March 2007 Archives

A comment on Strange Maps listed this web site, full of interesting historical maps:

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

I watched A Good Year this morning. A little schmaltzy, and tad predictable, but I stayed the extra five minutes I needed to finish it, which says something.

Do neo-con rationalizations for Iraq mirror the discredited ones used to defend communism?

Iraq | Mugged by reality | Economist.com

I've been exercising lately, and reached one of the dubious milestones yesterday — I moved from girly push-ups to regular, knees-off-the-ground push-ups. I started out just hoping to do as many as possible, and wound up doing a full set of 12. By the end of the twelve, my wrists were feeling it, but I made it.

My crunches have been progressing as well. Next, I'm going to make Carole go walking with me.

I was talking with my friend Dale at work today, and told him my theory of the three modern conveniences that seem like needless extravagance until you actually experience them, and then spoil you for anything less once you use them:

• First-class air travel. When my BiL Michael was working as a flight attendant, I got to travel a few times in first class. Cramming my tall body into a coach seat just doesn't cut it anymore.
• Tivo. Watch television on your schedule. Skip commercials. Rewind live TV when you miss something, or want a quick replay of a great hockey move. Regular TV just isn't enough anymore.
• Big monitor space. My conversation with Dale started when he told me about getting a new 24" monitor. I've been telling people that my dual-monitor setup is the only way to go, but until you actually experience it, it just seems like a needless extravagance. Dale is now convinced.

Here's my short list of possible nominees:

• GPS navigation

KING HENRY V
We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

I needed to burn off a vacation day, so I took the FJR and all its new goodies out for a day-long ride, meeting up with Carole in Santa Barbara for sunset on the beach. I tried to do this ride a couple of weeks ago, but got sick instead, and last week Carole was under the weather, but our persistence paid off.

The complete report is on the TCFJR site.

All in all, it was a great day of riding, and sunset on the beach with my girl.

On my way home from work today, I spotted my first 5Y license plate, on a nice red Infiniti at Willard and Garibaldi.

I watched the first episode and part of a second of the mini-series Napoleon this morning. It's got the same air and production values as the Count of Monte Cristo mini-series, but is in English, which makes a big difference. Still, pretty enjoyable, although some of the acting is below par (particularly Claudio Amendola as Murat. His long acting career hints that it might be a language problem in this case). John Malkovich is just right as the understated Talleyrand.

analemma

a plot or graph of the position of the sun in the sky at a certain time of day (as noon) at one locale measured throughout the year that has the shape of a figure 8.

Carole had other things going, so I spent Saturday fussing with the motorcycle. I installed the bracket for the Garmin Zumo GPS, and even shrink-wrapped the soldered spade connectors before attaching them to the barrier strips. I installed my cool new TCFJR personalized plate (thanks, Carole!), which is actually a pain because of the helmet lock bracket. I finished the setup of the Skyway hydration system by drilling out a lid, inserting the hard tube, and threading the long tube into the neoprene cover (which tore up my hands).

Finally, I installed my new Cateye V-1 security enclosure. This took a few tries (including drilling a couple of holes for the diamond RAM base), but I'm happy with the final outcome. The remote audio unit attaches to the bottom of the main enclosure with velcro and a cable tie (routed through pre-drilled holes on the base of the enclosure).

I replaced all my RAM arm knobs with 1/4x20 x 1.5" hex head bolts. Last night I ordered ten high security bolts from McMaster-Carr, along with two drivers. I won't leave the Zumo on the bike unattended, but once the tamper-resistant bolts are on I'll probably be able to leave the V-1 on the bike during a quick lunch stop.

This site has a fun quiz for us geography geeks: type in the names of all 50 states within ten minutes. An extra twist: the names must be correctly spelled. There's no map, no list, nothing to help — only a list of states you've already successfully entered.

I finished with 4:12 left on the clock. I got down to one state with about 6 minutes left, but had to do a mental review to find the last one. I started on the west, and went east, then started on the east, and went west. My final state was Michigan.

For a while I kept typing in Virginia, but it wasn't accepted. I finally checked, and it was on the list of states already entered.

Update: on Sunday, a similar site came up asking for the names of all 245 countries in the world, again in ten minutes. I finished the ten minutes with 143 countries remaining. A few of the misses were for spelling — I couldn't figure out Kazakhstan or Liechenstein in a timely fashion, and moved on. The full list is after the jump.

Joe Cole does his thing, with Elvis in tow. Very cool, as usual.