Navel Gazing, tips tricks and suggestions
“There is nothing in the long-range forecast that I can see that will prevent Rita from intensifying into a Category 3 or stronger hurricane”
This guy was was right on the money for Katrina and worth listening to as the next big storm starts brewing.
I am a bit distraught at the thought of a major hurricane hitting the gulf coast so soon after the last one. I hope to God we can be ready this time.
Please place your caption in the comments section below.
1. Name one thing you’ve quit:
I guess in a way I quit the army – I took an early out and left 60 days early. I also quit a job at a teleconference center once upon a time, starting a course of jobs that I still hold today as a dweeb supervising a call center.
2. Name something you’ve won:
I don’t join a lot of contests. However, as a dweeb, supervising a call center, I won a coveted Inner Circle of Excellence award for service, then was told the next day, we would be laid off. No trip to the Bahamas for me, baby.
3. Describe a subject in school you do poorly in:
Math. Mathy, mathy, mathy, math. I have some dyslexia and the rules of the mathmatica still puzzle me at times. Thank goodness for Texas Instruments.
4. Have you ever purposely not done your best?
Well, as said before, our call center was set to be closed. During that six or seven months, I barely showed up to work.
5. Do you lead, follow, or get out of the way?
At work, I lead. Weekends, I tend to be a follower, drifting with no real plan. In traffic, I get the hell out of the way.
Dictionaraoke.org – The Singing Dictionary (Dictionary Karaoke – Ahh the sweet madness of “the internets”
Enjoy the music of many of your favorites, as “sung” by the voices that power most of the online dictionaries. It is complicted to explain, you just have click on over experience the magic of dictionary karaoke.
From the site’s “About” section:
One entry found for dictionaraoke.org.
Main Entry: dic�tio�nar�a�o�ke.org
Pronunciation: ‘dik-sh&-“ner-A-O-ke dOt-Org
Definition: This site features parodies of popular songs using karaoke-style backing music with vocals provided by audio pronunciation samples from online dictionaries. All of these songs are available for download in MP3 format on our main index page. Links to other sections of the site can be found to the left. For a more detailed explanation of Dictionaraoke, you can read the press release.
All of the songs are also hosted at Archive.org.
It is time once again to share the internet magic. Ever find yourself surfing the web at work and not wanting someone to come strolling by your desk and wonderin’ what you are doing? Well fear no longer, Ghostzilla is here. Running on the Mozilla engine, Ghostzilla is a tricked out version of the popular browser that allows you to turn any open Window document on your desk into a browser. And then make the browser disappear when you get visitors. It works like this:
Moving the mouse across the screen from the left side to the right side and back to the left side, you are able to open a browser (I usually open it inside of an email in outlook that I am writing.)
Voila, you are looking at a modified, text only Mozilla browser. Scroll around, read the news, look for a job or just drop in on Fark.com.
Someone comes by, simply move the mouse out of the window and the browser disappears and the email you are “crafting” returns – no one is the wiser.
The application will mount on a CD or on a removable drive, like a thumb drive, so it isn’t actually installed on your system.
Be aware that it will still compile a history file, so don’t go to sites forbidden at work (porn, gambling or the like.) But otherwise it is a fully funcitonal browser.
Get a copy, look at some screenshots or just read more about it here.
Please place your caption in the comments section below.
1. What was the first song you remember hearing and enjoying on the radio?
“Tie A Yellow Ribbon ‘Round The Old Oak Tree.” I was 10 and this song for some unfathomable reason, captivated me.
2. If you could only listen to five CDs for a year, which five would they be? (Boxed sets can count as one CD. Sigh.)
Bruce Springsteen, “Live 1975 – 1985”; Springsteen’s “The Rising; John Prine, “Good Days”; Miles Davis, “Almost Blue”; Van Morrison, “Greatest Hits.”
3. What was your favorite year, music-wise?
1989 – 1990. I was out of the Army, back in college, working at a college radio station and really started to pay attention to music during that period.
4. If you could witness one historical music event through all time, what would you pick, and why?
The Beatles playing at Shea Stadium.
5. Do you have a song that never fails to cheer you up? What is it and why does it do that for you?
No one song specifically. However Randy Newman can usually make me happy as can Bob Dylan. If I had to name one song it would be “All I Really Want To Do” from the album “Another Side Of Bob Dylan” a very happy and generally upbeat album.
Well, I don’t think it is Mike Brown, the current head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For a federal agency that has become as important in the last 15 years or so, as we have seen with FEMA, you di don’t hire a lawyer, who has no disaster experience. You don’t hire a college buddy whose last job was as a horse judging association president.
You hire someone with real experience. You hire a former head of the Red Cross. You hire a retired three star general. You hire a retired engineering executive from Halliburton or Kerr-McGee.
You hire someone who knows how and when to rally a tremendous amount or resources quickly to give aid and assistance to whoever is struck by plight and catastrophe.
But what do you expect with a White House completely out of touch with the American public.
I present to you, dear readers, an essay contest. 750 words on your world of coffee and how coffee positively effects your life. Creativity counts. Grammar and puncuation count.
The winner will receive a used coffee roaster! That’s right friends, my 18-month old roaster is available for the asking to the writer with the best coffee-themed essay. I have upgraded to super coffee roasting appliance heaven and I have a great lil’ roaster to pass on to someone else who wants to dabble in a hobby that has fundamentally changed my morning routine. The roaster is well used and has had some wear. It needs a new roasting chamber (Available from the manufacturer for about $6.00) but it is useable. Very much so. And roasts a pot’s worth of coffee in about 5 minutes. The winner will get a full coaching on use.
So, fire up the word processor and get in on the hot, roasting action.
Send your entry to { roy dot brain at gmail dot com } and leave a comment below when you have entered to help fire up the competition.
“In comments on Thursday, Sep. 1, in an interview with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, President George W. Bush said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached.”
In comments to the press on Sep. 3, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff remarked, “That ‘perfect storm’ of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody’s foresight”, and called the disaster “breathtaking in its surprise.”
It’s not our fault,” said Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, in charge of the deployment of National Guard troops in New Orleans. “The storm came and flooded the city.”
Hurricanes are an inescapable part of nature’s way on the Gulf Coast. Nature doesn’t care about tax cuts and fiscal years and budget crunches. Nature doesn’t care that a city of 500,000 people situated below sea level lies in its path. It was certain that New Orleans would sooner or later get hit by a hurricane that would breach the levees. How could the director of Homeland Security not be familiar with this huge threat to the security of this nation? How could the President not know? How could all the presidents and politicians we elected, from Eisenhower to Clinton, not know?
The answer is that they all knew. But the politicians we elect don’t care about the poor people in New Orleans, because poor people don’t have a lobbyist in Washington. The poor people don’t make big campaign contributions, and those big campaign contributions are vital to getting elected. In all of the Congressional and Presidential races held over the past ten years, over 90% were won by the candidate that raised the most money.”
Read the rest at Dr. Jeff Master’s Weather Blog. A damn fine tirade, from a scientist.