www.tulok.net : Earlier Entries
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Entry 41 February 1, 2003 12:00 am |
Went out to snap some more road pics today (I now have the end of every state highway in this quarter of the state). Left the house around 8:00 this morning, camera loaded and CDs stacked to the max. Spent most of the morning in Arkansas, turning into Oklahoma just long enough to get a highway pic, then continuing down one of the Arkansas highways.
It was around noon in the Van Buren Wal-Mart Electronics Department that I found out what happened to Columbia.
I went ahead and continued my road trip (it was either that or go back home & sit in front of the TV all day, and I do that all the time anyway), although the CDs did take a back seat for the rest of the day to AM news stations.
It may take the experts months, if not years, to determine what happened, and when the final report comes out, it's likely gonna read longer than the next Harry Potter novel. But the more I think about it, the more I think all those conclusions will easily be boiled down to one sentence:
Columbia was twenty-two years old.I know they keep saying that a space shuttle is designed to last a hundred flights, and Columbia only ran twenty-eight. But when they first made those claims NASA was anticipating a launch every couple of weeks, not every couple of months. Using that original timetable, Columbia would be long past its prime. The next generation of shuttles was already supposed to be in use by this time. Unless they're retired immediately, it's only a matter of time before Discovery and Atlantis suffer similar fates.
My condolances go out to the families of the astronauts lost today.
A few related thoughts:
--As happened last time, it's likely another new shuttle will eventually be built as a replacement. I just hope our beloved President Dubya doesn't have any influence in naming it, because if he does I just know it's gonna be called Endurance. Me, I'm still hoping they bring back Enterprise.
--Good thing they were trying to land in Florida. If this had happened while they were trying to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the debris would've landed in the deeper part of the Pacific Ocean, and most of the pieces would've never been recovered.
--The Challenger disaster happened 17 years and 1 (or 1x1) day after the Apollo I fire. Today's incident occured 15 years and 4 (or 2x2) days after Challenger. If this sequence were to continue, the next fatal space disaster for NASA would happen in 13 years and 9 (or 3x3) days. As an amateur numerologist, I would strongly suggest avoiding any type of space travel on February 10, 2016.
--In the possibly worst case of timing in history, the only movie I know of containing the destruction of two space shuttles, Armageddon, was scheduled to air tonight. Kudos to FX for pulling it and airing Aliens instead. 10:22pm
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Entry 42 February 10, 2003 12:00 am |
Back in the early eighties when I was in high
school, and all the other geek students were reading Lord of the
Rings, I was off in another corner of the library reading a new novel
called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
(who I would later learn shares my birthday). It was one of the few successful
science-fiction comedies ever made in
any medium. A second novel, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,
followed shortly thereafter.The tale centered around earthman Arthur Dent, whose adventures begin when the Earth is, according to the novel, "unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass." The remaining cast of characters, all of whom could quite accurately be called 'zany', are go numerous to go into here.
A couple of years after I learned about the books the local PBS affiliate showed the BBC's television adaptation of H2G2, as it is typically abbreviated. When I was in college I found out that the whole shbang originally started as a BBC radio series, and that the novels, TV series and albums that I didn't know about yet all started from the radio version, being replayed at the time on National Public Radio, of which the campus radio station, KOSU, was an affiliate.
I don't even know where to begin a review of the series, so I won't. What I will do is provide a link to Amazon.com search results for hitchhiker's, guide & galaxy. Click on the picture above (the cover art for the DVD release of the TV series, btw) to go to it. And as I hope is an added incentive, any purchases made at Amazon as a result of going through that link, I get a small commission.
I will relate my absolute favorite part of the entire series, which in turn will inform you as to why I chose to use this specific entry to discuss H2G2. There was once a race of "hyperintelligent, pan-dimensional beings" who wanted to know the Meaning of Life. So they built a gigantic supercomputer that could calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (LtUaE was also the title of the third novel). Took the computer seven and a half million years to calculate the Answer:
Forty-two.
So another, even larger computer had to be built to find out what the actual Question was. That computer was called the Earth, which was destroyed five minutes before its five-million-year program would have been completed. Destroyed, btw, by a consortium of psychiatrists who were afraid that if everyone actually found out the Question, the Universe would suddenly become a nice, happy place and the psychiatrists would all be out of a job.
Something to keep in mind next time you see your shrink. 11:59pm
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Entry 43 February 11, 2003 12:00 am |
Sorry it's been so long between entries. Ever since I first started this page I knew I wanted Entry 42 to be about Hitchhiker's Guide, plus I wanted to finally put my Amazon Associates account to use, and it took me this long to get around to doing it. Now that I know the Amazon thing is working I'll be recommending various thing now and then. Don't worry, I'm gonna make an effort not to turn this page simply into a 'buy this/buy that" page. But if you do decide to buy it, please go through my link for the item to do so, because I make a small commission (just a few cents, but hopefully it'll eventually add up) every time a purchase it made that way. An Amazon search engine has also been added to the bottom of the page...
...as has a link to the most recent archives page. I knew it was a hassle for everyone to go back to the top of the page to see earlier entries, it was a hassle for me as well. Just took this long for lazy me to make the graphic and stick it down there. Also changed the background colors again for February, making it all valentiney.
Ok, now to catch everyone up on what's been going on since Entry 41:
As previously mentioned, while all the networks were showing that WFAA footage of Columbia's breakup over and over and over and over, I was taking pictures of state highway endpoints along the Arkansas border and in east-central Oklahoma. I had three major areas that I wanted to do during the two days I had that weekend, meaning one of them would have to be skipped:
1) the Arkansas border points, so I would then have every state highway terminus point in the northeastern fourth of Oklahoma
2) go down US 75 and up I-35 (or vice versa), crossing into Texas long enough to check out an adult video store and update my lottery ticket
3) go up into Missouri & Kansas, update my lottery tickets there, and check out a state highway in that area of Oklahoma whose terminus point appeared to have been moved
Originally I was going to do Texas Saturday and Arkansas Sunday. Schedulding problems pushed Arkansas up to Saturday, which I just found out was The Big Mistake. My Texas Lottery ticket (playing the same numbers for twenty consecutive drawings) expired the previous Wednesday. If I had gone back down there I wouldn't have missed a drawing. And as my luck typically goes, that very first drawing I wasn't playing, the one on February 1st, I would've matched four of the six numbers and won $86 dollars.
Kinda got a consolation prize the next day, when I went into Missouri and Kansas. In addition to updating my Powerball entries, I played $20 worth of scratch-offs. Won $35. And not only did I find that state highway terminus point I was wondering about had indeed been moved, I also stumbled across a brand new state highway that wasn't there two months earlier, the last time I had been in that area.
Spent the rest of Sunday getting terminus pictures of a few Kansas state highways. Much of that area was barren and boring. But then again, so was north-central Oklahoma. It was new land I had never visited before, though, so in that respect it wasn't all bad.
Between Saturday and Sunday I had put over 900 miles on the car, and my butt was feeling every inch of it. Well worth it, though, as it was probably the last weekend excursion I'll be taking until April, as I'm now back on the graveyard shift for two months, and sleeping during the day.
(Note: this section is only for people who know the story already up to this point. If the next sentence has abolutely no meaning for you whatsoever, skip down to the next horizontal line and the beginning of the next topic)
I thought I saw Rachel the other day. I was stopped at a traffic light on 71st, looking over and saw what looked like her coming out of one of the restaurants. She was the right height and build, similar clothing, breast size matched, and her mannerisms while she was talking matched Rachel's. The hairstyle was different, but in one of our last conversations four years ago she was talking about changing her hairstyle, so maybe she did. (And if that was her, she needs to change it back, it looked like something from the sixties. Blechh!) She was with this big, burly cowboy-type guy, the kind that probably played football in high school.
I have no idea if that was her or not, but either way it finally gave me a kind of closure. After all, if that's the kind of guy Rachel likes, then I never had a chance. I can finally move on. That one song from Skasmopolitan helped a lot, too. (Found a link to where you can hear that song for yourself. Look at the titles, you can probably figure out which one it is.)
OK, after all that shpiel I did at the beginning
of this entry that I wouldn't force my Amazon recommendations, here's one
I just gotta do: A recent BBC series called Coupling. It's kinda
like Friends, except that practically every
single conversation revolves around sex. The ensemble comprises the show's
main Ross-and-Rachel-type couple (one two in the bed in the picture),
each of their best friends, and each of their most recent ex's. Many of
the conversations are undoubtedly familiar to anybody who's been in a
long-term relationship with someone. I have not laughed so consistently
in quite a long time.The first season of six episodes is currently out on DVD (and available at Amazon.com, click on the picture to go there, and don't forget the commission). The second season is even better than the first. Alas, it hasn't been released here in the states yet (it has been in England, and I have a unit that will play DVD's designed for other television formats, more on that some other time). The third season [VCR Alert I] is currently airing on BBC America, Sunday nights at 9pm, and repeated at midnight.
Meanwhile, NBC is getting with the series creator in an attempt to make an American version of the show. The pilot was taped last October, and the original plan was for it to debut this fall, as a replacement for Friends, which had been set to end this spring. Now that Friends is continuing for another year, I'm not sure what that's gonna do for Coupling, American Style (no that's not what they're gonna call it, that's just gonna be my name for the American version), but don't be surprised if it still shows up on NBC's fall lineup (I see it in the Thursday 8:30 slot until Friends goes off, then moving to 7pm if it's still around after that.)
VCR Alert II: Outrageous Game Show Moments 2, this Tuesday (that's later tonight) at 7pm on NBC (Channel 2/Cox Cable 9). As funny as blooper shows are, it's even funnier when it's real-life people that are screwing up. Combine being seen in front of millions of people on television with the chance to win thousands of dollars and, occasionally, a clock ticking against you, and anything could happen, and quite often did back in the heyday of the television game show. The first special last spring trounced everything against it in the ratings, and was one of the funniest programs on TV in quite a while. This one won't do nearly as well in the ratings, as it's on opposite American Idol, but it's still worth a look-see.
And despite what next week's TV Guide says, I've been told that Outrageous Game Show Moments 3 will be on the following Tuesday, same time, same channel
Wednesday night on ABC we finally find out who the Celebrity Mole is on Celebrity Mole. I had never developed an interest in the previous two incarnations of the series, but this celebrity version has grown on me, probably because I've heard of these people before, and know a bit of their personalities coming in.
Of the three people remaining, I think Erik von Detten is gonna win the pot, and that the Mole is Frederique van der Wal, which was my guess back when the series started. Who better to act like a real contestant than the one celebrity in the group who isn't an actor?
Native Americans are now trying to get Union High School to change their team nickname, the Redskins, because they're offended by it. They couldn't get the NFL Washington Redskins to change their name, nor the MLB Atlanta Braves, so now they're gonna try it on the local level, knowing full well the district can't afford to fight it if the issue makes it to court.
They may have a point, but I'm sorry, Political Correctness has just gone out of hand. You don't have to go very far to find that everything is gonna be offensive to somebody:
"Sooners were people who entered the Oklahoma Territory before they were supposed to and illegally set up their homesteads. Anyone who calls themself a Sooner is thereby condoning criminal activity, so OU needs to change it's nickname."
"Cowboys helped the American government kick Native Americans off their land. Therefore, OSU needs to change its nickname."
"My neighborhood was destroyed by a hurricane, and I lost everything else when the price of gold plummeted, so TU needs to change its nickname."
"You're calling my son a pig. Change Arkansas' nickname!"
"An eagle snatched my dachshund and carried him off, and I'm allergic to gold. ORU needs to change it's nickname."
If you want to be fair to everybody, the only thing that can possibly be done is for Congress to ban all sports teams, on every level, from having nicknames at all. And there's no amount of PAC money that's gonna make that happen.
Having said that, I'm hope Union is forced to change their name. Not for the derogatory reasons, just out of spite. Mainly, 'cause I don't see why they exist in the first place. Half of the district in in the Tulsa city limits, the other half in Broken Arrow, and any schools in those areas should be in those respective school districts. I'm mean, just where, exactly, is the community of Union?
Mark my words, the day will soon come when some group is gonna come forward and, in all seriousness, demand that all white people in this country be heretofore referred to as European-Americans.
OK, now that I've pissed off whole groups of people (the minority groups I belong to are, unfortunately, the kind I would prefer not to promote, as well as the kind sports teams aren't likely to create team nicknames for), I think it's time to put a wrap on things for the night. Also, I've run out of things to talk about. 2:05am
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Entry 44 February 25, 2003 12:00 am |
More apologies for more delays, but there hasn't been much going on.
Got a new computer last week, but as I need a friend of mine to come over and install a few pieces from my previous (i.e., the one before the one I've been and still am using) computer, and he hasn't made it over yet due to the snow, I don't have it hooked up yet. His part of town got about 8 inches of snow, and my area got around 4½.
As far as this winter has gone, with the dusting we received early this evening this has now become Tulsa's snowiest February on record, with just over ten inches this month alone. And we only need five more inches before Memorial Day for this to be Tulsa's snowiest winter EVER. Yesterday's morning low of 8 above tied the all-time record for that date, set two weeks before I was born, in 1965. Meaning yesterday's high was only 16, which broke the previous record for the lowest high that day, 24 degress, again in 1965 (well, as least my mother can't complain that it was too hot out while she was pregnant).
And to think: just last week we reached the point in the year where, on the average, the temperature wouldn't drop below freezing again until November!
(Actually seeing a slight warming trend: from sunset until just about an hour ago the temprature on my front porch was a constant 11 degrees. As I'm typing this, it's now a balmy 12.
Because of the snow, Tulsa schools were closed yesterday and will be closed again today. They may be reopen Wednesday, but if the forecasters are correct, they'll be closed again Thursday. Big bummer in my case, because I live across the street from an elementary school on a residential road, and if school were in session it'd give the city a major excuse to sand & salt the roads in front of my house.
Since school started the day after Labor Day, the two snow days plus the day taken off for the teachers' rally in OKC means that Tulsa schools now won't be letting out until June 10. And that's only if there are no more snow days. Proving one important fact that I've been suspecting, but didn't realize for sure until now: kids are getting too damn many days out of school!
When I went to Tulsa schools, the year started either the Wednesday before Labor Day and ended the week before Memorial Day, or it started the day after Labor Day and ended a couple of days after Memorial Day; it depended on how the calendar fell (i.e., how far into September that Labor Day was).
As far as holidays, we got Labor/Memorial Day (the year would fall during one or the other), Fair Day (the last Friday of the Tulsa State Fair, typically two weeks before the state teachers' conventions), two days in mid-October for the state teacher convention, two days for Thanksgiving, a maximum of eight weekdays for Christmas and New Years (and if New Years Day occured on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, we were back in school on January 2nd), and a week in March for Spring Break.
That's it! No Veterans Day, no day-before-Thanksgiving, no two full weeks for Christmas, no King's Birthday (didn't exist back then), no President's Day (or Washington's Birthday as it was called then), and most importantly, none of these full-days off for parent-teacher conferences. Back in the 70s, PTCs were held two times a year, at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters. They lasted Tuesday thru Thursday, and we still went to school on those days (we got out at 1:30 instead of 3:00, thus still classifying it as a complete school day, kinda like a NASCAR race having to reach the halfway point before it can be declared a complete race).
In addition, we would also get an occasional freebie snow day: if making up a day at the end of the year meant a one-day school week, they'd let it slide.
If this school year were in the 70s, here's how it would've looked:
The school year would've begun the day after Labor Day, just like it did this yearWith two current snow days to make up (the teachers back then would've NEVER taken a day off to go to a rally; if it was that important to teachers it would've been the PARENTS who went), school would currently end on Tuesday, June 3rd, a FULL WEEK before it's actually ending
Off October 4th for Fair Day, Oct 17-18 for the state teacher conference, and Nov 28-29 for Thanksgiving, with the first round of PTCs probably on Nov 12-14, getting out at 1:30 on those days.
Winter Break Dec 23-Jan 1, back in school on the 2nd.
Spring Break March 24-28, and more getting out at 1:30 for PTCs Apr 8-10
Off Memorial Day, with the school year scheduled to end the following Friday.
No wonder the public school system is going to pot: students are getting more days off during the year, giving them much more time to forget what they've learned. 1:47am
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