STP Update

STP. Seattle To Portland. Bike ride. 200 miles in 2 days. July 15th and 16th.

That's the plan. Barb and I have been "in training" the past couple of months, which means we ride our bikes. A lot. Like we're up to near 60 miles each weekend day. I plan on doing 75 mile rides next Saturday and Sunday.

On the plus side, I'm in pretty good shape, my butt doesn't hurt so much when riding the 50th mile, and it's great to cruise along and view the scenery. It's nice to have a partner like Barbara to ride with. And I love my bike, and have enjoyed riding for forty years. But man, I'll be glad when the STP is a fond memory, and I can get back to riding my bike like a regular human being.

Jack Eye

Yeah, well, you should see the other guy.

This is not a case of "Jack Eyes", a phrase coined by the irrepressible Santa Barbara Kid, Lori T., i.e. a kind of glazed eye condition caused by quaffing large quantities of Jack Daniels. No, it is the aftermath of an excrutiatingly painful procedure for removing an infected cyst inside my eyelid.

Just wanted to share that with you. You're welcome.

24

I just finished watching the last 24 of the season. Fuck.

House Votes To Build 350 Miles Of New Fences - Around Nation's Ballparks

Spurred by citizen outrage, House representatives voted unanimously today to increase the height of the fences around baseball fields in all major league ballparks.

"This isn't about keeping immigrants out," said Jose Serrano (D), 16th District, NY. "It's about keeping that bastard Barry Bonds from tying Babe Ruth's home run total.

"Hey Bonds, break this record," said Serrano, gesturing at his pant leg.

Senate Votes to Enact "Immigrant Exit Exam"

As part of far reaching immigration reform legislation, the Senate today voted to include a provision requiring all potential immigrants to pass an "Immigrant Exit Exam", which would demonstrate that the potential future US citizens had at least rudimentary English language skills, a basic knowledge of American law, and leanings toward the Conservative Republican way of thinking. Passing the test will allow the immigrant to "exit" their current country of residence.

Test centers, spaced about 20 miles apart along the proposed 350 miles of new fencing on the Mexican border, will be set up to accommodate the expected hoards. The so-called Minutemen watchdog group has volunteered to administer all testing.

"We're a nation of immigrants," said Republican John Cornyn of Texas. "And by God, we should be a nation of Republican immigrants."

Fun With FEMA

The latest t-shirt from my friend ML, just back from the New Orleans Jazzfest. I'm shocked, just shocked I tell you, that such disrespect for a government agency still exists in NOLA.

Into the Pixel

Rather than waste your time going to a Lakers playoff game, uh wait, oh, they're out, that's right, head across the freeway from the Staples Center in LA and go to the Convention Center.

There you'll find Into the Pixel, which is a juried exhibition of the art of the video game, curated by experts from world-renowned art museums, cutting edge galleries and interactive industry veterans. So says their website anyway, and some of the artwork is fabulous indeed.

Cleanliness is Next to Intelligent Designliness

I rarely discuss work, but sometimes important stuff happens.

Along with my usual routine, I belong to a “Community of Practice” (CoP), a collection of subject matter experts comprised of an assortment of employees working at company sites all across the country. We try to help each other. A typical mass email request goes like this: “Say, does anyone have test data on fatigue properties of thermal shielding material at the 120,000 foot level?” Someone usually has an answer.

Except not today. Last week was Bring Your Child To Work Day in our Unmanned Systems site in Rancho Bernardo, and there were various activities involving modeling clay, and, much to the chagrin of the site Facilities Engineer (“I wasn’t informed!”) thirty-eight new tables are now stained with clay, impervious to any of the standard cleaning fluids on hand.

So the Bat-Signal was sent out to the CoP: “Does anyone know how to get rid of this god forsaken clay? Otherwise you engineers owe us Facilities guys $457.00 times 38 tables, see?!”

I’m sure a solution will avail itself. My guess is, a watered down mixture of the clay itself will act as a cleaning agent and get rid of the clay stains, but the irony of a collection of eggheads spending their time pondering this question rather than designing the next great space transportation system will remain.