Month: March 2006

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Lost – Bangui connection

Heard a funny commercial on the radio today! "What’s the question on everyone’s mind? Is there a new episode of Lost tonight? YES!" Very funny.

So, want to see what the island of Lost is shaped like? Follow me. This ride is approximate 10 minutes long. You will need Google Earth installed on your computer.

  1. Let’s do some research. Go to Blingo (aka Google with prizes) and search for "Bangui"
  2. Choose the wikipedia link (shortcut)
  3. Now that we’ve learned a bit about Bangui, namely that it is a "commune or federal district in the Central African Republic," let’s return to Blingo and search for "Bangui Magnetic Anomaly" Peruse the links and gain a little background insight.
  4. Open Google Earth and search for "Bangui" which should put you in Africa
  5. While on Bangui in Google Earth, search for "4 8 15 16 23 42" (latitude 4° 8.15 longitude 16° 23.42)
  6. Put the check back on Bangui and zoom out to see that both searches are in the same region. The numbers are just left of Bangui where the meteor hit.
  7. Let’s find the antipode for the coordinates 4 8 15 16 23 42, that means the exact opposite place on the earth. Search for "-4 8 15 164 23 42" (180-16 = 164) As you zoom out you should start to recognize the spot as being a point between Australia and LA if you were 1000 miles off course.

BTW, The map picture in step 2 is what I conjecture the writers have based the shape of the island on. I think this trail touches on many potential sources for several of the story lines we have seen.

Nexus originally posted theory somewhere and reposted it on 4815162342.com. Click more to see the original post.

Continue reading Lost – Bangui connection

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The deadlines are here

So today is a very, very important day to me. I wanted to wake early but the sleep was necessary. In order to see this day through I planned it out by hours. 8-9 x would get done; 9-10 y will get done and so forth. Already I am behind because of factors I could not predict or plan for. There is much to be lost today.

New Lost tonight! If I can squeeze in the time, I have something juicy to post also!

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I quit watching Rocketboom…but I’m back

Since I discovered Rocketboom on September 27, 2005, I had not missed an episode until they changed formats to the wide screen hd format. After that I found the video so choppy and the sound so broken that I had to quit watching. Yesterday I tried again and was pleasantly surprised to find that every played smoothly. I don’t know if RB changed something or if my Quicktime upgrade fixed things or perhaps Comcast cleared up some noise on the line. I’m returning to my daily 3 minutes of Amanda Congdon.

Oh, I should clarify why I watch Rocketboom. A friend of mine said, "I don’t get what [Doug] sees in Rocketboom" and went on to conjecture that perhaps I was hot for Amanda. Actually, Amanda frequently reminds me of my sister so the whole being hot for her would be a bit yucky. I’m hot for Cathy. I find the Rocketboom format to be intriguing. It is not so long as to feel like I’ve wasted time. The stories are just the right length providing enough detail to be amusing or interesting without dragging on. When I want more, the story is linked to more detail and does not open in a new window (I often go to the story and still return to RB contrary to the fear of most designers that "if you send the user away from your site, you won’t get them back" which leads to popup windows or frames). The video is high quality and well edited. The stories are typically ahead of msm, digg (but not long ahead), and some of the other hot spots. Long and short, it is the content and the format of the program that grabs me.

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Today’s Cool Links

Is MySpace a fad?
A lot of folks have asked me “What went wrong with Friendster? Why is MySpace any different?” I guess i never directly answered that question, even though i’ve addressed the causes in other talks. Still, i guess it would be helpful to piece some of it together and directly attend to this question.
…
MySpace is not the same as Friendster – it will not fade in the same way. Friendster was a fad; MySpace has become far more than that. If it doesn’t evolve, it will fade, but MySpace is far better positioned to evolve than Friendster was. That said, i think we’re seeing a huge shift in social life – negotiating super publics. I kinda suspect that MySpace teens are going to lead the way in figuring this out, just as teens in the 60s and 70s paved the way to figuring out globalized life with TV. I just hope law doesn’t try to stop culture.
Cold War bunker found in Brooklyn Bridge
(This on the heels of me watching Johnny Mnemonic) NEW YORK (CNN) — New York workers have discovered a trove of Cold War-era supplies within the masonry of the Brooklyn Bridge, a cache meant to aid in survival efforts in the event of nuclear attack. …employees were conducting maintenance on the structure Wednesday when they found the cache on the top floor of a three-floor space inside the bridge’s base… containers were marked with two dates notorious in the annals of the Cold War: 1957 and 1962 and "To be opened after attack by the enemy." "Could it have been a bunker for the mayor? We don’t know."
Men’s strange requests
Video of Big Foot
How NOT to be a man
(This one will make you mad) Are all of you out there following the story about the smug frat-boy asshat who filed a lawsuit claiming that men have the right not to pay any support for a child they fathered by accident?
Moore’s Law of Razor Blades
Expect 14 bladed razors in 2100
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Names on my brain

  • Judy Theg
  • Withers Morgan (Wiz)
  • Keith Moore
  • Jack Dungara
  • Chris Jepeway
  • Brian Larose
  • Sharon …

You were each quite influential. Apologies on misspellings. Oh, and most of you were mentioned by name in last night’s Knoxville Aspergers Support Group meeting.

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As the snowball goes

From roughly the age of 9, when I discovered the joy of rolled coins and the concept of coin collecting, until December of 1997 I knew exactly how much money I had. At one point I even kept a special account in Quicken for petty cash.

Up until December of 1997, despite accumulating substantial debt, I had never missed a payment or been late on a bill.

How is it that nearly 10 years later I sit on a pile of unopened mail nearly 6 years old, receive daily phone calls from crass bill collectors and lawyers, have threatening conversations with the mortgage company, and stare dumbfoundly at ultimatums from the IRS?

A little bit of a breakdown
I said breakdowns come
And breakdowns go
So what are you going to do about it
That’s what I’d like to know

Frankly, I slipped. I fell. And society eats its own! I’ve tried to stand up again but the pack keeps knocking me down. It is real easy for people to offer advice about things they don’t have to face. The truth of the matter is there are no simple solutions.

When you are running the marathon like everyone else, things are fine. The refreshments table is full and volunteers hand you Gatorade and snacks. Services are offered to you to help you along the way: "You can skip this block and rest a bit. In return you’ll run an extra block at the end of the race but because you were able to rest you’ll still finish ahead." But as you fall behind you start to notice the refreshment tables are looking bare. Trash liters the street. Most of the volunteers have gone home. The ones that remain are cleaning up the mess the runners made and only grimmace and curse under their breath at you. The judges penalize you and add blocks to the end of the race without allowing you to "rest a bit." Already you have to run 4 times as hard as the other runners just to catch up yet they add more and more blocks. Short cuts are tempting but have hidden detours, pitfalls and, if caught, substantial penalties. Occasionally golf carts are seen parked on the sidewalks but no one offers to give you a ride to catch up with the rest of the runners. Why should they? You are inferior. But you know that given the opportunity, you could not only run with the pack but could lead them into greatness! Still, the judges often stop you to have you fill out paperwork explaining why you are so far behind. You write furiously knowing the gap between you and the last runner only gets larger, and the further behind you get, more judges want to stop and question your lag. You start to forget why you entered the race in the first place. The dream of winning, even the dream of crossing the finish line, has vanished. You run simply because stopping is not an option.

Update: Of course Philip would post something applicable yesterday. Now where’s my helmet?

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What kind of stressors do you have?

  • 3 different government agencies want paperwork from me now (would be easy if I wasn’t 6 years behind on the paperwork)
  • Mortgage company wants some paperwork done now
  • 4 clients want their work finished now
  • 3 different recruiters have hot fulltime job opportunities and want my plate cleared and need paperwork now
  • The kids need my attention now
  • I want to crawl under a rock and hide now
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What’s wrong with Blogger?

Are you having problems with Blogger? This error should give a clue.

450 Write error: No space left on device

Why have they allowed a harddrive to remain full for a week instead of fixing the problem? Simply put, Blogger does not have customer service and does not care about its customers. I highly recommend WordPress over Blogger. I will happily help anyone move from Blogger to WordPress. Cathy has moved.