Category: General

Our state qualifying tournament was tonight and I’m glad its over with. It was harder than the state tournament will be. That oddity is due to how the schools in the sections stacked up. We had Edina and Eastview in our section, and those schools alone had enough to fill up most of the final round of the state tournament. Tim Hogan took 3rd and qualified to the state tournament, and I’m happy with that. At sections, all that matters is that you qualify. Tim took 2nd last year and won the state tournament, so I’m not too worried. We have a month to work on it.

Last night I attended a lecture by Brian Greene, the author of An Elegant Universe and the host of the PBS special of the same name.

Without going into too much detail (not that there was much detail presented) it was about super string theory and current attempts to rectify the problems with relativity and quantum mechanics. A good chunk of the audience were students there because their teacher told them to show up, a small chunk were professors, and the rest were like me.

I got a whole slew of DVDs this week. Something I haven’t done in a while. Now that I have DVD drive on my PC, I’m able to watch films while doing other things. Today I watched “The Great Ziegfeld”, “Mutiny On The Bounty”, and “Mrs. Miniver”. All of which were Oscar winners for best picture (1937, 1936, and 1943 respectively)

“The Great Ziegfeld” really wasn’t that great. It was a three hour movie with a bunch of big song/dance production numbers, which back in the day I’m sure was a big deal. “Mutiny on the Bounty” was actually pretty good. Charles Laughton was great as Capt. Bligh and should have won the best actor oscar over Clark Gable. “Mrs Miniver” was very suprising. Its a movie you never hear about and has never reached the status of a great, classic movie. The movie is obvious wartime propaganda, but its good propaganda. The movie was very pedesterian, except for two really good scenes: the miracle at Dunkirk and the night of the bombing raid.

I have a few other Oscar winners I want to get through this weekend. “Schindlers List”-1993 (no, I’ve never seen it and it just came out on DVD), “You Can’t Take It With You”-1938, and “Grand Hotel”-1932. That should only leave me with a few Oscar winners which I haven’t seen.

Bietz posted these questions on his site. I shall answer them here:

1. Your favorite song with the name of a city in the title or text.
Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn

2. A song you’ve listened to repeatedly when you were depressed at some point in your life.
Alone Again by Gilbert O’Sullivan

3. Ever bought an entire album just for one song and winded up disliking everything but that song? Gimme that song.
Album: Best of Mountain. Song: Mississippi Queen

4. A song whose lyrics you thought you knew in the past, but about which you later learned you were incorrect.
Papa Was a Rodeo by The Magnetic Fields (big suprise actually)

5. Your least favorite song on one of your favorite albums of all time.
Mother by the Police on Synchronicity

6. A song you like by someone you find physically unattractive or otherwise repellent.
Ace of Spades by Motorhead. Lemmy is an ugly man and there is just no way around it.

7. Your favorite song that has expletives in it that’s not by Liz Phair.
Asshole by Dennis Leary

8. A song that sounds as if it’s by someone British but isn’t.
Elenore by The Turtles

9. A song you like (possibly from your past) that took you forever to finally locate a copy of.
That’s Just What You Are by Aimee Mann

10. A song that reminds you of spring but doesn’t mention spring at all.
Finale from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. I think the spring imagery comes from Fantasia 2000

11. A song that sounds to you like being happy feels.
I know its not very original but Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin

12. Your favorite song from a non-soundtrack compilation album.
Here Comes The Sun by Joe Brown from The Concert for George

13. A song from your past that would be considered politically incorrect now (and possibly was then).
Turning Japanese by the Vapors

14. A song sung by an overweight person.
Two Out of Three Aint Bad by Meat Loaf

15. A song you actually like by an artist you otherwise hate.
Nothing Compares 2U by Sinead O’Connor

16. A song by a band that features three or more female members.
Hand Grenade by Team Dresch

17. One of the earliest songs that you can remember listening to.
Playground In My Mind by Clint Holmes

18. A song you’ve been mocked by friends for liking.
Most recently its been Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne

19. A really good cover version you think no one else has heard.
Beginning to see the light by the Velvet Underground done by Liz Phair or
Freebird by Lynnard Skynard done by Phish

20. A song that has helped cheer you up (or empowered you somehow) after a breakup or otherwise difficult situation.
Cast your Fate to the Wind by vince Guaraldi

If there is room:
21. A song you’ve listened to while making out.
Midnight Train to Georiga by Gladys Knight

22. A song not in English—preferably a foreign-language version of an English-language hit.
Sie Lieb Dich by the Beatles

In my previous post, I mentioned getting the latitude and longitude choordinates for my house. I tried taking my laptop out with my USB GPS, but it was snowing a little, so I scrubbed that mission. I put the laptop on my desk to let it charge up and forgot about it. I left the GPS and mapping software run figuring I’d need it later.

So just now I notice that the GPS has picked up a signal and was mapping. The GPS has never picked up a signal inside the house before, but it was near a window this time. This was the pattern it picked up:

Note how all the data points run north/south. Almost all of the data points are yellow, which means it could only latch on to the signal of 2 satellites. The line is a few hundred yards from where my house actually is. I don’t know how accurate the map is for this neighborhood.

The interesting thing about the north/south line is that its sort of visual proof of triangulation. With limited data, you can’t tell for sure where you are, only that you are on some line. You need a third source of info to get that line down to a point, and a fourth signal to get your altitude. The more sources you get, the better you can extrapolate your position. This screenshot is unique only because its hard to get data this weak on a regular basis. Usually you either get a strong signal, or none at all.

I’ve never been a big business card guy. I know the exchange of business cards is norm when meeting people in business situations, but I’ve never carried them with me. They always got bent or something, which looks worse than not having a card at all.

But last night I decided it might be a good idea to carry some around. I don’t know why, but i did. The thing is, I have no real business to hawk at the moment, so what would I put on a business card, or a non-business card as the case may be?

Well, obvisouly your name and your phone number are a good start. I have no home phone anymore, just a cell phone, so that’s all I got for that. I have no fax number, so that’s out of the question (faxes are too 1980’s). You got to have your email of course. As I have a website, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to put the URL on it. It is the 21st Century now, so you should also put all relevant IM information on it: ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo. I have an ametur radio license, so that could go on there too. You should have a physical address so people can mail you stuff (9 digit zip of course), and because we do live in the space age, why not put your latitude and longitude on there as well? (I’ll have to set up the GPS and go outside and get the exact choordinates today)

Put it all together and I think you got the geekiest business card ever made.

BTW, does anyone have Skype installed? I have it on my main machine, but have yet to use it because I don’t know anyone else with it installed. I’d like to play with it if nothing else. You can search for me via my email address in Skype.