladega in 1987 where Bobby Allison flew his car into the catch fence on the front stretch. The car takes out about 100 feet of the fence and came within a hair of going into the crowd. If that fence hadn't been reinforced shortly before that race his car would have gone into the crowd and NASCAR may have ended right then and there.
I watched a chunk of the race tonight after work and it's amazing how great the racing was when the cars were unrestricted. The pure speed and side by side racing is amazing. Much better than the big pack racing that takes place these days. For my feelings on today's superspeedway racing see my rant below. If NASCAR could find some way to stage a race at those big tracks that even remotely resembles what they were doing there in the 80's they would have a TV cash cow that would knock their socks off. You would think that alone would cause them to figure a way to fix the problem.
Allow me to rave (once again? I'm not sure) about bit torrent. If you haven't delved into the magic of bit torrent, give it a shot. You can read up on how to get started on Wikipedia and, if you are into bootlegs like me, then jump on over to Dime a Dozen and bask in the glory of what is offered by the websites's users. I have downloaded mad Led Zeppelin, especially early stuff. It may sound rough due to the limitations of audience recording back then but the shows are always amazing. I just can't say enough about how you can fill every little niche of your musical taste. Until I started messing around with bit torrent I could never find a Georgia Satellites bootleg. Now I have two. I never have been able to find a Was (Not Was) bootleg until tonight. You can find jazz on this site, obscure metal and blues bootlegs you never knew might even exist. It's a revelation.
There are bit torrent tracking sites out there where you can find illegal music and movies but don't waste your time with that. All you usually find there is mainstream stuff you can get anywhere and it's illegal and immoral to download that material according to our government and they know all about what is illegal and immoral, believe me. That's what is beautiful about Dime a Dozen, all the music indexed on that site consists of unreleased live shows and demo recordings so on one is losing any money. We all know that if you care enough about an artist to download their live bootlegs and takes 5, 6 and 7 of Strawberry Fields then you probably have all their albums anyway, so enjoy.
Other collecting goodness
I found a group on Yahoo! of guys that trade old NASCAR races. I just received in the mail today a copy of the race at Talladega in 1987 where Bobby Allison flew his car into the catch fence on the front stretch. The car takes out about 100 feet of the fence and came within a hair of going into the crowd. If that fence hadn't been reinforced shortly before that race his car would have gone into the crowd and NASCAR may have ended right then and there.
I watched a chunk of the race tonight after work and it's amazing how great the racing was when the cars were unrestricted. The pure speed and side by side racing is amazing. Much better than the big pack racing that takes place these days. For my feelings on today's superspeedway racing see my rant below. If NASCAR could find some way to stage a race at those big tracks that even remotely resembles what they were doing there in the 80's they would have a TV cash cow that would knock their socks off. You would think that alone would cause them to figure a way to fix the problem.
The agony
Last night Chris, who from now on will be known as the video game savant (VGS), and I played a fierce and bloody game of Madden 05 on the Xbox. The savant has been pissing me off lately by throwing 20-yard prayers with the accuracy of a laser sight and by playing a preternaturally good defense with the player he is controlling. Not that there aren't holes in his game. He lives and dies by the pass even when he is playing with the 1985 Bears and has Walter Payton at his disposal. If 80 percent of your offense is the pass you will get intercepted now and then. After the bastard took an early lead I was able to rally back after he threw a couple of interceptions. I tied the game up and was starting to discover my running game again during the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter I was in his territory and moving the ball pretty good. The third quarter ends and the Xbox locks up. I swear we both almost started crying. Playing a video game is pretty much a waste of time but when you put almost an hour into an intense football game with all the requisite swearing and hollering and then the damn thing crashes on you every wasted moment in your life fills the room.
Last night Chris, who from now on will be known as the video game savant (VGS), and I played a fierce and bloody game of Madden 05 on the Xbox. The savant has been pissing me off lately by throwing 20-yard prayers with the accuracy of a laser sight and by playing a preternaturally good defense with the player he is controlling. Not that there aren't holes in his game. He lives and dies by the pass even when he is playing with the 1985 Bears and has Walter Payton at his disposal. If 80 percent of your offense is the pass you will get intercepted now and then. After the bastard took an early lead I was able to rally back after he threw a couple of interceptions. I tied the game up and was starting to discover my running game again during the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter I was in his territory and moving the ball pretty good. The third quarter ends and the Xbox locks up. I swear we both almost started crying. Playing a video game is pretty much a waste of time but when you put almost an hour into an intense football game with all the requisite swearing and hollering and then the damn thing crashes on you every wasted moment in your life fills the room.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Another boring Daytona
You know, if it wasn't the first race of every new season and if it wasn't the Daytona 500 I would have paid as much attention to yesterday's race as I do to the other three restrictor plate races NASCAR stages each. How much is that? None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Why is that? Because restrictor plate racing sucks ass. It's not a race when half the field sandbags for the first half of the race so they can avoid the wrecks this situation brings on. It's not a race when cars can't pass the leader, at all. It's not a race when cars have to slam into the car in front of them in order to move ahead because all the cars are equal. It's not a race when the field takes 1 1/2 laps to hit top speed because of the loss of horsepower due to a metal plate over the carbeurator. It's not a race when the only reason to watch is for the big wreck because the competition has been hogtied by the rules. Drivers still get excited when they win this race because of where it is held. They no longer get excited because of the quality of race. It's sad that NASCAR has taken their biggest venue and turned it into a Disneyish obscenity that now only hosts boring follow-the-leader type events that occasionally turn into car-destroying freak shows.
Personally, I'm done. No longer will I give these races any attention. I'll check in on Mondays and see who won and who got hurt in the big wreck but I refuse to get suckered in by this sorry excuse for racing. I will watch no more until they knock those walls down and take the plates off.
If you have visited this page more than once I know you are thinking "why do I have to read another anti-restrictor plate rant?" Becasue it drives me crazy. If they would modify the track so that the cars had to lift in the turns then you would see some awesome big track racing. If the cars can hit 200 mph going into the turns at Atlanta there is no reason you couldn't drop a few degrees off the banking and allow these guys to run around 200-210 mph at Daytona and Talladega. Instead of dumb luck you could now count on your driver and your equipment to get you win. What a concept, I know.
An upbeat ending
Did you hear the story about Kirk Shelmerdine? He made the Daytona 500 by a miracle. He had no sponsor, no pit crew and no money for tires. He borrowed a pit crew and a collection was taken to buy him tires in the garage area and some old Earnhardt fans helped him out. He used to be Earnhardt's crew chief. This is from a USA Today article: "Left without a sponsor and relying on volunteer crewmembers, Shelmerdine received financial help from a family of Dale Earnhardt Sr. fans to pay for his tires, which enabled him to grab the last available qualifying spot for the Daytona 500.
"They paid our entire tire bill. It was a substantial chunk of change," Shelmerdine said. "Dale Sr. fans — there's still a lot of them out of there — some of them old enough to remember me.""
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "In a visit with the media on Friday, Kirk Shelmerdine wondered aloud whether, as an independent driver, he'd be able to find the funding to buy the tires he needed to run 500 miles. A friend picked up the tire bill. His old boss, Richard Childress, bought the quarter-panel spot on Shelmerdine's car to advertise the Childress Vineyard and provided family members a flight to Daytona for the race. Shelmerdine's $272,008 payday should cover any other costs incurred during the weekend."
-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now, that's racin'
zzazazz
You know, if it wasn't the first race of every new season and if it wasn't the Daytona 500 I would have paid as much attention to yesterday's race as I do to the other three restrictor plate races NASCAR stages each. How much is that? None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Why is that? Because restrictor plate racing sucks ass. It's not a race when half the field sandbags for the first half of the race so they can avoid the wrecks this situation brings on. It's not a race when cars can't pass the leader, at all. It's not a race when cars have to slam into the car in front of them in order to move ahead because all the cars are equal. It's not a race when the field takes 1 1/2 laps to hit top speed because of the loss of horsepower due to a metal plate over the carbeurator. It's not a race when the only reason to watch is for the big wreck because the competition has been hogtied by the rules. Drivers still get excited when they win this race because of where it is held. They no longer get excited because of the quality of race. It's sad that NASCAR has taken their biggest venue and turned it into a Disneyish obscenity that now only hosts boring follow-the-leader type events that occasionally turn into car-destroying freak shows.
Personally, I'm done. No longer will I give these races any attention. I'll check in on Mondays and see who won and who got hurt in the big wreck but I refuse to get suckered in by this sorry excuse for racing. I will watch no more until they knock those walls down and take the plates off.
If you have visited this page more than once I know you are thinking "why do I have to read another anti-restrictor plate rant?" Becasue it drives me crazy. If they would modify the track so that the cars had to lift in the turns then you would see some awesome big track racing. If the cars can hit 200 mph going into the turns at Atlanta there is no reason you couldn't drop a few degrees off the banking and allow these guys to run around 200-210 mph at Daytona and Talladega. Instead of dumb luck you could now count on your driver and your equipment to get you win. What a concept, I know.
An upbeat ending
Did you hear the story about Kirk Shelmerdine? He made the Daytona 500 by a miracle. He had no sponsor, no pit crew and no money for tires. He borrowed a pit crew and a collection was taken to buy him tires in the garage area and some old Earnhardt fans helped him out. He used to be Earnhardt's crew chief. This is from a USA Today article: "Left without a sponsor and relying on volunteer crewmembers, Shelmerdine received financial help from a family of Dale Earnhardt Sr. fans to pay for his tires, which enabled him to grab the last available qualifying spot for the Daytona 500.
"They paid our entire tire bill. It was a substantial chunk of change," Shelmerdine said. "Dale Sr. fans — there's still a lot of them out of there — some of them old enough to remember me.""
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "In a visit with the media on Friday, Kirk Shelmerdine wondered aloud whether, as an independent driver, he'd be able to find the funding to buy the tires he needed to run 500 miles. A friend picked up the tire bill. His old boss, Richard Childress, bought the quarter-panel spot on Shelmerdine's car to advertise the Childress Vineyard and provided family members a flight to Daytona for the race. Shelmerdine's $272,008 payday should cover any other costs incurred during the weekend."
-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now, that's racin'
zzazazz
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