An entire week with little to no traffic.

(Excepting, of course, the WVU-Pitt game on Thansgiving.)

Ahhhhh….

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

Here’s a surprise.

I’m pure nerd.
(more…)

And memer?

9862 words so far. That’s 9 chapters and a prelude, and no where near the end of the story.

Though I’ve been stymied for the past week, because I was writing 2464 words for this.

As someone who works with technology on a regular basis, I don’t trust it in the slightest. Thus, I always e-mail copies of my important documents to myself. (As mentioned previously) I’m currently working on a school paper on minorities and end-of-life care.

I was quite startled to see the ads that Google deemed relevant to my e-mail.

And I’m still a page and a half shy of the upper limit for the paper. Though I have to say that if they’re that good, I’ve had some other papers that could have used a thorough trimming.

I’m writing a paper about end of life care and minority groups, and I have a question about terminology.

Some papers use the term “African American” others (fewer) use “Black” and I am unsure which term to use. My preference is for “Black” simply because it’s shorter and sounds equivalent to “white” and “Hispanic” and “Asian” which are the other terms I am using. (I have other problems with Hispanic, primarily that I think it’s way to inclusive–how can you say that a Cuban immigrant is equivalent to a Mexican immigrant is equivalent to a Colombian immigrant. Then it’s not like Polish immigrants and German immigrants and Irish immigrants are anything alike either, so at least we’re consistently broad.)

So is there a preferred term? Is one term more or less offensive than another? (And just out of curiosity, why?)

Here’s a quiz.

It’s 4 in the morning. There is a fire truck stopped in the middle of the road, lights flashing. Two fully suited firemen are out of the truck. You drive up to the scene and:

A) Put your truck into reverse and go back from whence you came.
B) Ask one of the fire men what’s going on.
C) Say to hell with it and drive your truck right on through, despite the firemen yelling and waving at you, pausing only briefly when the downed power line slaps the front of your hood and windshield.

On a related note, a downed and arcing power line looks and sounds a LOT like fireworks, only really close to the ground.

On yet another related note, I love the fact that people don’t secure their wireless networks, so I can sit here and blog about sitting here with no power. (The entire street in front of my house is blocked off, so we can’t go anywhere unless we walk. In the rain.)

A Daily Workout Could Add 4 Years to Life

Yup. They’ve proved what we’ve all known for years. Exercise is good for you.

I just printed out the original Archives of Internal Medicine article, but the synopsis in the Post looks very interesting.

Will this change anyone’s habits though? Probably not. But you can’t say you haven’t been told.

The Innkeeper’s Song (1993) Peter S. Beagle

I read The Innkeeper’s Song several years ago–probably soon after it was published, and I picked it up solely on the strength of it’s cover. I’m a sucker for fantasy books with strong female, and the three women on the cover–especially Lal on the left–look strong. Well, I wasn’t sure about the woman in the middle, but she turned out okay.

Read More about The Innkeeper’s Song

Happy Birthday to my Grandmother!

Okay, I’m not tired of birthdays as much as I am sick of being in the car.

My grandmother turns 88 this year, so I went to Baltimore with my parents to see her. It was a nice although short visit, and we took her out to dinner at G&M’s so I had a good time.

Feel free to mention how wonderful and young my grandmother looks for 88.

Michael’s niece turned 1 yesterday, so after returning from Baltimore I got in the car with Michael and we drove to Charleston. It was mostly family, and we got to spend some time with Michael’s sister and Maggie and Wilson before everyone arrived, so that was nice.

Maggie is absolutely adorable, as all 1 year olds should be.

Plus, I got some half-decent pictures on the way home from Baltimore.

And let me tell you, if you’re driving on I79, I69, or I70 through Maryland or West Virginia, be extra careful. I think I must have seen about 50 dead deer along the side of the road in two days. From personal experience, I can tell you that hitting a deer is no fun at all. Doing so on an interstate must be far, far worse.

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

“It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow too fond of it”
— Robert E. Lee

“A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.”
— George William Curtis

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
— John Philpot Curran Speech upon the Right of Election (1790)

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day Web Page

The Origins of Veterans Day from the VFW

The Great War

WWII Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Digital Memorial for those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq

Data on Veterans from the US Census Bureau

Posting will be light to nonexistant this weekened. I’m traveling with my parents to Baltimore see my grandmother–she turns 88 on the 14th, then a quick trip with Michael to Charleston for his niece’s 1st birthday (and I do mean quick). Mind you, these destinations are in opposite directions, so I’m trying not to think too much about all the time I’ll be spending in the car.

My grandmother’s phone lines are so old that I can only get a 31k connect, so I won’t be wasting any time of my short visit on-line. (I am however taking a laptop. In theory some of this time in the car will be put to good use. In theory.)

1. Steganography
From the Greek, meaning hidden or covered writing

2. Those who keep Kosher and wish to eat at non-Kosher restaurants can resort to several options including vegetarian meals, and ordering their food on paper plates.

3. In Excel, you can merge two columns together using the “concatenation” formula. But I still think it’s easier to use Word as an intermediary.

4. As much worthless information as I already know, I keep discovering that there is plenty I don’t know, and have to find out. This is where having a diverse groups of acquaintances and co-workers comes in handy.