Category Archives: Life
Two long posts to represent the fallen Towers, WTC1 & WTC2. One shorter post to represent WTC7. Many of the surrounding buildings were damaged by the collapse of the Two Towers. The 22-story WTC3, which was adjacent to both was destroyed. Three nearby nine-story buildings, WTC4, WTC5 and WTC6 were all badly damaged.
Some find it odd that WTC7, which was the furthest, was seemingly not seriously damaged, but then fell on its own nearly seven hours later. As I wrote in the first post today, many of the conspiracy crazies focus on WTC7 as the actual primary target.
As if that made any sense at all. Destroying 316 stories worth of buildings (not to mention nearly 3000 Americans) to take out one office containing supposedly damaging documents? Seems like merely starting a weekend fire in an office a floor or two below would do the trick, if you wanted to not draw attention to the real target. It’s hard to imagine anyone coming up with such a plan. The phrase “utterly idiotic” comes to mind.
In this last post, I want to touch on some details.
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9 Comments | tags: 9-11 | posted in Life, Science
Recently I told you about how, in high school, a casual decision to take an elective added a new direction to my compass. That new direction turned towards a world I had never imagined, and the path along that direction brought me to many joyful and wonderful experiences. For a long time I followed that path towards an imagined future somewhere down the road.
But in college, once again, a casual decision to try something new added yet another direction to my compass. And that path, too, led to joy and wonder. And that path did take me down a road towards my future.
Towards my present.
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28 Comments | tags: BASIC, college, computer guy, Data General Nova, IBM 360, KSR Model 33, punch cards, punch paper tape, safe landing, software | posted in Life
A couple of weeks ago I started writing about a high school English teacher of mine and ended up writing about how I got into theatre (pretty much accidentally). That post turned into the story of finding a completely new direction I never knew existed. In one way or another, that new direction has been part of my compass ever since. At first it was an intended career, but it turned out my career followed a direction discovered much later.
In that post, I mentioned that I would write about the intended subject another time.
It is now another time.
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27 Comments | tags: Arthur Clarke, Cloris Leachman, dark energy, English class, Friendly Persuasion, high school, Phyllis Love, Phyllis McGee, The Nine Billion Names of God | posted in Life
When I woke up this morning, it was 67 degrees in the house and 57 outside. (Fahrenheit, by the way.) Right now, I’m sitting here fighting the urge to turn on the furnace. Or at least put on some socks (I’m a barefoot boy unless I absolutely, positively must wear shoes; I rarely am stocking footed; shoes or nothing, preferably nothing).
Or maybe even just close the windows.
But it’s supposed to warm up to 77 or 78 today, so I’m fighting the urge. I don’t even want to close the windows. I love fall weather, and I’ve been so much enjoying that period between needing the air conditioner to fight the heat and humidity and needing the furnace to fight Old Man Winter.
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14 Comments | tags: cold, furnace, hot, icicles, snow, water, White Christmas, winter, wrists | posted in Life
Those of you who grew up with Rock & Roll probably heard your parents say, “That music all sounds the same.” (The implication: Therefore, it’s crap.)
The funny thing is: To me, their music all sounded the same (and to some extent, still does). No doubt the music of my children will all sound the same to me (assuming I had any (which I don’t (and now it’s not likely I ever will (not that I’m bitter (yeah, right))))).
Truth is, I really have no ear for rap… it, um, all sounds the same to me. That may have more to do with having really bad hearing. I frequently cannot make out the lyrics of songs. Often, for me, the vocal track is just another melodic track that sounds like a human voice. And in any event, rap, to me, is more a form of poetry than of music.
Over the years, I’d noticed how my parents (and other lovers of classical music) could identify a symphony after hearing just a small bit. “Oh, yeah, that’s Foomhauser’s Opus #52 in P-flat Minor.” That seemed amazing and mysterious to me, but then I realized that I can do the same thing with rock. No doubt we can all identify music we’ve listened to over and over.
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17 Comments | tags: Beck, Beethoven, classical music, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Mozart, Peter Gabriel, rock & roll | posted in Life, Music, Philosophy
A few months ago a friend asked me if I had ever read, or seen, The Sand Pebbles. I replied that the closest I’d come was the Mad Magazine parody of the film. My friend felt this was a serious gap in my experience and offered to loan me the book and his DVD of the film.
Two things I should explain at this point. The first is that I’m always open to trying new things. That is, assuming they’re not utterly insane, extremely illegal or likely to cause harm. (Mildly insane, slightly illegal or probably harmless, yeah, okay, keep talking.) I would rather try a new restaurant than one I know, and I’ve turned down many a road just to see where it went.
The second thing is that, as much as I love movies, I’m not real big on war movies or westerns. The friend mentioned above loves both, and has been rather pointed sometimes about the “gaps” in my collection.
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9 Comments | tags: John Wayne, Kevin Costner, Lassie, machinery, Richard McKenna, Steve McQueen, The Sand Pebbles, war movies, westerns | posted in Life, Philosophy, Quotes
I had my first real interview yesterday, and I thought it went very well. Since The Company Gobsmacked me in early August, I’ve applied for 29 different positions. I’ve been casting a wide net, and I know I’m not a good fit for a lot of them, but you never know. The position I found in 2004 under similar circumstances came from just such a wide cast, and it was one of the best I’ve had at TC.
So far, I’m 13-16 on those applications (it was 16-13, but this morning’s email reversed the score). Sixteen have come back with, “Gee, thanks, but you’re not the one.”
Yesterday’s interview was for one of the 16 13 that are still pending. As I said, it’s the first actual interview, although I had two “Information Interviews” a couple of weeks ago. (An information interview is when you sit down with the person who would offer the job and find out a bit about the job — and they about you — but it’s not a real interview. Call it a preview interview.)
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20 Comments | tags: Babylon 5, Häagen-Dazs, ice cream, Ode to a Mouse, Oolong, Pontiac, vapor lock, work | posted in Life, Philosophy
I wrote recently that I have fairly poor eating habits despite much effort on the part of my parents who do have better sense with regard to food.
Part of the problem may have been a counter-lesson involving food-as-reward. We were fairly poor growing up, so getting a pizza (which was a fairly new thing back then) or ice cream was our reward for good grades in school.
I always got pretty good grades in school (although not really for the food reward; I just really liked learning). But food did become associated with good times, not that there’s nothing wrong with that. I seem to have dodged the bullet of using food as comfort, but I have discovered I eat more when bored or frustrated.
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20 Comments | tags: bagels, brown sugar, cheese, Demolition Man, food, hot dogs, pasta, pizza, rat burgers, Tex-Mex | posted in Life
I was on a supply run to the grocery store this morning and was stuck behind a Toyota Camry for most of the way. My trip takes place on two-lane roads that are hilly and curved enough to prohibit passing, so I was trapped. It was a mellow Sunday morning, and there’s no use (ever) letting other drivers get to you. I’m not one to play the tailgating game, but the four vehicles stuck behind me were stacked up tightly.
In fact, once I realized it was a Camry, I started laughing. For a long time now, I’ve had a perception that when you’re stuck behind a particularly bad driver — one that stands out from the usual bad drivers — there is a good chance the car is a Camry. I’ve discovered that I’m not the only one with that perception; I’ve heard others make the same rant.
But it is a fact that there are a huge number of them on the road, and they age well, so odds are high on any car in front of you being a Camry.
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4 Comments | tags: bad drivers, drivers, horrible drivers, LA Story, slow pokes, speed limit, Steve Martin, Toyota Camry | posted in Life, Rant
The other entry for Skydiving Saturday is another USENET post I made to rec.skydiving in August 1999.
And there’s a nice connection to posting these in August as I did with the three last year describing the first and second Tandem jumps and the first AFF jump. The girl friend and I made those two Tandem jumps in August of 1997, so August is the month it all began.
While we started AFF school that September, and finished the following March, the day of jumping described below (one of our most fun times as the drop zone) took place on a very hot day in August of 1999. A lot of things started to go downhill after that, so in a number of ways this represents one of the high points in our lives. It was definitely one of those days to press in your memory book.
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4 Comments | tags: boogie, CASA, rec.skydiving, skydiving, USENET | posted in Life
Logos con carne 