April 2006 Archives
This is a transcript of Stephen Colbert's monologue at the White House Correspondents Dinner:
STEPHEN COLBERT: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Before I begin, I've been asked to make an announcement. Whoever parked 14 black bulletproof S.U.V.'s out front, could you please move them? They are blocking in 14 other black bulletproof S.U.V.'s and they need to get out.
Wow. Wow, what an honor. The White House correspondents' dinner. To actually sit here, at the same table with my hero, George W. Bush, to be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what? I'm a pretty sound sleeper -- that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face. Is he really not here tonight? Dammit. The one guy who could have helped.
A list of things I'd like to get for my motorcycle:
16-2-36
25-11-5
Toecutter organized a ride he called the Central Coast Romp for Saturday, April 22nd, and a bunch of riders on the FJR Forum joined in, including me.
I left at 7:24am, and made good time to the meeting point in Coalinga, at I-5 and SR-198. Head winds cut my gas mileage way down at the end, so I stopped for gas at SR-41, about 20 miles short of the 198. I got to the meeting point at 10:05am, in plenty of time for the scheduled 10:30am departure.
We left around 10:40am, heading west on the 198. I don't do much group riding, but knew the basics of staggered formation and "The Pace", and I think I did pretty well. We made a short stop to collect everyone.
At SR-25, we turned north. The 25 is one of my favorite motorcycling roads, but I've only ever done it north-to-south, which made it fun. After the fun twisties to the south, we synched up at the entrance to Pinnacles, and headed north into the higher speed sections.
Bob took off at FJR nominal speeds to scope out the conditions. About 10 minutes later, we caught up with him on the side of the road - he had hit a rock and had a flat front tire. Luckily, Mark from Visalia had a plug kit and plug-in compressor, and in less than 10 minutes we were all back on the road. We turned off the 25 onto SR-156 to bypass Hollister.
The plan was to stop at a Mexican restaurant in San Juan Bautista, but when we arrived we found the streets around the restaurant closed for a big street fair. We found a backup pizza place, and I grabbed a sandwich and enjoyed some conversation with Jerry and Lisa, Mark, Andrew and Sheri, and the others.
We headed west on the 156 to the 101, then southwest to Marina, Monterey and Carmel. We stopped at the Chevron at Rio Road, across the street from the shopping center I always stop in for coffee, then headed south on SR-1.
The group was more comfortable with double-yellow passes than I normally am, but everything was done safely so I joined in (although Andrew and Sheri made some moves that gave me pause). We made good time, with people moving up and back in line as their whims took them. We hit some really nasty gravel patches that made me really unfomfortable, but we all got through unscathed.
About half-way through, we had split into two groups: me, TWN, and Andrew and Sheri up front, with George, Bob and Barbera, and Rudy hanging back. Our group stopped at the motel just north of Hearst Castle to wait for the others. We used the porta-potties, took pictures, and still kept waiting. After about twenty-five minutes, George and Bob/Barbera pulled in - they had stopped for coffee, and left Rudy smoking back at the restaurant.
We proceeded smartly to Morro Bay, where Tim/TWN collected the heated vest he'd loaned to Barbara. After the unplanned stops it was getting late, and I still had 200 miles plus to ride, so Tim and I made our farewells and headed out.
We made good time to Santa Maria, and stopped for a last tank of gas. Shortly after we restarted, it started to rain, and we fought a light drizzly rain all the way to Santa Barbara. Tim pulled off to go home in Carpinteria, and I kept going. I stopped to make a quick check-in phone call home, then hit the road again.
Traffic on the 101 was weird - a bunch of cars weaving around at 10mph over the flow of traffic. It helped me make good time.
I hit the driveway at 10:45pm, tired but happy. I made a note to buy the same plug kit Mark had - it was great.
They asked if I wanted single- or double-needle, and after some back and forth I decided on single. Last time they used the outside vein on my right arm, which has never had a problem. Until now.
The nice nurse (whose name I didn't catch) inserted the needle, poked and prodded for a thirty seconds or so, and finally decided it was okay. Unfortunately, when it switched from draw to return, it became increasingly painful. Cecilia tried to fix it, but when it switched to return it burned mightily. We finally decided to move to the middle vein on my left arm, which went in without a hitch.
I got some cold packs to use on the bruising on my right arm. I may go for double-needle next time.
From Ibzi:
- The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (metres per second - that is equal to 186,287.49 miles per second).
- It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun's surface to the Earth.
- October 12th, 1999 was declared "The Day of Six Billion" based on United Nations projections.
- 10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.
- The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 mph.
- Every year over one million earthquakes shake the Earth.
- When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, its force was so great it could be heard 4,800 kilometres away in Australia.
- The largest ever hailstone weighed over 1kg and fell in Bangladesh in 1986.
- Every second around 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth.
- Every year lightning kills 1000 people.
When you come in to work at 10:30am, it's because you had urgent personal business that had to be attended to. When the other guy comes to work at 10:30am, it's because he's a lazy, shiftless leech.
One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush
George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.
I added four more months to the top of the Headache page, so it now displays two full years, with daily details for the most recent twelve months, and summaries for the preceeding twelve months.
Also, an overlib box with details from that day's entry are now displayed when you hover over a medication day (in yellow).
From MSN Lifestyles:
- Coin his own nickname.
- Use a wallet that is fastened with Velcro.
- Rank his friends in order of best, second best, and so on.
- Hacky sack.
- Name his penis his name plus junior.
- Hang art with tape.
- Hang The Scream, unless he stole it from the Munch museum in Oslo.
- Ask a policeman, "You ever shoot anybody with that thing?"
- Ask a woman, "Hey, you got a license for that ass?"
- Skip.
The Odds and Ends sidebar section for remaindered links has been updated to use the overLIB tool tips library. In the past, the Movable Type excerpt (if any) was displayed as regular text following each link, and there was no way to determine the category of an O&E link.
Now, hovering over a link displays an overLIB floating tooltip, with the category as the caption and the excerpt as the body. If the excerpt is blank, a single is used to persuade some height into the body of the tooltip. Double quotes in the excerpt are converted to entity reference ".
Since entries in the Odds and Ends weblog have titles that are full link tags, the only way to add the required onmouseover/onmouseout entries was to use the MTPerlScript plug-in, with a function that takes three arguments: MTEntryTitle, MTEntryCategory, and MTEntryExcerpt. The code builds the overlib call using the excerpt and caption, then modifies the title string to include the overlib and nd calls.
Jeremy and Sarah went to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Irwindale. Jeremy went regimental with his kilt; Sarah was a wench. Here's a blurb off their web site:
WELCOME TO ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND!
When you enter the gates of the Renaissance Faire, the world of 16th century England awaits. It is the "Golden Age," the English Renaissance, the time of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth Tudor, who reigned from 1558 to 1603.
To escape the heat and stench of London in the summer, the Queen would often travel to the countryside and visit various towns and the estates of her nobility. Most of her court would travel with her, many of those in her government, and others looking for favor from the Queen. Add a full complement of servants for each high-born traveler and the numbers would often swell into the hundreds. At each stop, the hosting noble or town official would be expected to welcome the Queen with much pomp and circumstance, producing elaborate presentations, plays, masques and the like, for the Queen's enjoyment.
It is one of these "progresses" that brings Queen Elizabeth to the Renaissance Faire. We do not portray a particular year for the Queen's visit, but roughly the period from the 1560's until just before the Spanish Armada in 1588. We are "a chapter, not a page" out of Elizabethan history.
THE QUEEN IS COMING! No other event in your life is more important - no birth, no wedding, no death, no business deal can outshine this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Her Majesty with your own eyes! At the time, seeing the Queen was like meeting the Pope or the President in person. The Queen's arrival also means many visitors to the city (the Faire) with extra money to spend, (which means profit for the merchants). What do you wear for such an event? Why, your "Sunday best," of course! Just as you would adorn your shop or your home for this festive occasion, so should you dress for the occasion as well!
How you dress identifies your "class." The main classes were: the noble class (those holding a title, either hereditary or honorary), the middle class (merchants, lawyers, other "professionals"), and the peasant class (known today as the "working poor"). At the Faire, your station in life will be known mainly by your clothing. For example, a merchant is in the middle class so he and his family will dress according to that station. Food sellers, on the other hand, are part of the peasant class. Entertainers may be either, depending on how they are cast. These guidelines have been prepared to make your day at the Faire more successful.
Some custom notepad generators:
- Simson notepad generator
- Cornell notetaking method:
- Botsko notepad generator
The Cornell notetaking method describes a how to write, review, and retain lecture notes.
Incompetech also has some other cool PDF generators - graph paper, mailing labels, calendars, etc.
A wishlist for motorcycle camping.
- LL Bean Borealis tent
- LL Bean Adventure sleeping bag
- Therm-a-rest Trail Comfort sleeping pad
- LL Bean Adventure Duffle - medium black
- MSR PackTowl - large
The lunch truck isn't coming this week, so after my lunchtime walk I went down to Von's to get a sandwhich. The Cadillac is in the shop, so Justin is using my car, and I'm on the FJR. I put my helmet on the holder that's part of the license plate frame while I went into the deli.
When I got back to the parking lot, I put my bag into the side bag, and grabbed my helmet off the holder. Just as a fluke, I noticed what looked like some foxtails in the inside of the helmet. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a bee...
I stared at it for a half a minute, then decided to put on my glove and swat it out. It took a couple of tries, but I finally got it out.
I hate to think what might have happened if I had just blindly strapped the helmet on with a bee stuck to the inside lining.
My niece Samantha sent me a high school soccer picture.
My friend John at work asked me yesterday how to set up a hanging indent in an HTML document. He's creating stand-alone technical documentation that could not use an external style sheet. I knew it could be done with embedded styles, but I had to look up the exact format.
Here's a paragraph similar in style to the one John was developing, first as raw HTML, then as it looks in a browser:
<p style="text-indent:-2em;padding-left:2em;">
char *lapi_featdetails(char *feature, char *version, int pid);
</p>
char *lapi_featdetails(char *feature, char *version, int pid);
You move the padding for the paragraph to the right, then set a negative text-indent, which only applies to the first line. This is similar to the indenting of the Odds and Ends section of the sidebar, which is done with an unordered list.
Because of the fixed width I use on this page, you can't shrink the browser window to see this in actual operation.
EasyRGB - Color harmonies, complements and themes.
I used this to come up with a complementary color for the background of the menu bar on the new Grey style. It's a big improvement over the first, semi-random color I had chosen.
From time to time I like to burn off some stress by playing a game. Long ago it was minesweeper; lately, I went through a spades phase, and have dabbled in the Hearts included with XP. A few weeks ago, I stumbled on GNU Backgammon, and thought it might be an interesting challenge.
So, the other night I'm playing a 7-point match against the computer while Carole and Mandy play farkle with Jeremy and Sarah. The computer is up 3-0, and after a couple of good early rolls, I double before my third roll.
The computer then proceeds to roll eight straight doubles. Whenever I have a blot anywhere on the board, the computer gets a double that hits my blot. By the eighth roll, I have three pips on the bar, and am blocked off; annoyingly, this program makes you roll even if there's no good reason to, so I get to see my 6-6, 5-5, 6-5 rolls drift off into the ether. I resigned a gammon, and lost the match 7-0.
