Entry
41: 1 February 2003, 10:22pm
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.
Entry 42: 10 February 2003, 11:59pm
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.
Entry 43: 11 February 2003, 2:05am
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
Entry 44: 25 February 2003, 1:47am
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 year
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.
With 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
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.
Entry 45: 1 March 2003, 5:11am
For the past two weeks, USA Today has been running a series of articles,
counting down what they call the "Ten Hardest Things to Do in Sports" (here's
a
link
to the online version). It's an interesting read, and so far they've counted
down to number 2 on the list (#1 will be in this Monday's edition). Here's
what they've got so far:
10. Skiing 80-90 mph downhill
9. Saving a penalty kick in soccer
8. Riding in the Tour de France
7. Running a marathon
6. Landing a quadruple loop in figure skating
5. Returning a 130-mph tennis serve
4. Hitting a golf ball long AND straight
3. Pole Vaulting 15-feet
2. Driving a NASCAR-quality race car and not getting hurt
I've heard several suggestions as to what number one is, from boxing
(
not: anybody can get hit by Tyson, and I think
I could knock out Paula Jones) to ski-jumping (jumping's
easy; it's the
landing that's the hard part) to bull-riding
(not that hard if that British guy from The History Channel's
Conquest
could do it).
But while I've known some skiiers who could probably run a slalom
course, while I've met several people who actually have run a marathon,
and while I know several family friends who drive stock cars each week,
there is one sporting event where not only have I never met anyone who
tried it, I don't know anyone who has even
attempted to try it:
Synchronized swimming. In particular, the team version.
Not only do you have to be able to swim to a particular point in the
pool, listen to and move in synch to the music regardless of which side
of the water's surface you're on, have a hell of a surfacing kick, and (in
the team version) be aware of exactly where all the other swimmers are
and where you're supposed to be in relation to them, you have to do it
whilst holding your breath for up to a minute at a time.
Most people would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible,
to simply swim underwater in a straight line for an entire minute without
surfacing. Just imaging trying to
dance underwater for an entire
minute without surfacing! We'll see Monday if I'm right.
VCR Alert: for those who missed
Christopher Reeve's appearance in last Tuesday's Smallville (and to those
who didn't, shame on you!), you got one more chance, this Sunday afternoon
at 4pm on your local WB channel (Channel 19/Cox 12 here in Tulsa)
