Posted on Leave a comment

Habits Meme Redux

My wife enjoyed my Habits Meme so much that she’s asked for more.

Pocket Rules:

  1. If at all possible, I must carry two quarters, a nickle and a dime so that if I become bored I can balance the nickle vertically on a horizontal quarter; then the dimeCoin Stackinghorizontally on the edge of the nickle; and finally the remaining quarter horizontally on the dime. (click picture to enlarge)
  2. Minimal “pocket stuff”: 2 pocket knives, 1 American Red Cross breathing dam for CPR, 2 sets of keys (1 for each car plus store discount cards etc), loose change (see #1), 1 handkerchief, 1 pen, 1 cell phone and 1 wallet. [I frequently make an effort to leave with only 1 pocket knife, wallet, cell phone and 1 set of keys. I rarely succeed.]
  3. The pocket knives and ARC equipment go in the front left pocket. If the cell phone cannot clip to a belt it also goes in the front left pocket. Loose change and keys in the front right. Handkerchief and pen in the back right. Wallet in the back left except in crowds when it is moved to the front left. Wallet and keys are removed when sitting down for long periods of time. Wallet and keys are always kept together because when I removed only the wallet I kept leaving the house without it.
  4. I prefer to have empty pockets so I used to carry a purse (a “man bag!”) which allowed me to carry more stuff including juggling balls, lock picks, kleenex, eye glasses, sunglasses, a pda, and a journal (just to name a few things). My wife didn’t like my man bag. I don’t have a purse anymore. Once I was denied service at K-Mart because I wouldn’t leave my purse at the customer service counter despite it being far smaller than most of the luggage the female customers were carrying. During the scene that ensued more than one woman approached customer service, unprompted, to offer their purses in order to point out the ridiculousness.
  5. I always pat down my pockets before leaving the house. Two pats to the front pockets; one pat to the back pockets. I can usually tell by feel and jingling if everything is in its place. I’ve been mistaken before and been uncomfortable without the missing item (usually the cell phone) even if it wasn’t needed.

There. Ammunition for my wife to decry OCD.

Posted on Leave a comment

Raggy! Roomba Rooba Roo!

Molly restsI wish I could have had a video camera! Molly was resting on the floor and the Roomba whirs over and bounces off her nose. She doesn’t flinch! Since her long nose is obviously new territory for the Roomba, it immediately kicks into “outline the perimeter mode” where it moves a little bit then rotates back into the barrier and repeats over and over. So here’s poor Molly trying to get a nap and this robot is noisily tracing her snout!

After about the 5th bump she nonchalantly raised her head and let it pass. If you have pets and are concerned your pet and Roomba won’t be friends, I’d put your fears to rest.

Posted on 10 Comments

He Returns

My first post ever was January 5, 2004 so after Blogger deleted my account I took a month off and find it ironic that on January 5, 2006 I started the process of relaunching a new blog. I’ve been very impressed with the variety of things Kristy has done with her blog which made the decision to go with WordPress. I’m further impressed with the simplicity of the WordPress installation and on top of that it has an import function to get your posts and drafts from Blogger into WordPress! It’s a shame I didn’t discover that long before losing all my drafts to Blogger’s indiscretions.

Happy New Year! I expect greatness for 2006!

Posted on Leave a comment

Ana Lucia really pissed now!

Looks like Mayte Michelle Rodriguez will have something more to draw on for her character’s anger. She and Cynthia Watros (“Libby”), both of "Lost" fame, were each pulled over for DUI‘s 15 minutes apart from one another.

Both failed field sobriety tests and were released Thursday on $500 bail each…
Motorists arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant automatically have their driver’s licenses revoked. They are given a temporary license that allows them to drive, but under several restrictions.

Posted on Leave a comment

Men can die

Congratulations ladies! Sex is obsolete.

University of Pennsylvania managed to grow mouse "spermatagonial stem cells" in a dish

That’s the stuff that becomes sperm. And the neat thing is they’ve learned how to alter the genes such that the alterations are passed from generation to generation. In other words now that men aren’t necessary (and they really haven’t been since the invention of the massager), you can guarantee that all offspring are female!

On a side note, treatment for hysteria was first recommended in 1653.

Posted on Leave a comment

Slow down you idiots!

A day or two ago (break into song with me!)
I thought I’d run a light [yellow]
But instead I stopped
And did it just in time.

But a guy in the other lane
Two whole car lengths behind
Pressed down his gas peddle
And ran the red light.

For me the light did change
And I drove the speed limit
Making it to the next light
To have a big surprise.

There sat the other guy!
He risked his life and others.
He caused great distress.
He saved himself no time.

He sped like demon.
He got nowhere real fast.
On top of that he wasted,
He wasted much gas!

He risked his life and others.
He got nowhere real fast.
He wasted much gas.
He saved himself no time….

This morning I was the lead car at a stop light. The light turned green and the other cars continued to come, and come and I went ahead and accelerated and they came. Had I the gumption I could have driven straight through the pack of cars continuing to blatantly run the red light. Does this mean we need red light cameras. Let me exclaim "Hell no"! This happened at the intersection of Kington Pike where the state troopers office sits. What this means is a state trooper or city officer needs to stand in the grass in front of the state troopers office and flag down and ticket the offenders.

We live in a cove. It has 7 houses on it but sometimes this cove (a straight stretch and a circle) seems like a speedway. We are off the beaten path but for some reason we are the world’s turnaround. Sometimes I park our cars obnoxiously in the street so that the strangers are slowed in their efforts to turn our nearly private street into a dragway. Always seems to help at least for a bit. Blogging Baby points our a much more creative solution.

Posted on Leave a comment

I-40 shutdown due to crash

East of Cherry St live.

Cherry St at I-40 live.
Traffic Cameras provided by TDOT SmartWay (per linking policy)

These are the cameras that you see around town. These are not red light cameras. The red cameras have not been installed yet.

A tractor trailor crash has shut down part of I-40

The following content reposted from June 22, 2005.

I’m an observant person. I watched the traffic cams get installed by TDOT. For a long I have intended to call TDOT and ask, "are those cameras available to the public?" Ironically, being a web guy, I never bothered looking online until one of the local news stations mentioned the 75 cameras are online (though by my count I only see 66). Have a look at a picture of a TDOT SmartWay camera.

Additional information about the TDOT $20 million SmaryWay system is available including cameras statewide and information about Tennessee 511 a service that provides traffic information from any phone. TDOT is also in Alabama.

From the Smartway FAQ: TDOT Smartway

Other benefits include:

  • Providing live video to local television stations that is used during their rush hour traffic reports
  • Website access to current construction and incident information.
  • Shorter crash response time by emergency response agencies including TDOT HELP trucks
  • Using the system to assist in AMBER ALERTS
  • Radio reports of current construction and incident information available on the highway advisory radio (HAR) system.
  • Use of the system to complement Homeland Security evacuation plans

Now when you want to leave the house you can check to see if I-40 is jammed or not!