BBC wins police Tardis case
This is just a bit odd – the Metropolitan Police Force (i.e. the Bobbys of London) tried to get the rights to the image of the Tardis assigned to them, so they’d be able to get some money from the BBC for all the money they make off the image.
The ElectriClerk
A Mac SE mated with a manual typewriter – and it all works, right down to the carriage return!
about:blank
If you type “about:blank” (without the quotes) into your browser address (at least in IE), it will bring you to a blank page. Don’t know why anyone else besides me would want that, but I figured it out on my own, so I figured I’d share the wealth.
Wired News: Apple’s Stickiest Marketing Ploy
Someone stole a woman’s Apple sticker out of her car. They smashed a window and stole the sticker. I have one just like it in my car, so now I wonder…. is there something else I have to worry about?
FOX Broadcasting Company: 24
Or else! I really enjoyed last seasons “24″, and I hope that this seasons turns out to be even better. Counting down the hours…
When the family went to Roger Willams Park and Zoo in Providence recently, we went for a walk to kill some time. We knew that a good portion of the park was constructed as part of the WPA, but we forget most of the time and just concentrate on how nice the parks grounds are (with the exception of the geese, which are sure to be the topic of another entry at some point in the future).
This time through, I noticed a little WPA marker embedded in the path, and remarked to Jen about how they did some really cool stuff – like the park. Or the bridges on the Merrit Parkway in Connecticut. Or any of the other things they did.
Then I started thinking, where is the WPA now? A quick Google search reveals some interesting articles about the WPA and what they did, but it’s gone – no more.
Roosevelt started the WPA as part of his “New Deal” Cultural Programs. Unemployment was rampant, and The WPA philosophy was to put the unemployed back to work in jobs which would serve the public good and conserve the skills and the self-esteem of workers throughout the U.S.
What the Bush administration needs to do, now that we’re in a “job-less” recovery for our recession (which I don’t think we’re recovering from, but whatever) is to start up something similar to the WPA. I’m not sure there would be too much of a call for web designers and such, but I’d be happy to have a job that pays me enough to cover my bills and lets me get out of the house and feel useful again. It would be nice if that would be doing web stuff, but it doesn’t have to be – I’m a pretty versatile computer geek, so I would be just as happy roaming the schools of CT and fixing their computers/proxy servers/internet connections/mail server/whatever. It’d be useful to the schools, I’d be doing something besides turning into a couch potato with my kids – it’s a win-win situation.
By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
This Library of Congress collection of WPA posters is pretty cool.
Just wanted to let the world know that tonight we ate at a friends house, and we enjoyed fried dough. I normally only partake at fairs and such, but damn it was good. A little butter, a little powdered sugar – or maybe with some nice tomato sauce and parmesan…. Either way, it’s all good!
Good food, good friends – there’s not much more to life. Remember that…
Sphere, by Michael Crichton.
A psycologist is taken by the US Navy to the middle of the ocean and joined by several people he knows – people he picked out for a government team to deal with an “ULF” – unidentified life form. Things get weirder when they are told that there is a spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean. When they start to piece together where the craft came from, things get even weirder. Accidents start to occur in their deep-sea habitat, and people start to die.
The characters don’t get too developed, but that’s ok – most of them get killed off very soon. The plot is reasonable, but there are a few leaps that require a bit too much suspension of disbelief. And if you’ve already seen the movie when you read this, well, it’s not going to leave you too happy – the movie adaptation takes the usual liberties, and it’s just not the same.
Just re-watching The Matrix for the 20th time (and I had to fix the tape this time – ah!) and I have to say that it’s a pretty damn cool movie. The effects are great, the action pretty much non-stop, and even Keanu doesn’t wreck it too bad 
.
So, this morning :emma: had her soccer practice (which is another post altogether, but suffice it to say that when they “play” against the adults, it’s 15 kids massed around the ball) this morning, so Jen stayed home with the other two. I called the house after practice, but got the machine – no big deal, I figured Jen was half asleep – she did work last night, after all.
Then my cell phone rings, and it’s the house calling me. I ask why she didn’t answer, and she tells me that she heard the phone, but she was nursing :abby: at the time, so she couldn’t get it.
:noah:, hearing the phone and somehow knowing Jen couldn’t answer, apparently runs to the living room to get the cordless for her. He can’t find it, so what does he do? He pulls his little chair over to the table the base is on, hits the page button so the phone starts beeping, and then brings the phone over to Jen.
How frickin’ cool is that?
smattering.org >> the friday five
1. How many TVs do you have in your home?
Two televisions, and a TV tuner card in my computer. Three VCR’s (one for each TV, including the computer) and a DVD player in case anyone cares…
2. On average, how much TV do you watch in a week?
Too much. Usually from 7:00 pm ’till the news is on, then maybe a little Letterman or something. Occasionally I’ll watch more during the weekends, but there’s too much to do.
3. Do you feel that television is bad for young children?
Not really. My youngest (8 months) now watchs Baby Mozart stuff (it’s supposed to help her growing mind) and the other two watch it pretty regularly. But not a lot – it’s all in moderation.
4. What TV shows do you absolutely HAVE to watch, and if you miss them, you’re heartbroken?
er, Scrubs, CSI, West Wing are among the favorites. I need TiVo – bad!
5. If you had the power to create your own television network, what would your line-up look like?
The channel would be on cable, satellite and available as streaming video on the web. There would be all kinds of “geeky” shows – like Mcgyver, Misfits of Science, Weird Science, X-Files, all that. I’d also have any of the cool shows that the networks gave up on after a season or two – Seven Days, Space: Above and Beyond, Earth 2, and tons more that are out there. It would probably end up being a lot like SciFi is, but it’d be branded as GeekTV. And I would be the reason that Farscape gets rescued – SciFi management is a bunch of morons for letting that one go.
; "my front steps")
So, there used to be 5 pumpkins on our front steps. As you can see, there are now only three. They took the smallest – which belonged to :abby: – and then they took the biggest, which my father bought for us.
Tonight, I took the remaining 3 inside, since Jen didn’t want to take any chances. It may have been a good thing – I heard voices outside, and the garage motion sensor light was turned on by whoever owned those voices. They sounded a little disappointed – like maybe they’d been hoping to take another pumpkin.
So, what are my options here? Exploding pumpkins? A web cam on the remaining pumpkins so I can print up a giant size photo of the thief and put it on my front lawn with a note saying that he’s wanted and I’ll pay for his capture? Lie in wait and then capture them myself, holding them for the police to arrest for trespassing and pumpkin theivery?
UserFriendly Strip Comments
The comic linked above is an approximation of what the options are. Please feel free to donate to the “help adam keep his cable modem running” fund…. 
Chloe 14:41 on 2002/10/24 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I like that page a lot. (about:blank)