In Suspect Terrain

Large Hadron Collider Webcams

2008-12-15T17:50:03Z

Uh-oh...

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

What Would Superman Do?

2007-09-21T21:25:53Z

Happy Birthday

2007-08-15T18:07:29Z

To athenais, wherever you are...

August Birthdays

2007-08-13T18:23:27Z

Happy birthday, n6tqs.

MST3K Meets Ingmar Bergman

2007-08-04T00:42:33Z

It's your move...

The Ten States of Australia

2007-06-08T18:09:55Z

This map, dated 1838, shows an earlier proposal for the subdivision of Australia into 10 states. It was published by the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in London, and accompanied an article entitled Considerations on the Political Geography and Geographical Nomenclature of Australia.

And if you keep on scrolling down, you will find more than 100 other interesting pieces of cartography. As a self-professed map geek, I find this to be one of the most fascinating sites on the Web.

Over Time

2007-05-01T17:35:54Z

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but it appears to be a beautifully made, if somewhat disturbing, tribute to Jim Henson.

Little Rabbit Foo-Foo

2007-04-29T01:12:47Z

This one is for kalimac...

THE FÚFUMAL.

Happy Birthday

2007-02-14T20:47:55Z

Happy birthday intelligentrix! And very glad to hear that the tornado missed you. Close only counts in horseshoes and with hand grenades...

Birthday Wishes

2006-11-10T17:23:00Z

Happy birthday, redbird!

And the Last Man Standing Is...

2006-11-06T17:53:44Z

Another Lemon Demon classic...

Another August Birthday

2006-08-16T00:21:20Z

Happy birthday, athenais! I hope you are enjoying your day off and looking forward to some Key Lime pie...

Transit Geekery

2006-08-10T01:06:32Z

Various subway systems that I have ridden on several continents:

Got at b3co.com!

Birthday Wishes

2006-02-22T17:26:46Z

Happy birthday, whumpdotcom. Looking forward to seeing you and cynthia1960 at Potlatch!

Cheerful, Funny, and Work-Safe

2006-02-21T17:29:24Z

This video has had me smiling for most of the morning, and I am not a morning person. Good luck on spotting all of the in-jokes...

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/geeks

Back from Florida

2006-02-20T04:54:31Z

shikzoid and I returned from a week in Fort Lauderdale last night. We were retrieved from the airport by u_must_b_joking and Paul WINOLJ, and spent the remainder of the weekend hanging out with them. The purpose of this trip was to visit my mother, but we also managed to see Wicked and the Tutankhamun exhibition during the week, as well as eat dinner with jcbemis and Tony.

It was actually colder in Fort Lauderdale than Seattle for the first couple of days (freeze warnings had been issued for the area in which my mother lives), but the temperatures warmed up and the sun came out for the last few days of our visit. The effects of the sun were rather salubrious, and the week away from work was really needed.

A couple of odd notes. The Fort Lauderdale Center for the Performing Arts, where we saw Wicked, was largely funded by Wayne Huizenga. The official name of the mezzanine level is the Waste Management Mezzanine. There were no bathrooms on this floor... And I am still surprised that a cultural dustbin (thank you, Sir Thomas Beecham) such as Fort Lauderdale is one of only four cities in the United States where the Tutankhamun exhibition is being shown.

The exhibition displayed many more artifacts (and provided a much richer historical context) than the King Tut exhibition of 25 years ago. If you have a chance to see it, it is well worth the price of admission.

And a happy belated birthday to intelligentrix! We are very much looking forward to seeing you in April.

Enneagram Meme

2006-02-20T04:34:06Z

Spot on in certain aspects, way off the mark in others...

the Questioner
Test finished!

you chose CY - your Enneagram type is SIX.

"I am affectionate and skeptical"

Questioners are responsible, trustworthy, and value loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes. Their personalities range broadly from reserved and timid to outspoken and confrontative.

How to Get Along with Me

Be direct and clear.
Listen to me carefully.
Don't judge me for my anxiety.
Work things through with me.
Reassure me that everything is OK between us.
Laugh and make jokes with me.
Gently push me toward new experiences.
Try not to overreact to my overreacting.

What I Like About Being a Six

being committed and faithful to family and friends
being responsible and hardworking
being compassionate toward others
having intellect and wit
being a nonconformist
confronting danger bravely
being direct and assertive

What's Hard About Being a Six

the constant push and pull involved in trying to make up my mind
procrastinating because of fear of failure; having little confidence in myself
fearing being abandoned or taken advantage of
exhausting myself by worrying and scanning for danger
wishing I had a rule book at work so I could do everything right
being too critical of myself when I haven't lived up to my expectations

Sixes as Children Often

are friendly, likable, and dependable, and/or sarcastic, bossy, and stubborn
are anxious and hypervigilant; anticipate danger
form a team of "us against them" with a best friend or parent
look to groups or authorities to protect them and/or question authority and rebel
are neglected or abused, come from unpredictable or alcoholic families, and/or take on the fearfulness of an overly anxious parent

Sixes as Parents

are often loving, nurturing, and have a strong sense of duty
are sometimes reluctant to give their children independence
worry more than most that their children will get hurt
sometimes have trouble saying no and setting boundaries

Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

The Enneagram Made Easy
Discover the 9 Types of People
HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages

You are not completely happy with the result?!
You chose CY

Would you rather have chosen:

AY (EIGHT)

BY (FOUR)

CX (TWO)

CZ (ONE)

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 0% on ABC

You scored higher than 60% on XYZ

Link: The Quick and Painless ENNEAGRAM Test written by felk on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

A Morning Surprise

2006-01-12T03:12:22Z

The first thing shikzoid noticed when she opened the hatch to the crawl space this morning to allow the repairman access to the furnace was a large Black Widow spider on the underside of the hatch door. Even hearing about this freaked me out... I had not known that Black Widow spiders could survive in this cold a climate.

The pest control company later found more spiders in the crawl space and near the soffit vents beneath the roof, but we should now be rid of the eight-legged interlopers, at least for the time being.

And I think my adventures in the crawl space have now ended for good...

Annual Performance Review

2005-12-07T03:12:33Z

Oh Great Cthulhu!

I have been an extremely diligent devotee this year.

In January, I visited my relatives in Innsmouth (100 points). Yesterday, I wore an Elder Sign (-10 points). In December, I defiled the grave of that traitor, Lovecraft (90 points). In March, I stopped holyoutlaw from defiling Lovecraft's grave (-20 points). Last week, I fed gerisullivan to a Shoggoth (250 points). In February, I legally changed my name to Randolph Carter (-40 points).

In short, I have been very good (370 points) and deserve to be promoted to High Priest.

Your humble and obedient servant,
alanro

Submit your own plea to Cthulhu!

Happy Birthday

2005-11-18T03:46:26Z

Happy birthday, roadnotes. It was good to see you last month.

November Is the Month for Birthdays

2005-11-16T18:06:52Z

Happy birthday, u_must_b_joking!

You Say it's Your Birthday...

2005-11-10T23:55:07Z

Happy, happy birthday, redbird!

What's Opera Doc?

2005-11-06T23:02:27Z

Shirley Apthorp captured the essence of why I don't enjoy most opera with far more panache than I ever could...

Embittered because he was known only for the children's opera Hansel und Gretel, Humperdinck wrote Konigskinder, the blackest fairy tale opera in the history of the genre. There is no happy ending. The goose-girl lives with the witch, who forces her to bake poisoned bread. Then she meets the prince. They fall in love, and things quickly go downhill. When the old King dies, the townsfolk reject their ragged prince. They hound the royal couple out of town, and hang the witch. When the pair finally return, cold and starving, the prince has to trade his crown for a loaf of bread. Poisoned, of course. They both die.

Lemony Snicket, eat your heart out.

And how does one display umlauts properly in an LJ posting?

There and Back Again (And Once More for Good Measure)

2005-10-31T01:58:29Z

I'm finding it harder than I expected to recover from two trips to the east coast (well, at least the Eastern time zone) over a period of three weeks. But I think I am finally caught up on my sleep, and most of the 5,271,006 e-mail messages waiting for me at work have been either dealt with or deleted.

shikzoid and I spent the second week of October in Toronto, mainly to visit my family and friends. Often, this is the peak time for fall colors in Southern Ontario, but almost all the trees were still green due to an unusually warm September. Oh, well... We are considering making this trip twice a year (time permitting) as my older nephew is now five years old and no longer sees me as another undifferentiated Big Person. Besides, someone needs to be the Weird Uncle and I am a natural for this role.

We stayed at my father's house, probably for the last time. The city has caught up with and surpassed his house north of Toronto, and he is now thinking of moving into a condominium closer to the grandchildren. At the time he built the house in 1980, the property was surrounded by farms rather than subdivisions. I don't blame him for wanting to move.

We used our stopover to spend two days in Milwaukee for Ditto on the way back to Seattle. As usual Ditto was a small but very congenial convention, with organizers Henry and Letha Welch putting together a fine con suite and arranging for the convention membership to tour the Sprecher Brewery Saturday afternoon. It was also great to see replyhazy and billzilla, who drove in from Madison for most of Saturday. I even contributed to the one-shot!

After three days in Seattle, I flew to Washington DC for an STC conference on Leadership in Information Management. This was somewhat of a disappointment, as the content of the workshop was largely determined by the participants instead of by the presenter. I really wish that she would have led the workshop as it was described in the syllabus, and not dumbed it down for the participants who were not prepared. I did eat supper (Maryland soft-shell crabs, mmm...) with Martin Morse Wooster (WINOLJ) at the Market Inn, one of the few remaining holdovers in the SW quadrant that was not razed for urban renewal in the 1960's.

Because of the timing of this workshop, I missed saying goodbye to intelligentrix and slave_driver before they departed for New Orleans. I hope the drive went well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon, whether in Seattle or New Orleans (and we may take you up on your offer of crash space for Mardi Gras).

After the conference ended, I flew to New York to spend a few days visiting redbird and cattitude. The last time I visited New York was the week before I started working for my current employer more than 11 years ago. Coincidence? I think not... We spent the weekend catching up on conversation, drinking tea, playing Scrabble, and generally relaxing. On Saturday afternoon, we walked to the high meadow in Inwood Hill Park. I miss the smell of autumn in an east coast woodland; it is very different from the Pacific Northwest. From the high meadow, we had a spectacular view of the Palisades; the trees were just beginning to show their fall colors and patches of yellow and vivid red stood out very sharply against the green. On Sunday afternoon, roadnotes dropped by for tea and conversation; it was good to have the chance to talk. Monday evening, redbird and I took the subway to the Village to run some errands and meet cattitude for dinner at a Burmese restaurant in the East Village. I had never eaten Burmese food before, and I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. It was strange not to use a token to enter the subway, though...

Tuesday morning I visited supergee and nellorat. I had not seen either of them in person for more than ten years but had not forgotten how much I enjoyed their company. And I now have several more books on my reading list... After eating a late breakfast at a local diner (unfortunately, womzilla was unable to join us), supergee and nellorat were kind enough to drive me to LaGuardia, where the fun really began.

An early season nor'easter had hit New York early that morning. The rain was coming down in sheets and winds were gusting to over 40 knots. The initial leg of my flight home was on a fifty seat regional jet which was delayed two hours by the weather. When we did finally take off, the flight was both a short ride in a fast machine and a fast ride in a short machine (with apologies to John Adams). The pilot asked the flight attendant to stay seated for the duration, so at least we were not served with any food. When we landed at Dulles, I discovered that the only flight that was still scheduled to depart on time was my connecting flight to Seattle. After a mad dash through the airport, I managed to board less than a minute before they closed the doors. I had barely enough time to call redbird at her office and let her know that I would not need an additional night of crash space. The flight to Seattle was uneventful; I arrived in Seattle on schedule and ate supper with shikzoid at a restaurant close by the airport.

The only reason shikzoid had known that I had made my connection is because she read about it in a post by redbird. I find this highly amusing, but I'm not sure why...

Eleven years is far too long between visits. I am going to try my best to return some time next year, at a time when shikzoid can travel with me. Including a work trip to San Jose, I have flown more than 12,400 miles in the past month. No wonder my arms are tired!

Depending on the scheduling of the removal of shikzoid’s spherical interlopers, we hope to drive to Vancouver over Thanksgiving weekend to visit friends, and possibly take the train to Portland for SMOFcon on the first weekend of December. Compared to the past month, this will seem like standing still...

Mission Accomplished

2005-09-15T02:35:22Z