Who Knew?

I just took a music test online, and it turns out I'm not tone deaf after all. In fact, my tone discrimination is slightly above average. On the other hand, my pitch and rhythm discrimination are pretty terrible, which explains why my career as a drummer never took off.

Don't believe me? Follow this link:
http://www.bored.com/musictests/tonedeaf.htm

Subtle...

With thanks to the good folks at Musings of a Highly Trained Monkey

I Was Going To Start a New Blog...

Called "People are Stupid". The purpose of this blog would be to enumerate the frequent and repeated idiocy of the human race, for illustrative purposes. Sources would have included the internet, my work, and occasional trumped-up stories from my college days. Then, thanks to this AP article, I realized that my assistance in this matter was unnecessary:

Michael Christmas, 40, of Shaftsbury, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the killing Saturday of Ronald Wilkins, 36, of North Bennington. Christmas also is charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault. After his arraignment, the Vermont District Court chamber erupted in chaos, with friends and relatives of the two men screaming, cursing and shoving benches as they tried to get at each other. Some were knocked to the floor before Vermont State Police troopers, sheriff's deputies and others could hustle them outside. The incident began when Wilkins' girlfriend, Pam Conley, swore at Christmas, calling him a "gutless" expletive. "You stole my kid's father. You stole a good man. You are a worthless piece of (expletive)," she said. "He's a good man, too," one of Christmas's relatives shouted back. Christmas, 40, pleaded not guilty. Each of the four charges against him carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Court documents say that late Saturday afternoon, Christmas - riding a bicycle - went to the Shaftsbury home of former father-in-law Ron Harrington, pulling out a 9 millimeter pistol and shooting Wilkins five times on a patio in back of the home. A family friend, identified in court papers as C.L., told police he saw Christmas ride up on his bicycle and approach Wilkins. "Don't shoot, don't shoot," Wilkins said, according to C.L. "How do you like me now?" Christmas said after he shot him, according to the affidavit. The killing was witnessed by Wilkins' children - ages 9, 12 and 14. Christmas, who got back on his bicycle afterward and rode home, was arrested without incident there by State Police. "I'm the one who did it, I shot the guy," Christmas told the trooper who arrested him, according to a police affidavit released Monday. The pistol used to shoot Wilkins was found in the master bedroom of Christmas's home, according to the affidavit. Court documents said Christmas and Wilkins - who married sisters - never got along. Interviewed by police, Christmas admitted sexually molesting his own daughter, now 22, when she was between 8 and 13, according to the affidavit, although he is not charged with that. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault. Christmas' daughter's baby girl lives with Christmas and his wife, Tina. On Saturday, Christmas saw his daughter at a street party and she told him she planned to take the baby back. "Christmas felt that his daughter was going to talk about the previous molestation," said an affidavit signed by Vermont State Police Detective Reg Trayah. "Christmas, believing his life was going to be turned upside down, decided he was going to kill the person who was his biggest pain." Christmas told another investigator that he had molested one of Wilkins' children, and that that also prompted him to shoot Wilkins. While investigating the shooting, police spoke with a 12-year-old daughter of Wilkins who said she had been molested by Christmas more than 30 times. A 9-year-old boy, identified in court documents by his initials only, told police Christmas had sexually molested him on three separate occasions while Christmas was baby-sitting him at Christmas' home.

I Forgot to Mention...

In response to Andy's last question, I've taken up karate again. Free weights are too boring, running outside is too inconvenient (and too hot--SSB is just a little bit crazy methinks), running inside is rude (my massive...um...mass...on the treadmill causes the downstairs neighbor a certain amount of inconvenience) and rugby is just too dangerous (see previous posts).

So once again I'm running around barefoot in Japanese pajamas. Seems to be taking the weight off, and it gets me out of the house.

It's Happening Again...

I can't sleep. After being absolutely, passing-out, danger-0n-the-roads exhausted this afternoon at about 3, I am obnoxiously awake at about 10. Just kind of wired, in that too-sleepy-to-study kind of way. I'd crawl into bed and read until I zz'd out, except The Wife is (wisely) asleep now and I don't want to wake her (my deathwish expired last week and the new one hasn't come in the mail yet).

In other fun news, I have multiple new bruises after tonight's workout, including a wonder of an ulnar nerve irritation that still has two of my fingers tingling 3 hours after I got hit. Tomorrow I may well not be able to get out of bed.

Oh, did I mention I have to get up at 5:30?

What More Can I Say?

The article beyond this link is being touted as having the best headline ever. The article itself sounds like I imagine a political caucus in the Potbelly Republic.

Don't believe me? Follow this link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070820/od_afp/entertainmentbritain

Depression

So Hurricane Dean has been downgraded to a slow-moving tropical depression over southern Mexico. We got not so much as a rainstorm here, despite Karen's fears. So that's another catastrophe avoided. I celebrated by staying home and studying all day. The dog seems to be happy about that, he's been sitting by my feet passing gas for the past several hours. Reminds me of John.

Not Talking About Sausage

Hurricane Dean is making a mess of the Carribean, and expected to get worse. It's projected to get up to a strong Cat 4 before making "real" landfall, skipping over the Yucatan Peninsula en route to South Tejas. The good news (from my admittedly selfish perspective, at least) is that the 5-day storm track shows the northeast edge of the probability cone striking the Tejas/Luzianne border. In other words, barring really major direction shift, N'awlins should be safe. In fact, we'll probably have fairly pleasant--if somewhat windy--weather for the next week or so.

Anybody in Tejas thinking about evacuating?

Don't believe me? Follow this link: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/204026.shtml?50wind120#contents

Caution: Former Bachelor in Kitchen

I've been craving chili for a while now, and The Wife won't let me just pick up a can or three from the local supermarket. Something about a botulism scare, I don't know.

So I started with actual ingredients: About a pound of cow; one o' them big jars of tomato paste; some diced tomatoes, peppers, and onions; and some diced garlic.

Not spicy enough. Not even close.

Added a jar of jalapenos and a handful of Cow Bell. Gettin' there.

Dumped in some More Cow Bell. Was informed by The Wife that 1)the paint was coming off the walls and 2) that was enough spice.

The Wife opted out of the Chili Experience, leaving me to eat the whole pot myself, with the aid of a certain amount of rice, french bread, and tobasco sauce. Very tasty.

If you've noticed that your Tums stock has bumped up lately, you're welcome.

Science and Math

Many of you have listened to (or tuned out) my "soft science" rants...The ones about areas of study that consider themselves sciences, tend to tack "-ology" behind their names, and really seem to do little more than stamp collecting. Their trade journals and collegiate lectures tend to display a certain sense of insecurity, usually shored up by a demonstrated lack of knowledge of the finer points of the scientific method.

One of my favorite hobby horses is unsolvable equations. You know, the sort of complex, usually calculus-requiring equations that claim to give the precise sociologic value of, say, hair gel in a primitive hunter-gatherer culture as compared to a post-industrial culture--if only you can plug in such variables as relative desirability of a snazzy hairstyle, frequency of male pattern baldness, and number of whales off Puget Sound last Thursday at 4:30...In other words, variables for which no acutal numbers are available or can be generated.

Personally I find Economics and Sociology to be the two biggest offenders.

Anyway, I read something interesting just now:

"To paraphrase Lazarus Long, if you can't express it mathematically, it ain't science. Thus, all real science requires math chops." (thanks Matt G-- http://maypeacebewithyou.blogspot.com/)

Now as you all know, If I Read It On The Internet, It Must Be True. Even so, there's a huge implication here that makes a lot of empirical sense. You just have to know one thing: Lazarus Long was Robert Heinlein's protagonist. The implication here is:

Modern soft-sciences seem to have added these dumb-assed equations to their literature in order to appear more respectably scientific BASED ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF A SCIENCE-FICTION WRITER.

Makes sense to me.

Caption Contest III--Oh, the Pain!

This photo is not for the weak of stomach, but I had to see it and you should share my pain:

AC Update

So the AC guy finally made it out to my place Monday night, found the problem--apparently the capacitor in the condenser wasn't coping with the cooling, or the vessel with the pestle had the potion with the poison, or somesuch.

Anyway, the guy fixes it, doesn't charge me for the part (under warranty), but does charge me for the "emergency" service call--I get hit for an extra $20 because he came out after 5pm. Given that I called them at 8am I was a little grouchy about this. And then I got hit for extra time because the tech didn't have the part, had to run down the street and meet up with another guy to get it. Basically, they charged me more because their service was slow. I'm in the process of arguing with the main office, but the woman who is doing the billing is out sick...

Don't buy anything from Taylor and Tyler.

A Day Without AC is like a Day Without Deodorant

...except worse. Saturday morning I wake up and The Wife mentions that it's warm. I notice that, yes indeed it is, and adjust the thermostat. We'll discuss the sociological implications of that interaction in a later post.

The Wife and I go off to work. We come home that night to notice that it's REALLY hot, as only a top-floor apartment in N'awlins can get. For those of you keeping track at home, it gets REALLY hot in N'awlins in August. We grouch briefly, elect not to have anything warm for dinner, and go to bed.

It's difficult to sleep in 90 degree weather when you've spent all day working in 70 degree air conditioning...

So the next day I go back to work. My day is a rather rough because I didn't sleep well, but I make it through, get home to a marvelous dinner prepared at great personal effort by The Wife. Said dinner is all the more impressive because of the ambient heat in which The Wife was cooking. That's right, folks. She called the AC company and THEY DON'T EVEN ANSWER THE PHONE on Sundays. And we can't just call someone else to come out 'cos the unit's still under warranty.

After about 5 minutes of this we decided to say the hell with it and find a hotel for the night.

I called the AC company first thing this morning. It is now 1900. We just got a phone call telling us the tech is on the way FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY. Interesting because they told me an hour ago that the tech was in my part of town and I was next on his route sheet...

Anyway, I'm hot, sweaty, and grouchy. More so than usual.

Don't buy heating/cooling equipment from Taylor and Tyler.