 |
On the way to work, I had a funny moment in traffic this morning. While stuck as usual in the north interchange, I noticed the license plate on the car in front of me: 099 BHG. To amuse myself, on the spot I declared that it stood for Big-Haired Girl. Then I looked at the driver and, wouldn't you know, it was accurate! She had poofy 80's-style hair all over the place.
With all the "destruction" projects all over Arkansas freeways, I see electronic road signs a lot. They themselves don't annoy me (I rather think they're pretty cool), but the destruction zones do. I've always secretly wanted to hack my own messages into one of them, but wouldn't dare on a current, on-going project. I came across a page today where a guy details doing exactly that on a couple of those signs left after a project was finished. It's hilarious:
"Electronic Road Signs and Me"
[Post a Comment]
This weekend, Carolaina and I went up to Melbourne for the yearly get-together her Dad's side of the family have during the Pioneer Days festival. About half of the family members couldn't make it this year, so it was a lot less crowded than usual. We stayed in the Ashley House Bed & Breakfast and really enjoyed it again. Unlike last time, the room we were in cost slightly more so I didn't feel like we were cheating them by having to pay seemingly so little. Usually when we stay at Grannie's house, it's difficult to get to sleep both nights because of the evening dances (with live country hick redneck music) on the court square a short distance away. The Ashley House is a little further away--just far enough to not hear it from the room. It didn't much matter anyway, since Saturday night got rained out.
Speaking of all this rain, I should be thankful for it, but I wish the weather would settle down a bit. If it must rain, fine, it should. Even when it has been clear, though, the atmosphere is so unsettled that stargazing through the scopes has been more difficult than usual for the past two weeks. It's hard enough to see the fainter (and more interesting) objects here in town as it is. I just wish it would be the weather would be clear and settled each weekend.
This coming weekend, Carolaina and I will attend the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society meeting. We joined the group over a week ago, and would have gone to the Astronomy Day event, but had to attend Pioneer Days instead. After looking over the directions to the club observatory, it seems far enough out to get away from the overwhelming light pollution from Little Rock. I certainly hope so, anyway.
My mp3 player should arrive any day now!
[View Comment or
Post a Comment]
Every once in a while, I get a little political here in my blog. Last time, I didn't try and track down all the places where I'd heard or found the bad things Bush has done or is doing. Today I came across an article on some site that referenced a report put out by the Cato institute. Normally I don't pay much attention to political stink-tanks, but this report is a good one. In it, they detail exactly and how much Bush has stomped all over the Constitution and everything it stands for. From the site:
Unfortunately, far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad, a view that includes
- a federal government empowered to regulate core political speech—and restrict it greatly when it counts the most: in the days before a federal election;
- a president who cannot be restrained, through validly enacted statutes, from pursuing any tactic he believes to be effective in the war on terror;
- a president who has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as "enemy combatants," strip them of any constitutional protection, and lock them up without charges for the duration of the war on terror— in other words, perhaps forever; and
- a federal government with the power to supervise virtually every aspect of American life, from kindergarten, to marriage, to the grave.
Since the web is so ephemeral, I've copied the PDF to my site. Here you go, if you're so inclined:
I've believed for a few years now that we're increasingly living in a police state. This article shows exactly how and why.
[View Comment or
Post a Comment]
Last night we finally had a chance to do some star-gazing in well over a week. I'm still annoyed that I didn't feel well enough Saturday to take advantage of the clear skies that night.
I'm quickly realizing that our new telescope isn't much better than my old one for viewing the planets. Sure, you can put in the highest-power eyepiece and over-magnify them to an acceptable size; assuming you can even find them in the super-narrow field of view it allows. That's one of the few things that disappoints me most about the new scope--I can't see the Cassini Gap in Saturn's rings. Despite it having a 130mm/5" reflecting mirror, it just doesn't quite have enough light-gathering ability to make out that level of detail. I did manage to see a hint of it and the dimmer outer ring, though, but it required looking at it funny.
Instead, this scope does seem perfect for viewing Messier objects. Every time I direct the scope to slew over to any of them, they're immediately centered and viewable--I don't have to do any more minutes-long search to find & center them in the eyepiece. Before we got this scope, I was familiar with the terms "globular cluster", "open cluster" and other astronomical objects and had seen pictures online and in books. After seeing them with my own eyes, though, they've become living and real things to me now. I'm also now hyper-aware of weather conditions since it dictates when we can and can't go stargazing.
I'm almost certain that light pollution is also affecting what/how we can see. I'm so annoyed by the stadium-class floodlights over at the dollar store, the bright lights and sign at Pizza Hut, and the well-lit gas station down the street. Then with the trees all around, it's amazing we can see anything at all from our backyard. Carolaina and I are seriously considering buying a cheap tent and air mattress so we can camp out overnight at star parties (where allowed) and on the farmland at my parent's place. We can sleep right there and not drive a long distance home while half-awake. That way, we don't have to worry about how late we stay up stargazing, or trees being constantly in the way, or the skies drowned out by those who want to turn night into day.
[View Comment or
Post a Comment]
Yesterday afternoon I went grocery shopping and ended up spending about half as much as we usually do. Part of the problem was that there seems to be even less available of the low-carb foods I've always bought. It's starting to get really bad now. They did have one last banged and beat-up box of a low-carb soy milk, but it wasn't the brand or the tasty flavor I like that they seem to no longer carry. I did find one last half-smashed loaf of my low-carb bread, so I grabbed it. The way the bread was stacked on the shelf, it appears that they may not be getting much more of it, either.
After visiting other grocery stores in town, we did manage to find more of the bread, so we bought 3 more loaves. Carolaina said it should keep in the freezer just fine. At each place, I also searched in vain for more low-carb cookie and brownie mixes, but couldn't find any of those either. The few boxes we have left may be the last of it for us.
Luckily, the Internet comes to the rescue. The first (and best) online store I found with Google should be able to fill in the gap. They seem to have what I want, or a really good subsitute if not.
We've also started creating our own low-carb wraps like those you can get at Subway--and they taste just as good (if not better). I'll post details on those later.
Saturday night was a really clear night for observing, and I wanted to take our new telescope out, but sinus allergies had me nearly completely debilitated. I didn't feel like trying to move or do anything at all. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to taking the new scope out to my parent's place and attempting to see some deep-sky objects.
[View Comment or
Post a Comment]
|
|
