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April 28, 2005 -
After
work Brent came to Holton and picked up the newest member
of his family. Before that though we stopped at PetsMart
and picked up all the puppy supplies he would need to
keep his pup happy- hopefully his night will go well,
the pup will probably miss her littermates.
Smallfry
(our Chihuahua with lymphoma) is not doing well, this
morning Mom said she'd hold her and she'd just whimper,
and she threw up once this afternoon- she'll then bounce
back and be all happy, and she is happy and ok over 99%
of the time now, but we can slowly start to see the effects
of her illness creeping up.
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April 27, 2005 -
Tonight
on the National Geographic Channel they had a show on
the Earth's magnetic field, and the great shift that is
currently underway. Studies of the Kilauea volcano have
shown a startling occurrence in the planet's past- Magnetite,
a magnetic element that is ejected in lava, shows us a
new fact about the
history of the planet... since it's a magnetic element,
suspended in a liquid, the magnetite acts just like the
needle in a compass- it points to the magnetic north pole,
and then when the lava flow solidifies and turns to stone,
it creates a record of exactly where the magnetic poles
were. What was somewhat disconcerting about the show was
that every so often.... the magnetic poles seem to go
haywire, and then totally reverse. About 170 times in
the Earth's history the poles have inverted- From studies
of the field strength since the 1600's scientists have
discovered that in the last 100 years, there has been
a 10% decline in the field strength, signaling that the
next great shift is rapidly approaching. So what does
that really mean for us? As the field reverses, it will
slowly die down, and invert, and grow back again, so all
compasses will point "north" to what we now
know as south. The only problem is that when the field
dies down, the earth will not be protected from solar
winds; the result would planet-wide auroras, high rates
of cancer, and possible radiation poisoning.
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April 24, 2005 -
Today
I took a puppy to Topeka for Brent to see, and I also
went to Susan's to drop off my Best of Topeka ballots,
and pick up a computer she wanted me to look at. I left
the puppy, a Dachshund/Yorkshire Terrier mix, with Brent
when I went over to Susan's, and he seemed to get pretty
attached to it... I wonder if he'd like a pair of them,
the pup is really attached to its littermate.
The
kitties are all doing fine, they still haven't opened
their eyes or started to meow at all, but the mother cat
pretty much lays with them constantly.
Friday
night Teresa and I stayed at Brent's (as we had a photo
shoot the next morning early). We watched Flight of
the Phoenix, a dreadfully horrible movie- it just
didn't seem like any of the characters reacted to the
situation they were in in a logical manner. The photo
shoot Saturday morning went well, but it was windy and
very cold, which made things very difficult.
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April 21, 2005 -
Oh
my Gosh! This morning we woke up to kitties, our foster
cat, that had just had a litter of kitties before she
got here, had three more kittens in the night. Since there
were only three, she didn't appear to be showing it at
all, but I had noticed that she tried to hide behind the
desk a lot- very natural for a cat that's about to go
into labor, but when you haven't known a cat very long,
hiding could be something they just like to do.
Last
night I went out to eat with Beca and Andrew- we went
to Martinelli's, which was extremely good, and they give
you a ton of food, the 1/4 helping is enough for two meals,
and if you ponder getting the 1/2 size they urge against
it.... I can't imagine how big the full meal deal is.
After we ate and had ice cream we went to the Governor's
mansion and walked about some.
I
worked on my portfolio some Wednesday night, so there
are some thumbnails on the page now, none go to larger
versions yet- I've not really pondered what all I'm going
to add, and what I'm going to take off yet, but it's some
progress.
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April 19, 2005 -
Bush's
nomination of John Bolton as UN Ambassador, (a man that
has stated the US should leave the UN) floundered today
as a Republican on the committee to approve the nomination
began to sway to the Democrat side to reject, so the rest
of the Republicans pushed to table the vote for three
weeks (so they can likely pressure their ranks).
Japan
requested to be given permanent UN Security Council membership
this week which sparked angry protests in China.
Joseph
Ratzinger was selected to be the next Pope- He was a former
Hitler Youth (but all children were forced into it at
the time so one cannot fault him for that). He never joined
the Nazi Party, and then he felt from military service
just before being captured by the US Army. People tend
to site those reasons for being concerned about him, but
I don't find it to be very fair. I do find fault for comments
he made during the sex scandal in the Catholic Church
though, he actually made no comments about the bishops
that molested children, but was very critical of the media
for talking about it, and blamed them for creating the
scandal, rather than those in the church that committed
the acts. A majority of Germans that were polled before
Ratzinger was chosen said they hoped that he would not
become the next Pope.
Today
is the ten year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing-
and tonight there was a program on the Edward R. Murrow
Federal building past and present on the National Geographic
Channel. It went through the blast micro-second by mirco-second
to show exactly how the building collapsed in a computer
animation, and I found it fascinating to learn that if
it had been build to California building codes (to sustain
a moderate earth quake) it would have only sustained 1%
of the damage, and certainly would not have collapsed.
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April 16, 2005 -
Saturday-
Today I went to work, and it was not such a good day,
but stepping in dog poo as you're leaving the yard can
do that.
I'm
a bit plexed, there was a huge media/government scare
several months ago about how terrorists were trying to
use lasers to blind pilots, but then it was discovered
that children and pranksters were doing it, and the story
was quickly dropped from attention. I saw on ThinkGeek.com
recently a laser you could plug into your USB port, and
you sit it in your window, and it automatically targets
and shoots a laser beam at any nearby aircraft- could
this be legal? Tonight on the NBC Nightly News it was
reported that the government has apparently got into the
game too. Washington DC now has a security system that
shoots lasers at planes to notify the pilots that they
have entered restricted airspace
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April 12, 2005 -
Hezbollah
has apparently been able to get several UAV's (unmanned
aerial vehicles) from Iran and have been carrying out
surveillance of Israel- they've also publicly stated that
the UAV's are capable of delivering bombs, and thus far,
the Israelis have not been able to down any of the craft.
Small
Fry seems to be doing well, she's gained weight, and runs
about always wanting picked up and loved- and she always
gets her way. A lump has formed on her chest, so she's
going to the vet tomorrow. There really isn't a way to
cure her lymphoma, just drugs that can buy her more time,
and we try to see that the time she has is good.
The
Humane Society is getting ready to move into their shelter
though they are still trying to raise the funds to fully
pay for it. They are selling kennels (you get your name
on a kennel there and don't actually get to take it home),
so they were charging $1000 to have your name put on the
smallest one, and $1250 for the larger one. They also
have huge ones for puppies to play- I've no clue how much
those are set at, and the highest thing was for a cat
room. An anonymous person who is a member of the CAT Association
already purchased it. There will also be a donor plaque
outside the building or in the lobby for smaller donations,
so if you donate $25 or more you can get your name on
it. Mom & Dad decided to get a kennel with our name
on it, so I chipped in $250 to upgrade us to the larger
one.
 Supervolcano
was on Sunday- Bob watched it, and said it wasn't worth
all the hype, and I'd have to agree. Still, it's a very
fascinating and frightening thing to know about. Jane
came in today and asked to borrow it, so I'll have to
quiz her for her thoughts after she watches it. I thought
the show on National Geographic that I saw on it (that
was more of a scientific documentary on the geology and
history about it) was more interesting- I'll have to look
for when it will come on again and record it.
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April 10, 2005 -
Today
I had a busy day of ballot entering, but I finally finished
my stack. Susan wrote me and said they still have a pile
of 1285 ballots left to count, so they were going to be
entering them all week at work. I will have to call tomorrow
to get more, I just hope I don't get too many... they
can be so monotonous. Teresa got her little stack done
as well.
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April 9, 2005 -
Today
I went to KC with Brent and Teresa to work a photo shoot.
Teresa and I stayed at Brent's the night before. I mostly
worked on Brent's network Friday night, and then we went
to bed and got up at 4:45. The shoot was only until noon,
and after that we ate at the Blue Koi, which was very
good, too bad I'm not exactly sure how to get back. While
we were eating Brent got a call about another shoot for
flag football, so we rushed off and took pictures of a
team.
Bush's
plan for partial privatization has fallen in the polls,
A Time/NBC poll had it at a 35% approval rating.
Tom
Delay is going after the judges that decided to allow
Terri Shiavo to die... He was on TV saying he wished to
change the law (and I think it would require a change
to the Constitution as well) so that Congress could overrule
a court if something similar were to happen again. Democrats
are trying to get Delay out of office, and now some Republicans
are coming out and asking for Delay to resign.
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April 7, 2005 -
The
Gallup Polls are in... 34% of Americans feel the country
is headed in the right direction, and Bush's approval
has hit an all time low of 45%.
Ballots...
I hate ballot counting. I did 25 tonight, a very mind-numbing
process, and I have about 50 more in my stack. I stuck
a note on Carrie's door telling her I'd pay her to do
some of them for me.
Last
night after work I hooked the computer up at Brent's,
hopefully they are getting along well.
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April 6, 2005 -
Only
five more days until the ballots must be all counted.
I stayed up to get mine done, but for the last four hours
the phone has not had a dial tone- quite frustrating.
Now I'm really going to have to stay up tomorrow night.
I
got the package with the cold cathode lights and the IDE
cables just minutes before I had to go to work yesterday,
so when I got home I got Brent's computer all ready to
go. The lights I ordered were supposed to be yellow, and
it said they were yellow on the box, but they certainly
look white to me. The window in the computer is tinted
yellow however, so it still has that very golden glow.
Tachyon,
the computer I built several years ago is starting to
have more drive problems, and it has started to lock up
when I move big files. I pondered it could be caused from
the power supply problems  before,
and since I had the new pretty one with lights and such...
and a lot of time since the phone line wasn't working,
I pondered I'd rewire the computer. It's all back together
now, and glowing even more than before, I guess I'll wait
and see how it acts now.
Combined
both of my computers have now completed 29 work units
of protein folding assignments from the folding@home people.
I blogged about it months ago- basically it is a program
that uses a processor's idle time to reconfigure protein
molecules to try and find cures to genetic diseases, so
a big server handles the assignments, and it farms out
tasks to computers all over the world that work the problems
out and send the results back.
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April 4, 2005 -
It's
been a big weekend! Teresa and I helped paint Lin and
Brian's house Sunday, and that was pretty much the entire
day. The night before that I stayed up the entire night,
having had a three hour nap, so I worked on correcting
the newsletter, worked on ballots, and compressed video...
I also worked on Brent's computer some.
Today
I caught up on my sleep, and then I went to Topeka in
the afternoon and took the newsletter to Susan- they I
meandered about Best Buy to try and use the gift card
I got from Beca and Andrew for Christmas... I got the
new Good Charlotte CD and some new headphones. After I
got back I took a nap on the couch... and when I was laying
there asleep the little Chihuahua jumped up on me... so
I went back to sleep, and then woke up to Weezer whining,
so I told her to get up there... so she jumped on me too...
so we were all sleeping.. and then Chichi woke me up with
a whine, so then I napped with three Chihuahuas camped
out on me.
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April 2, 2005 -
I went to work today (Saturday), and
it was extremely busy. Susan came in and gave me the newsletter
back since it went through the newsroom and all the copy
editors got their hands on it, so I shall make those corrections
tonight.
The new computer I'm building seems extremely
happy, and it seems to run very well- starts up uber fast.
I hope the cold cathodes and braided IDE cables come Monday.
I'll try to get a few pictures when it's done for the
blog.
The Pope passed away today, and Terri
Shiavo died the other afternoon as well. Both I guess
were very much expected, so now they will pick a new Pope,
and continue to fight in courts over how and where to
bury Terri.
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