While I'm not really in a position to say whether it was worth the money or not, the nationals new home is very nice indeed. And with the concession stands every two feet, they might make a run at pulling some of that cash back. Of course none of it will go to the tax payers who were gouged... But that's not the point. There's something about a new stadium, the virgin amenities, that just comfort and welcome a patron. Much like that new car smell; except its new stadium smell. Of course that didn't keep my fellow patrons from throwing their wrappers, peanut shells and beer cups all over the ground. Fucking animals. That why we can't have nice things...
Friday, April 04, 2008
The New Diggs.
While I'm not really in a position to say whether it was worth the money or not, the nationals new home is very nice indeed. And with the concession stands every two feet, they might make a run at pulling some of that cash back. Of course none of it will go to the tax payers who were gouged... But that's not the point. There's something about a new stadium, the virgin amenities, that just comfort and welcome a patron. Much like that new car smell; except its new stadium smell. Of course that didn't keep my fellow patrons from throwing their wrappers, peanut shells and beer cups all over the ground. Fucking animals. That why we can't have nice things...
Rocking the DC Public Works GIS.
Color me impressed. I've seen pedestrian signs or streetlights out and thought to my self "aren't we living in a time when citizens could be leveraged to submit and track things like this with the appropriate departments? I bet they just have a guy driving around in a truck looking for burned out bulbs." Well I just requested a bulk trash pickup without picking up the phone and with out speaking to a single person. Not only that, but the DC government provides access to all the requests submitted by citizens, so you can tell what's going on where and why its taking so long to address your concern. Much better than I was expecting guys. And your data warehouse is pretty substantial too. Good job!
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Ever Pitchpoled A 60 Foot Trimaran?
Me neither but the Alinghi crew practicing on Foncia have. Under 20 knots a bear-off dug into the waves and sent the larger-than-most multihull-racer end over end. No one was seriously hurt, although a pair were airlifted to the hospital. Whew, its exciting seeing an 18ft skiff pitchpole, but I imagine something on this scale is downright frightening.Thursday, April 03, 2008
Slate Article Employs Difficult Sailing Metephor.
Despite the picture accompanying this article being of Hilary struggling to survive a sinking Titanic, the sub-heading of this piece is obviously a sailing metaphor. I say "obviously" with 18 years of sailing experience under my belt, but I would imagine to most of the population it is less clear. So a cursory explanation of being "in irons" follows.
Many people could deduce from context that the literary device means "to stall", and that's actually very close to the mark. Sloops use two sails to propel themselves creating lift from the wind. Many times the Main (rear) sail is a larger than the jib at the bow. (Larger headsails do exist, genoas, and can change the boat's handling characteristics and balance, which vary from design to design anyway) The result of more sail area in the stern is the tendency of the boat to round up (turn into the wind) when the boat is over powered (weather-helm). Think of it as a balancing scale, the keel at the center of the boat acts as the fulcrum with the two sails acting as the weights on either side. If the stern of the boat has more force applied, it will be forced down wind, and the bow in turn is forced upwind.Luffing the sails is part of being in irons, but you also need to remain head to wind, not generating lift for a while. This is because as long as a boat is moving through the water it retains at least some steerage. And if you can steer you should be able to ease the main and turn away from the wind, provided it is not blowing too strongly. But once the steerage is gone irons will settle upon you like a hippo on a newborn. From there your options are to try and backwind the jib or just wait until you're being blown to the leeward shore quickly enough to generate some steerage from your backwards momentum. Neither of which, I think, will work for Senator Clinton in this case.
For Your Edification.
Even the professionals get things wrong sometimes. Just ask 11 year-old Kenton Stufflebeam (get a load of the name on that kid!) who recently found a mistake on a visit to the Smithsonian. He saw a display that was erroneously tagged with "Precambrian Era". *snort* (Which is a supereon, composed of eons, which are in turn made up of eras, then periods, then epochs... duh) He wrote a note and the museum contacted him later admitting to the 27 year-old error.Don't worry dude, 5th grade may seem rough but I'm sure things will start picking up when you hit high school. Wait, that's where meticulous attention to details and avid interest in geology semantics really pays off, right?
I'm Coming Up To The Booth.
I went to a Caps game on Tuesday, it was pretty fun and I actually still know how most of the rules work from the days when I litigiously played video game hockey. (If you judge from my childhood my favorite sports are hockey and wrestling followed closely by baseball; although the last was mostly about getting that stick of petrified gum) The Caps whooped up on the Canes, but that's not what I'm here to tell you about. I'm here to talk about the draft... Err, the giveaway. The announcer told everyone in section 224 to stand up and look under their seats for a gold star. The lucky fan who found it would win a brand new DVD entertainment system. So the jumbo-screen-tron shows them all hop up and eagerly snoop around on the floor. Seconds drag by and everyone starts looking around to see if their neighbor is the winner. The announcer comes on again and says "and the winner is... No one! April Fools!" It was pretty funny cause I wasn't in section 224. I'm pretty sure I woulda been a little sore cause I'd completely forgotten that it was still April first after a hard day of filtering BS on the Internets.
Its Coming!
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Get Lost.
I was initially intrigued by this ebook by a Dr Solomon. It details his 12 principles for finding lost items... for fracking idiots. They include complex concepts like thinking about where you left something and searching carefully. It highlights time and again that randomly searching is not a productive method. Random searching? Who the hell randomly searches for anything? I lost my belt; I'll start by looking at a Taco Bell in Illinois. WTF? If you don't start looking for something you lost by trying to remember where it was last I don't know how you're not huddled naked in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest shivering for warmth. Really, this might be the most painfully insulting thing I've ever read. And the kicker is that after pages of proclaiming the magic of the 12 principles, he lists a super secret 13th principle, just in case the first dozen nuggets fell through. Guess what it is. Give up; maybe you were fated to lose the item. You must be goddamn joking! I need whatever it is I'm looking for! If I didn't stop looking for it after like step 4 of your excruciation process it must be vital to whatever I'm doing. I understand the advice about not freaking out, but come on. You're writing a book for people who want help finding things, isn't "sometimes you fail" a bit of a cop out? That's like an art instruction book guaranteeing results and at the end admitting that some people just suck at art.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Ceaze This, Honkus.
So I received a cease and desist notice in the mail yesterday from Wyeth Consumer Healthcare demanding that I immediately discontinue the use of their intellectual property in a slanderous and unauthorized manner. A little disconcerting, sure, seeing as how I've never heard of this company nor am I sure how I could possibly be stepping on any toes. But, these days all it takes is a little Google to find out that they're some kind of drug company; probably the kind whose slogan is "we keep you alive" or "you'd poop your pants without us". And they make half the things in your bathroom despite the fact you've never caught a whisper of their existence. Anyway, it turns out that they're the makers of Advil and Robitussin, the latter some of you may realize from an online drug identifier is marked with an "AHR 8602" on a translucent yellow pill. Yep, its the placebo, and apparently they've taken issue with my use of it for this purpose.Whatever, I'm sure lots of people have taken issue with this site, and I'm not about to start sweating it now. Fact is I don't make any cash off of this site so I should be well covered by some typa fair use or education clause. Second off, this isn't be a trademark issue because I can't imagine an "idiot in a hurry" alive who'd see this site, look up the pill code, wikipedia Robitussin and then assume I'm affiliated with a massive pharmaceutical manufacturer. So suck it, Roy Guilroy Esq; yeah I know you're a DP reader, how else would you know I'm using Robitussin in an "unauthorized and slanderous" manner? Bam; dealt with. I'm not going to court and I'm not redesigning a logo. This legal stuff is easy, maybe I should hang up a shingle. I hear roofing is more challenging.
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