Thursday, June 30, 2005

Funniest warning message today

Formatting a new portable HD today, I got the warning message:



An epic battle is sure to follow. Stay tuned.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Greatest American my butt

I saw a commercial a few days ago for the Discovery Channle's "Greatest American" TV show. Basically, viewers were able to vote on one of 100 people they thought were the greatest American who ever lived. It was down to the final 5. They were: George Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan(!). I was floored. I was offended. I was immediately reminded how dumb Americans are that Reagan could end up in the top 5.

Imagine how floored I was when he was named #1.

I was going to go on and on about it, but my friend Ben said all that needs to be said, and said it well. See for yourself.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Slaving away

So I'm sitting around the office today working on my mail servers. I'm doing a lot of waiting for stuff to happen, so I have time to find stuff and blog about it. Up next....


I friggin' love Google Maps. They've just added data for most of the rest of the world. Cool cool cool.

The slashdot story is here.

Buckingham Palace is here.

The Arc de Triomphe is here.

Make sure you browse through the comments on the slashdot article to see links to other cool landmarks (Vesuvius' crater, Eiffle Tower, Giza Pyramids).

Man I love satellite mapping.
hrmmm....

CNN/Reuters says:

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's eldest son Euan will work as an intern with Republican staff in the U.S. House of Representatives, the prime minister's office said on Sunday.

Wonder if George and Tony spoon when they're in the sack toghther? I bet George is the boy.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Things that *almost* don't need to be said

A sign posted on the door to the community pool at my apartment complex:


If you have diarrhea or have had diarrhea in the last two weeks, please do not use the pool.

Patrons must shower off after using the bathroom before re-entering the pool.

Do not drink pool water.


Friday, June 17, 2005

Darwin '05 baby!

Man, if this dood dies, he's gotta be a Darwin Award winner...

http://www.wtop.com/index.php?sid=532655&nid=25

Man Badly Burned Siphoning Gas From Car
Updated: Friday, Jun. 17, 2005 - 9:37 AM

GLEN BURNIE, Md. (AP) - An 82-year-old man was badly burned after trying to siphon gas from his car with an electric vacuum cleaner while the engine was running.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Why I love my job...but not all the time

Sitting at a co-worker's computer installing a printer, she walks away and begins to tell another co-worker about her case of pink-eye. Ew.

Where do I sign up for hazardous-duty pay?
Oh yeah...and...

Wanted to say thanks to Ben for the little snippet of code that he wrote that pulls my most recent eighteenpercent.net photo and sticks it on top of the column on the right side of this page. Now I just have to find time to go out and take new pictures.

Ben's also got a new blog up (also linked to above...and over in the "People I like" column). Definitely worth checking out. I've heard all of his rants a dozen times (each!), and I'm still gonna tune in ;)
$49,686.60/hour??

Just saw what the hospital charged my insurance company to reset my dislocated finger...$828.11. Thank the gods for insurance.

Re-locating my dislocated finger took one doctor less than 1 minute to do. So by my math, that hospital is making about $49,686.60/hour ($828.11/minute * 60) /doctor. Not a bad take.

To be fair, for that $828.11, I got:

2 hours of sitting in the ER waiting room time.
1 hour laying on the ER bed time.
1 nurse looking at the finger saying "yup, it's dislocated" (1 minute).
1 med student looking at the finger also saying "yup, it's dislocated" (i'm not kidding) (2 minutes).
1 doctor looking at the finger, pinching it a couple of times, saying "take a deep breath", and wrenching it back into place. (1 minute).
1 crappy dried turkey and mustard sammach on soggy white bread, a small gatoraid, and a few other. nibblets in a hospital kitchen box.
3 hand xrays.
2 vicodin.
1 aluminum and styrofoam finger splint (complete with tape).

I know my bills are padded to cover uninsured people...and I don't mind that. But I know it's equally padded (at least) to cover all the frivolous lawsuits that doctors (and everybody else) have to contend with. Anf that annoys me.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Three degrees of Deep Throat

My former office-mate got an email from his dad...It seems former-office-mate's-dad kinda knew Deep Throat. So that makes me only three degrees of seperation away from Mr. Throat. Which makes all of you, just 4 degrees away.

Here's a snippet from the email from former-office-mate's-dad to former-office-mate:

When I began my practice in [name of town] many years ago, I also worked two days a week for two years in another dentist's office in Alexandria, VA while mine was getting going. It was there that I met a very distinguished gentleman through his wife, Audrey, who had been a patient of mine for a year or so. I actually saw this gentleman only a few times in the office, but we hit it off well and he autographed a copy of his recently completed book, "To Dr. Wayne [last name] with every good wish, Mark Felt."

Well. I thouht it was kinda cool.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Random punk stuff

Digging around emusic this weekend I came across a band called the "Daredevils". It was formed by the mid-90's departed guitarits from Bad Religion (a band of which I'm an admitted fanboy). The random association thing that caught my eye was this:

"A couple years after Epitaph honcho Brett Gurewitz exited Bad Religion, he formed the Daredevils with guitarist Gore Verbinski (the Little Kings), journeyman drummer Josh Freese (the Vandals, Devo, Paul Westerberg, Wayne Kramer), and bassist Dean Opseth (Medicine). Formed with the intention to release a number of two-song singles, the Daredevils released one such thing in early 1996 with Hate You. The A-side, a scathing song in the vein of the Soft Boys' "I Wanna Destroy You," was rumored to be about Bad Religion bassist Jay Bentley. Unfortunately, nothing more surfaced from the band. Gurewitz rejoined Bad Religion for 2002's The Process of Belief, which found the band back on Epitaph. Verbinski, who has directed videos for the likes of Bad Religion, furthered his career behind the camera by directing movies such as The Mexican..."

It took me a second to catch it, but Verbinski is probably best known for directing The Ring, and The Pirates of the Carabbean. Who knew he was punk?

So I bought the two songs by the Daredevils. Not as good as BR stuff, but not bad.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

F*cking ouch

Took a digger on a solo Colts Neck loop last night and ended up seriously dislocating one of my fingers. Going over a new log pile at the bottom of the downhill, just past the climb with the diagonal, off camber log crossing. I came down the hill too fast, saw the logs, and slowed down too much. My front wheel caught the top of the pile, and over the bars I go, arms outstretched like Superman (dumbass).

Good samaratan Rick watched the it happen and stopped and hung out to make sure I was ok. Many thanks, Rick.

When I realized it wasn't terminal, first thing I did was reach for the phone/camera. Pics are below. They're kinda yucky, so I'm tying to space out this post so you have to work to see them.

I managed to ride the last 1.5 miles out to the W&OD one-handed. Then I called the girl for a rescue pick-up in Oakton. Many many thanks, baby.

Sitting on a bench on the W&OD for 15 minutes with my hand and busted-ass finger elevated, lotsa people pedal/skate/jog/walk by. Nobody says a word. Only guy to ask if I was OK was riding by on a primer grey Surly singlespeed. I love our little subculture.

Off to the ER. Three hours, one nasty *pop*, a couple of Vicodin, and a splint later and I'm on the way home. In bed by midnight.

Doesn't feel too bad today. I got a pain perscription, but doubt I'll use it. I gotta wear the splint for 2 weeks, then another 2 weeks with the finger taped up. Got a followup doc viit in a week. And typing sucks. But I got some fun pics:


Right after it happened.


After a couple attempts to yank it back into place (good idea that was).


Next to it's neighbor for comparison.


On the desk in the ER. (The flat surface made a nice contrast).