As A Fan of Firefly...

...I'm not ashamed to say that this left me with tears in my eyes.



Big, BIG hat tip to Caleb at Call Me Ahab.

Aaaand, I'm gonna have to add him to the blogroll now, methinks.

...Doomed to Repeat It?

Well, I just finished watching the John Adams miniseries done by HBO and I am happy to report that it is not the waste of $60 that I had been fearing it might be.

However, it does bring up certain gaps in my memory of my history classes. As one "for instance", I remember that we covered a piece of legislation called the Alien and Sedition Act but I could not have said when it was ratified, under which president, nor what it did. This is not the first time that my poor memory has left me knowing that I should know something about something that happened in relatively recent history but unable to recall specifics. I find this to be distressing and I wish to remedy my faulty memory (as best as possible, anyway. I need to find some way to transpose history into mathematical equations. I might be able to remember some of this stuff then).

With this in mind, can someone out there point me in the direction of a relatively unbiased book on American History? I'm looking for more along the lines of statements of facts (i.e. who, where, when, and how) more than editorializing (i.e. why). I'd much appreciate it.

This Delay Brought to You by Technical Incompetency.

Whose you ask? Why, mine, of course.

Egad.

All I wanted was to hook my new 26” Sony Bravia to my computer. Apparently, that was too much to ask. First, I had to get a new wireless router since my old one bit the dirt back in Fayetteville and I never bothered to replace it. Then I realized I had removed my wireless card at the same time to make more room around my GeForce video card so that it could have sufficient ventilation. So, I had to have a wireless transceiver (got a USB version). I then decided that I might as well go truly wireless and bought a wireless keyboard and mouse combo pack.

Now here's where the problems reared their ugly heads. The wireless network was most definitely not plug-and-play. After realizing I was in over my head (again), I called tech support (also known as Jason – but tech support sounds much cooler). Between the two of us, we managed to get my network communicating. Kinda. It turns out that the wireless keyboard and mouse I bought were the kind that use a radio signal as opposed to infrared and it managed to interfere with my wireless network. Wonderful.

So, I kicked the new keyboard to the curb and went back to my old keyboard. Who apparently managed to give up the ghost when I disconnected it the last time. At that point I could just hear the new keyboard chuckling. “I knew you'd be back.” I hooked it up just long enough to get the computer back to it's old video settings and just called it quits.

That was on April 31.

I finally threw up the white flag and have resumed using my flat- and wide-screen LCD monitor. The sacrifices we make.

And while typing this, I realize that my wireless keyboard simply isn't going to work. It's cramped and not nearly as sensitive as my old ergo-keyboard. I've decided that wireless simply isn't for me. I've looked up a nice new ergo-keyboard with USB connection for about $35 online. I'll be ordering it soon.

Fact or Speculation?

It occurred to me while watching the History channel today that they seem to have a propensity to present as scientific fact subject matter that, to my admittedly uncertain knowledge, is as yet unproven and still quite speculative.

Has anyone else gotten this impression or am I just being paranoid?

I Love My Family.

Well, my family's come and gone already. We ended up staying up til 11 watching Jericho on Sci-Fi. I've recently gotten into watching it and there was a marathon on Friday night. Mom and Dad actually seem interested in the story. Sis fell asleep. She was tired and a little cranky that the folks had her drive on the way down.

We had a lazy start to the day Saturday. Mom got up around 7 or so and made breakfast. After that we went running around and I got to see the booming metropolis (/sarcasm) of Greenbrier for the first time. We saw a small shop that advertised rabbits, ducks, and colored chicks. That managed to send my sis on a "little friend" kick. She kept telling the folks she needed a bunny to cuddle since her roommate moved out.

We kept an eye out for tractors for sale for Dad and small pickups for sis. After that we went back to my place and played Uno until lunch. (Do we get up to some crazy fun or what?) Actually, it was a lot of fun.

For lunch we went to a Chinese buffet that a co-worker had taken me to previously that was really good. Something must have happened between then and now, 'cause the food was not that good. It was greasy, soggy, or just plain bleh. Folks didn't care much for it either. Sis didn't seem to have an opinion.

We went back home and tried to find my waterheater. I'd complained to Dad previously that it was set too low and never made it above lukewarm. We searched the entire house and finally found it ... embedded inside the kitchen cabinet corner. There's no way to get at the thing without major effort that would likely end up leaving the cabinets looking like crap. Oh well.

Sis had insisted on a tie-breaking hand of Uno (her and me) and Mom wanted one last chance to win a hand. That hand ended up lasting over half an hour. By the time we finished, it was time for them to go. I helped them load their stuff and saw them off.

About 20 minutes later, I got a phone call from Dad. Mom had left a prescription in the fridge and they were on their way back to get it. I headed out and met them about half-way. We said 'bye again and went our separate ways.

I love my family.

Organic LEDs

One of the high points of the vendor visit that I mentioned in the previous post was a mention of a new technology that I hadn't heard of before. Organic LEDs. Sony has already presented prototype televisions using this technology. This was brought up in the context of using LED touchscreens in place of the old mechanical switches that are the staple of our industry.

One of the things that really excites me about this particular technology is the ability to deposit the organic compounds that the OLEDs consist of onto flexible substrates. I'm sure most of you have seen the sci-fi movies/tv shows where the characters pull out a long but thin device about the size of a large tv remote and pull on one side to unroll a flexible touchscreen. With the research into this technology, those special effects gurus could be modern-day prophets.

I want one.

That Pioneering Spirit

I was watching the history channel tonight, particularly a show on the moons of Jupiter. In it they mentioned that there has been discussion on the possibility of manned missions to some of these satellites.

That got me to thinking about the old chart that we had on the wall of my classroom back when I was in the fourth grade. It had a projected time line on the study of Mars. The best that I can remember, it seemed that the projection stated year 2012 as the date that we send an extended manned mission to Mars' surface.

This in turn caused me to think of Heinlein's novel "Time Enough for Love" in which Lazarus Long hypothesizes on the fundamental nature of humans who were driven to colonize other planets.

I'm sure you're wondering if I have a point to this. I do and here it is. Would you choose to leave the Earth if you were given the opportunity to colonize another world?

Feel free to reply here or in your own blog.

Christmas party

We had both our office and plant-wide Christmas parties today. I managed to eat too much, listened to some rather talented singers/musicians, and got a fleece pullover and a waterproof throw embroidered with the company's logo.

And now I am going to curl up with a book until Supernatural is on and wait for my pizza to get here.

Life is good.

Ah, Jayne

This video is a wildly incongruous mix of song and source material for images, not even close to professionally cut, and the character who is the subject of the video is a backstabbing, self-absorbed moron...

But for some reason it makes me smile.