http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20070704.html

Hey… it’s how I made friends in Texas?

As per UserFriendly…  If the shuttle nav system were a text adventure:

> Go North.
- Which north?  It is very dark on this side of the Earth.  You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

I haven’t updated in a while, but I’ve been a little busy.   So let’s see…   cooked ribs and they were good.  Played shanghai, and it was good.  Watched transformers, and it was very good.  Had an anniversary, and it was more than good.  (Got some new Bose headphones, and they will be awesomely good).  Looking forward to Harry Potter, because it will also be good.   And now is it sacreligous to say I rested on the 4th day?  Maybe I’ll just stick with the series and say that we watched Flushed Away, and it was good. 

Anniversary was awesome.  Hard to believe I’ve been married three years, but it’s equally hard to believe that it’s only been three years…   What would I do without Deedee?   

In other news, I found a free online version of settlers of catan, so if anyone wants to play, let me know. 

From a training video, apparently the top three things on the "to do list" to build a moon base are:
1.  find oxygen
2.  find water
3.  bring robots.

Seriously. 

Sorta related, someone commented that showing contractors a CEV video is like making us watch a victoria’s secrets commercial.  It’s very exciting, and you really want to be a part of it, but you know you can’t get near it, and you definitely can’t touch it. 

Walking back, I heard some guy say wisely:
"I put LoJack on my kids." 
Not a bad idea, probably.

Today was a day of quotes, and unfortunately, I didn’t write them all down like I should have. 

I did like the business idea we came up with, and if anyone want to go into business with me making customized bobble-head dolls, let me know.   

Today has been exciting.  It’s been giving people horrible headaches, but it’s exciting.  The shuttle’s up on station, and a situation that should never happened is happening.  It’s really three or four distinct situations that shouldn’t happen, and they’re all happening together. 

At first, I tried to write them all out, but it’s very complicated.  Russian computers down, russian guidance down, shuttle prop burning up fast, bad attitude so bad power config, high roll rate, can’t transition back to US control, can’t rotate the solar arrays, and it’s night in russia, so their prime crew is at home.

Add to this that we just had a false fire in the russian segment, and things get extremely exciting.

Things went crazy.  Things are still crazy. 

The fire was temporary, but the power/control situation is as simple.  They have called up the entire SSTF to support the flight.  The entire ADCO/MCG team are being creative and writing procedures on the fly to try to fix the problem. 

No one’s life is at risk right now, but it’s combination of the scenes in Apollo 13 where Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan) is on his back testing things in a capsule trainer, and when all the engineers get together to make a square peg fit in a round hole.  Except now we’re talking about the entire simulation facility and all the servers, plus the entire Sim team, plus all the momentum people.  Probably 30-40 people and a ton of resources. 

Still… it’s very cool. 

Another interesting thing is the effect the words “fire on station” has on the building here. Normally, there’s so much chatter around here you can’t get any work done in the afternoon… Tom yelled out “Fire on station,” and this place hit silence as people scrambled to throw on headphones and punch up the flight loops. It was disturbingly quiet over here at that point…

overall, an interesting day.

Generally, we use the article "an" to go before words that start with a vowel, and the article "a" before words that start with a consonant.  There are exceptions to the last, as we use "an" before lots of words that start with a silent consonant or a vowel sound (i.e.  an hour).  But can you think of exceptions the other way?  Words that begin with a vowel that would be preceded by "a" instead of "an?" 

spend a second thinking of exceptions…  I posed the question to some coworkers and they couldn’t think of any.

I came across an odd one today.  or, I should say I realized it today, as I’ve typed or written it many times before.  I wrote something today that referenced a utopian society.  Then I stared at "a utopian" until I went cross-eyed.  Looked it up on google, and it is accepted and correct to say "a utopian." 

Got to thinking about it, and it makes sense.  You don’t say "I bought an used lawnmower."  It’s "a used lawnmower."  You have a uniform, a unit, a unilateral whatever… etc. 

I guess what seems odd to me is that I can’t recall learning about the rule that describes this exception in the english language.  Also, I’m not ditzy or stupid or anything…   I wouldn’t even be thinking about this stuff if I wasn’t studying languages right now.  I think that’s the point.  There are so many things in the language we don’t even think about because it’s our language. 

Unfortunately for them, this does not mean I have any less of a problem with the people who move to the US, but don’t speak English. 

Quote of the Day:

"He’s speaking Russian, so I’m ignoring him." – Deedee

So it looks like I was wrong about the father-in-law thing.  He’s being investigated.  I’m still skeptical anything will come of it, but it was too suspicious for everyone to overlook, I guess. 

A radio show brought up a good question.  Where, exactly, was our heightened Homeland Security?  This guy was put on all of our alert and no-fly lists.  He was also on Canada’s border list.  Yet, he still managed to fly to Canada and drive straight into the US, no problem.  Future biological terrorists take note. 

More proof that "Homeland Security" is just an excuse to harrass normal citizens 

aaaand, in a sad attempt to increase reader participation, I give you an irresistable music quiz:

Name these songs and artists (without using google):

"you see it’s all clear, you were meant to be here, from the beginning"

"I’ve know it from the moment that we met, there’s no doubt in my mind where you belong"

"you thought you were the bomb, yeah, well so did I"

"Since you’ve gone, I’ve been lost without a trace"

"Can’t you see the tears we’re crying?  Can’t there be some happiness for me?"

"trying to live without your love / it’s so hard to do"

"and all the gods come down here just to sing for me"

"bright is the moon high in starlight, chill is the air cold as steel tonight"

lol…   reading back through these, you’d think there was a secret message or a story in there or something.  I assure you I chose 8 songs randomly off of my ipod…   but, hey…  feel free to interpret as you will   

QotD is a role playing quote, today:

Quote of the Day:

DM:  "you’re surrounded by barrels."
PC:  "what do I see when I look around?"
DM:  "barrels."

Just watched a co-op get the smack down.  She apparently didn’t realize that those of us who have really comfy chairs had to undergo a crapload of paperwork and an ergo evaluation to get assigned a chair.  She thought it was just whoever got to them first.  So she wondered over to one of our group member’s desks and wheeled off his big, comfy chair while he wasn’t there. 

Luckily for her, the chew marks in her head should heal quickly. 

One of my coworkers is telling everyone around her today that he broke up with his girlfriend because they had been going out almost two weeks, and she was "all talk & no action."

I thought attitudes that immature died in high school or college at the latest.  I don’t know why I thought that.  Kinda stupid to think that getting a degree and getting a job would change who a person really is… 

So…  what are the chances…    An engaged man, whose future father-in-law works for the CDC testing strains of TB, just happens to catch a rare, extremely drug-resistant strain of TB right before his wedding.  Guy then hops a plane to his wedding and spreads it about.  The CDC quietly issues a statement saying that this guys TB did not originate from his father-in-law. 

So I have to ask, what are the chances of that?  I mean, what are the chances that a guy just happens to catch a rare (apparently Asian) strain of TB right before marrying the daughter of a CDC TB expert?  Further more, what are the chances that a TB expert wouldn’t notice his future son-in-law developing bad TB in the weeks leading up to his daughter’s wedding? 

It reeks of underhandedness, and yet I’m betting that while they’re busy persecuting this guy for spreading resistant TB across the globe, no one bothers even looking sideways at his good ol’ father-in-law. 

does my blog show up blue for other people?