Journal Entries
Hootooversary
Posted Sep 9, 2017
After eighteen years (and with the aid of a Google reminder) I finally remembered the anniversary of the day I was lead here by a cryptic email from TDV. I'd signed up for info regarding the terminally delayed Starship Titanic.
I'm getting kicked out of the bar so I'll continue reminiscing later.
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Latest reply: Sep 9, 2017
My trip to England, 1985
Posted Apr 21, 2016
June 1985, I went on a school trip, of sorts to Southern England for 10 days. We spent 5 days in London and then 5 more days touring a few other cities; Bath, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Cambridge (I think), and Brighton.
Well through the fog of time I can't quite remember some of the places I took photos. Now, obviously I remember some of these places, like the Battersea Power Station, Trafalgar Square, and Stonehenge. But some of the other views are harder to place, a park full of school kids, a garden, a castle tower, various streets and corners.
Have a look through these and see if you might recognize some scenery.
http://goo.gl/photos/n2osngPTFaWx92aM9
(I would have cleaned up these images a bit more, but considering how many there are and how much retouching most of them need, I'd never get around to posting them. And, no, that's not some weird Instawhotsit filter; that yellow stain is heat damage and age. These negatives spent 30 years in poor storage conditions. But thanks to Instawotsit and other popular photo apps, crossover and heat fog are acceptable and even desirable now.)
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Latest reply: Apr 21, 2016
Happy Hootooversary To Me
Posted Sep 9, 2015
For the very first time in 16 years, with a serendipitous reminder from Gosho's 16th anniversary of landing on our shores, I've remembered my hootooversary before it passed. (It's actually tomorrow, the 9th.)
I first logged on to this site in the Great Logon of 1999 on 9 September. That's a lot of 9s.
9.9.1999
Apparently while most of that rushing crowd was led here by a report about h2g2 being featured on Tomorrow's World, I was lead here by an email (long since lost) from The Digital Village. I had given them my email address (also long forgotten, I think I was on Netcom or maybe even still on AOL 1.0) for information on the long delayed Starship Titanic. (I should see if it's still compatible with my current computer and replay it.)
I didn't stay long when I got here. I lurked for a few months and made just one comment about Traffic Jams ( F16720?thread=14340#p134949 ). I returned to a different place. I had missed the whole Rupert period and found this place under new management with the BBC. But it was still a great place to be. There were so many people here having so many diverse conversations and writing wonderfully esoteric entries.
I've been on this site now longer than I've done pretty much anything else in my life except my current job, which I had only started a couple of years earlier.
I've been here a long time and I don't see any point in leaving now. I saw the beginning of this place and I figure I'll see the end as well. 
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Latest reply: Sep 9, 2015
I'm drinking scotch... for my health...
Posted May 3, 2015
No, really, I am.
I recently read one of many articles out there advocating the health benefits of whisky. It purportedly has similar heart benefits to wine. More importantly, it's low in carbohydrates and that is a problem I have to deal with. I am a fat bastard, there's no denying it. I wasn't always. I was quite thin until my later years of college. I developed the typical beer belly and it just kept getting bigger. I became more sedentary as well, and that just exacerbated the problem.
Anyway, after reading that article and maybe another, I thought "why not? Let's switch from beer to Scotch." Well, a major consideration was how well I could handle it. I'm obviously not accustomed to drinking liquor, so I might easily get drunker faster than I expect.
So, I thought I should test myself. Thursday, I started with a few beers, but then switched to Scotch when I got to my local pub. By the end of the night I felt much more clear headed than normal. Tonight I've had nothing but Scotch and again, I had no trouble maintaining some semblance of coherency.
I'm also currently testing out something I heard on Science Friday on NPR several weeks ago. I've (mostly) stopped eating in the evenings. The story was about an experiment performed on mice where they restricted their eating to 12 hour periods per day. For the mice, they were only allowed to eat at night, as they're nocturnal, but for me I only allow myself to eat between 7:00a-7:00p. The mice in the study, whether they ate the same total amount each day or less, lost weight and had many other health benefits like lowered incidence of diabetes. Fasting for half the day apparently has many benefits, not just to our caloric intake but also for hour hormonal rhythms like our circadian cycle.
So, I have noticed that I have lost about 5-10 lbs. since adopting this 12 hour window for eating. Considering my starting weight, 260, I can't draw any significant conclusions yet, but I'm hopeful. I think cutting out the outrageous amount of carbs I normally get from all the beer I typically drink should have a more noticeable effect sooner.
And if things go as I suspect, I might even be able to get off of my cholesterol medicine. The doctor has said several times my problem has more to do with my triglycerides rather than fats.
As an added bonus, I'll have a huge weight savings in the trailer I pull behind my motorcycle when I go for our annual mandatory motorcycle run next month. A bottle or two of whisky weighs so much less than several cases of beer. 
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Latest reply: May 3, 2015
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons... But mostly kipple
Posted Oct 16, 2014
I thought I'd start a general journal for the miscellaneous thoughts and observations I have that do not fit elsewhere.
If you are not familiar with the title, the first part is the title Vonnegut gave his own collection of miscellany.
>>Dear Reader: The title of this book is composed of three words from my novel Cat's Cradle. A "wampeter" is an object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may revolve. The Holy Grail would be a case in point. "Foma" are harmless untruths, intended to comfort simple souls. An example: "Prosperity is just around the corner." A "granfalloon" is a proud and meaningless association of human beings. Taken together, the words form as good an umbrella as any for this collection of some of the reviews and essays I've written, a few of the speeches I made.<<
Kipple, however is a word coined by Phillip K. Dick in his story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (source for Blade Runner). In his words,
>>Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.
No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot.<<
I'm definitely losing the battle against kipple, mostly in the form of pseudo-important papers like insurance and bank statements, receipts and donation requests. It's all the crap that I should probably sit down and read or reply to, but never will. Stuff I'm afraid to just throw in the trash for fear of releasing PII (Personally Identifiable Information). I need to spend a weekend in a frenzy of shredding and tossing the confetti in the bin with well used kitty litter.
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Latest reply: Oct 16, 2014
Baron Grim
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