In the day

2012-01-26T12:20:00.000-08:00

Post #2580. Uh ... Google? Just a note for you, bot, that exaweek and all the rest of it belongs to datapakrat at this place, not me. Thanks for your continued attention.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2012-01-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

Post #2579. Monkeys. Remember when Bob Newhart did that bit about the monkeys, where they conducted an experiment placing an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters to see if they would eventually create all the Great Books? Remember that? Maybe not - it was 1961 after all. Pretty funny bit though. Anyway, I ran across something interesting today, at least I thought so,

this label attached to something I received. Looks to me like one of the machines was trying to tell the joke to some other machines. Once it fell flat, they just stuck it on packages and sent them along.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2012-01-21T22:50:00.000-08:00

Post #2578. The 520. From 11pm until 5am, traveling across the Governor Albert D. Rossellini Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, also known as State Route 520 and also known as “Victory at Sea,” is free. Tolls begin at 5am and are charged at $1.60 for vehicles bearing a “Good-to-Go” transponder sticker and $3.10 for all others. These are billed by mail with the addresses derived from their photo-scanned license plate numbers. The first toll lasts for one hour. At 6am, the Good-to-Go rate rises to $2.80, and the general toll increases to $4.30. Again, this level lasts for one hour. For two hours beginning at 7am, the toll increases to $3.50 for Good-to-Go vehicles and $5.00 or all others. At the end of the primary rush period, the toll falls to $4.30 for regular vehicles and $2.80 for Good-to-Go stickers. This shoulder rate lasts for one hour until the official end of rush. The normal traffic rate comes into play at 10am and lasts for four hours. This rate is $2.25 for Good-to-Go vehicles and $3.75 for all others. The start of evening rush is at 2pm, at which time the toll rises again to $4.30 for regular traffic and $2.80 for Good-to-Go traffic. This is in place for one hour when it rises to $5.00 and $3.50 respectively. This evening peak toll lasts for three hours, until 6pm when it falls to $4.30 for general traffic and $2.80 for Good-to-Go. Another adjustment comes into play at the end of peak when the toll falls to $3.75 for general traffic and $2.25 for Good-to-Go vehicles. This lasts for one hour. At 9pm, the toll falls again, to $3.10 for regular traffic and $1.60 for Good-to-Go. At 11pm onward, there is no toll until 5am when the rates begin again.

Weekend rates are completely different. At 5am, the Good-to-Go toll begins at $1.10 and .. all the other times and tolls vary from the weekday schedule.

These tolls support the upcoming construction of a new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, as yet unnamed. The new bridge will cost approximately Four And One-Half Billion Dollars and replaces the existing 50-year-old span which, unfortunately, did not have an HOV lane. Paradoxically, since the tolls went into effect, traffic has declined so dramatically that it may be possible to use a single lane for vehicles and develop the now unnecessary two additional ones for parks and recreation.

FROM: Your Government at Work for YouRick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2012-01-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

Post #2577. Employee-of-the-Month Trifecta. The Boeing Company manufactures the 737 at Renton, Washington in a process that involves integrating thousands of parts from all over the world. One such part, a doorhandle that was made in the U.K came complete with flaws that caused Boeing to reject $200,000 worth of them every year. An engineer, Fred Siebert, redesigned the part so it could be manufactured locally, had zero defects, had three parts instead of fourteen, and could be assembled by a local company which employs people with disabilities in sheltered workshops. Now, almost no one reads this blog, but it does get searched by the Bot, so here's one more vote in the -verse for Fred Siebert as Employee of the Month! Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2012-01-12T23:38:00.000-08:00

Post #2576. 2012 is looking good I drop things all the time. One of the downsides that comes with getting old. I don't get upset by it anymore, just part of the added cost for being here. Pills are great for dropping. I just kick them over to the edge of the kithen by the trash and pick them all up every few weeks. Yeah, that's what it comes to. Oh, there are a whole lot more slobby things to which life is reduced, but you don't want to know about all of them. Anyway, today I was filling tonight's vitamin cups for Brother and me, 8 for him, 7 for me, and a 400mcg Folic Acid tab (I forget what they're good for,) slipped from my fingers, fell, hit and bounced off a D3 in my cup, went straight up about six inches and fell right into Brother's cup where it belonged.

I take this as an excellent omen for the year 2012, at least up to December 21st when all bets are off for everybody. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-12-30T12:06:00.000-08:00

Post #2575 Why???! This will be short. Googlebot nagged three times today, and I fear they will drop me. What would that mean? I don't know, but since their aim is to take over the world, there's no sense in taking any chances. Anyway, to the point: Seattle Public Utilities ran a commercial on television last night, cable, in which they issued a generic message to Save Water. A reminder, this in Seattle. Second reminder, December 29th featured one of the most epic deluges of rain in Seattle in the past 150 years.I know. I should have gone outside and set out as many pots and pans as I could manage, but I didn't. Go ahead, report me. I don't even care anymore. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-12-14T23:18:00.000-08:00

Post #2574. The Wild West. There was a gunbattle in the neighborhood today. I first got wind of it when I heard Channel 4's helicopter right over my head. It is an old, Vietnam vintage model that sounds like it's about to crash. Watched the news at 6pm and, sure enough, three men shot, all rushed by Medic One to Harborview were they were saved. (No telling how many dying old ladies were left as the responders dropped everything to rush to the shooting-with-television incident.) Wow, that sounds a little bitter. Did it? Good. Anyway, by 11pm, it didn't even make the news. That's what happens when you live in this part of town. So, what was the shooting all about? "Under investigation." No one knows. No one really cares, including me actually.

There are several companies I'm angry with today. DELL for shipping a package of two ink cartridges requiring an adult signature. UPS for ringing the doorbell, then sprinting back to his truck before I can even get close to answering the door. Today was Day 2 of this delivery. I've left him a rude note for tomorrow, my third and final chance. You know me, it was seriously rude. BLAIR, a formerly fine company which has basically become a classic customer-cheaters. Do not buy from them. Burn the catalog.

On the other hand, good companies. BETTERWORLDBOOKS.COM Go there. Spend a lot. They will amaze you.

Finally, for the starving people of North Korea. News report today that the administration has been debating for months whether or not to supply food aid to this country. Does that sound like Step 4 of Sir Humphrey Appleby's Five Steps for the Handling of Foreign Crises, or what? Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-11-27T22:40:00.001-08:00

Post #2573. Some math. Got to thinking about pi and what might be the formula for it. Turns out there are many, the most reliable being John Machin's:

Sorry to use up so much bandwith and space on your page, but here is pi to 2,000 places using that formula:

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971 693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348 253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822 317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482 133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921 861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171 762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121 290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100 031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989 380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303019520353018529689957736225994138912497217752834791315155748572424541506959508295331168617278558890 750983817546374649393192550604009277016711390098488240128583616035637076601047101819429555961989467678374494482553797747268471040475346462080466 842590694912933136770289891521047521620569660240580381501935112533824300355876402474964732639141992726042699227967823547816360093417216412199245 863150302861829745557067498385054945885869269956909272107975093029553211653449872027559602364806654991198818347977535663698074265425278625518184 175746728909777727938000816470600161452491921732172147723501414419735685481613611573525521334757418494684385233239073941433345477624168625189835 694855620992192221842725502542568876717904946016534668049886272327917860857843838279679766814541009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841 284886269456042419652850222106611863067442786220391949450471237137869609563643719172874677646575739624138908658326459958133904780275

If you plan on competing in one of those memory contests, you might want to keep a copy. Out of curiosity, I counted (well, the computer did) the number of times each digit appears in these results:

1 – 212
2 - 207
3 - 189
4 - 195
5 - 205
6 - 200
7 - 197
8 - 202
9 - 210
0 – 180

This ia a considerably wider range than I would have expected. Some meaning here? Incidentally, a well-known trigonometrical identity can be used to prove John Machin’s formula for pi. I'm working on a formula to see if my own discovery is significant.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-11-19T23:40:00.001-08:00

Post #2572. O.M.G.! Is it the End of the World?

No, just an encampment of Gypsies being burned to the ground in England. Or Ireland. They aren't really Gypsies, according to someone quoted, but Travellers. For the British, however, is that they're problem is that there their. That's pretty much always been the problem. I remember many years ago several wagons of genuine gypsies rolled into our tiny (pop. 99) village in very rural France. We children were enchanted by all of it, our parents not so much. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.Grand Âyatollâh Seyyed ‘Alî Hossaynî Khâmene’î President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

2011-11-14T01:10:00.000-08:00

Post #2571. About the network. (See earlier post, 3 or 4 down.) Just a quick note - we managed to set up our network and are now going crazy with it. We have 11 working computers in the house and are going to see how many we can connect. Obviously, the Radio Shack 4P is not a candidate, but some of the newer ones definitely are. I'm not completely sure we aren't broadcasting unsecured to the entire local area, but the ten or twelve people I can see all look fairly nice.I threw this into drafts because I didn't know how it would tuirn out. Not well, it seems. After we set up the mighty fine network it worked just fine for awhile, until I looked at the neighborhood and saw that we were broadcasting loudly to everyone again. I deleted everything, onhooked everything, unplugged the cables and even pulled out the rabbit ears, no change. Still broadcasting. I'm certain that Bill is behind this somehow. But why? Obviously to monitor what you're blogging. You know, you might just be right on that.

2011-11-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

Post #2570. Snooty Dell. Look at the email I got from Dell after my attempted reply to their explaination of a recent foulup;

Message for domain dell.com. Remote host said: 452 Too many recipients received this hour. Connections from this sending hostname nm22-vm0.bullet.mail.sp2.yahoo.com, IP address of: 98.455.000.000 are being throttled due to low SenderBase Reputation score. Your SenderBase organization: 2000246.

Whuu-uuuut? I have a Low SenderBase Reputation Score? In the opinion of one of our machines, yes, it seems so. This is not the end of this. To the tunnels!Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-11-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

Post #2569. A Higgs boson walks into a bar. So, I'm watching Nova, and they're trying, again, to explain to us ants how the universe works. I'm following it so far, as usual, to the extent one can without the math, until they get to the latest thing: it's really all just two-dimensional and expressed by a hologram on the walls of a black hole. Something like that. Well, I couldn't go for any of it and decided to make my soup. It was that time of the evening by now.

There was a can, a bowl and a pan. I emptied the soup from the can into the bowl and stood there for a moment trying to figure what was wrong with the picture. Oh, I have to heat it first in the pan, THEN pour it into the bowl. My thinking was definitely not in the kitchen but still in the living room. Isn't it amazing how it works? I wonder if we will ever fully understand the human mind? No, you won't. Say whut, who was that?

On top of it, I realized that I took Physics before Professor Higgs invented the particle. How's that for being ancient?Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-11-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

Post #2568. Viralityness. No, that one doesn't work either. I need a new word to define the new phenomenon when something "goes viral." That phrase is just the first part. The second is the universal reaction to the "going viral" by people who may or generally do not have any clue what it is about. Since it is pretty much running the world right now, I think it's high time somebody who does this sort of thing looks into it. Related: the utter and complete dumbification of America.

Like Jerry, I'll often jot things down as they occur to me in order perhaps to include them here. Most don't make it. This one didn't: "Can't you Neep it? No. We neep it with our own neepathalogs. OMG, you don't have any n." If anyone has a clue, please notify this blog.

Brother and I have been trying to set up a home network by ourselves. With 20+ years on this thing, plus plenty of instructions to be had, we should be able to do it. Our new computer shows a couple nearby computers transmitting wirelessly; one is our 85-year-old widow neighbor on one side, and the other is a 66-year-old widow on the opposite. Several more appear to be neighbors I don't know, illegal immigrants mainly. All of these people have working wireless networks and we don't. It's even sadder that we may actually be blasting everything out wirelessly ourselves, like what happened the last time we tried it, and not even know.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-10-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Post #2567. Memories. It was just a matter of time before I would come across the perfect container for storing this item. I made a mental note to keep an eye out. Sure enough, after some time, no way to know how much time, here was this little black vinyl packet, about the size of several CD's, nice big fold-over flap, no lettering or logo, even a little fuzzy inside. Just right for .... what? Now, what the heck was it that I needed to store? THAT memory was gone, gone like it never existed gone. You know how that feels - your mind is never going to be able to pull it up.

I've put the container in a location fully in view in my kitchen should the lost item ever turn up. When it does, I'll finally be able to match them and store the package in some place in this house where I'll never find it again.

This sort of thing goes on All The Time.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-10-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Post #2566. Just a slice. She was in a super high productivity caffeine-charged hurry. I was old and sluggish. So, the UPS pickup dispatch lady met the crabby old man. Wonder who won? Please.

I wouldn't have bothered normally. Mail order is pretty reliable, and you have to weigh the very occasional mistake against the nuisance of correcting it. They know that, by the way. But, when you ORDER a pair of 1XL really comfortable-looking cotton summer lounging pants Made in India but GET a 8XLT dark, dark Puke Green sleeveless "wool" cardigan sweater instead, well, it's gotta go back no matter how much time it takes on the phone on a Friday with Miz UPS.

You know what's funny? She's all .. I need that 47-digit tracking number, your name, address with zip code, pet's nickname, etc., and I need it NOW, and I'm all .. Which way is up on this dadgummed thang anyway and now it's stuck to my hair, and I remember full well and quite hilariously clearly when the positions would have been 180 degrees reversed and I'd be screaming inside Lawd, free me from all this .. and now He has. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-10-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

Post #2565. It was a litttle like the ugly-baby christening. The wedding pictures, "Oh, how precious!" (ugh!) She was lovely in the carefully-selected I'm sure white wedding gown with all the trimmings. He, on the other hand, is apparently his own man and does things his way. Long, long Kenny-G curly hair, unshaven, white wrikled shirt with the sleeves rolled up, slept-in baggy trousers, sandals. The guests all dressed like him. Even the wedding cake ...

well, at least she'll have the dress for her grandaughter. Perhaps by then style and tradition will have returned. Am I being catty? Yes. Good! Bottom line is that I'm fed up with long hair and three-day beards, We've become a slob society, wearing clown clothes.

Occasionally a pop-up gets past the blocker. One did today. Impressed with its perspicacity, I clicked on it. I usually do, if only to charge the owner and create a little economic activity. It was for careers. Oh good, just what I need. Let's see .. my age, "over 70," occupational interest, "Technology," Zip Code, I made up 22630. And my winning selection: WYOTECH in Dayton, Florida: Asian Motorcycle Technology. I'd jump on it except for one thing I learned by experience in the hotel business: If they have an address or a card from FLORIDA or ARIZONA .. run away, run like the wind.

I was thumbing through one of my childhood books and ran across a story of the alligator (villain) and the jackal (our hero.) Several situations illustrated the dimwittedness of the alligator versus our very clever jackal. In the end, the jackal tricks the alligator into hiding in his house which he then lights on fire and burns him to death. The only conclusion I could draw from this story is that we kids weren't that bright either, but we did seem to enjoy gruesome murder. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-09-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Post #2564. Salmon. I'll try not to go crazy this time. This is a picture of the Elwha hydroelectric dam in Washington State. We used to be famous for them, but now we are more famous for salmon and the lengths we will go to preserve them.

We are tearing down this dam in order to restore the colossal salmon run which existed before it was constructed in 1913. The estimated price for this job is $350,000,000.00 which is expected easily to double. No matter. It's about the salmon. Experts differ on just how huge the actual salmon might be, the ones which have been waiting all of these years to swim upriver and spawn. We shall soon see.

But, what about the electricity generated by that dam? No worry. We have this,

the equally magnificent Centralia Big Hanaford Coal-fired Power Plant, recently expanded by another 1,000 Megawatts. There is enough coal near this plant to last 1,779 years.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-09-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Post #2563. When it's sunny and festive. No one has any idea where all of these thousands of people spend the other 364 days of the year, but when we have that lovely, warm sunny day, usually towards the end of July, first of August, here they come. So much pent-up energy and joy. Soon enough, later that afternoon usually, it will cloud up, get a little misty and cool, and they fade away. I think this may be where a lot of Seattle's music comes from. Oh, not from these guys; they're just the inspiration.

Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Post #2562. Number Five. That's who/what you remind me of, Googlebot.

Did you know the 10th anniversary of 9-11 is coming up? If not, where have you been, Pluto? At least in ten more years fully 80-90 million Americans will have no personal memory of that day, and maybe then the remembrances will get toned down a little bit. In the meantime, the wrenching overdoneness continues. Everybody's got a story or an angle.

I had to refill a prescription that day. This isn't so much a 9-11 story as it is a pair of pharmacy stories. The strange and shy cashier who never spoke above a whisper asked me for I.D. to support my credit card. She had probably checked me out a hundred times before, never with the slightest hint of recognition. This was evidently their thing to do that day, make sure no terrorists were about, ready to create mayhem with their stolen credit cards. Otherwise, the store was deathly silent.

Another time, in the other pharmacy (lots of old people around here, lots of pharmacies,) I approached the raised platform to perform my periodic supplication and hopefully get some pills when I noticed a heavyset man, shirtless, lying on his back on the floor. He wasn't moving. There was no Medic One rig in front of the store and no firemen about. No one was paying any attention. The man was Clearly Dead. The pharmacist handed me the pills, I paid and left. I haven't been back to that pharmacy. It's been about ten years, and hopefully someone has looked after the body by now. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-08-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Post #2561. I know, I know .. There has just been so much going on. Really? Of course not. Oh, in the wide word, yes certainly. Do I care? Yes, I pretend to very much. I even post things on sites where people argue endlessly and no one every changes his mind. Funny how we never give up.

Wednesday was the most beautiful day in the history of the world. Ah, teetering toward the manic again, I see. Why yes, thanks for noticing.

For fellow astronomy nerds, a supermassive black hole has ingested a star in a galaxy about 4.5 billion light years from here. It was reported as, "scientists have discovered and viewed," when in fact,

On March 28, a detector on the Earth-orbiting Swift observatory picked up a sudden burst of radiation from a point in the constellation Draco, 4.5 billion light-years away. It automatically swiveled around to point its X-ray telescope toward the odd activity.

As is routine, it then beamed a text message down to hundreds of astronomers.

So, just to be completely accurate, "we" didn't discover this phenomenon, a machine did. We just got a message and looked. Get used to this sort of thing happening more and more.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-08-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

Post #2560. Exaweek. DataPacRat. That's his virtual identity - real name is Daniel Boese, a Canadian. I know, nobody thinks a Canadian can be brilliant, but this one is. I run across him on the Internet about once every five years and discover an amazing jungle of content, more stuff than I could ever even absorb, much less create. I call it a jungle because you just keep going deeper and deeper into directories and subs- until it's hard to find the way out. Not to mention the over-my-head part. Anyway, the most interesting thing (to me) was this .. copy/pasting:

Anonymous 03-24-2005 at 05:25:20 PM

We all know that time-travel can be tricky when calendar systems
change; switching from Julian to Gregorian was bad enough, but there
are leap-seconds, "there is no year 0", and other annoyances, even
without jumping to Hebrew, Islamic, Chinese, or less well-known dating
systems. And so, for all you prospective time-travellers, I offer this
possibility for thought: Instead of worrying about all of the above,
simply count the number of seconds from a well-defined reference point
- let us say, the first man-made nuclear blast at Trinity.

Also, I'm attaching a few oddly standard time periods; I checked with
Google, and it seems I'm the first person to ever write 'exaweek'
online.

Trinity Reference Time:
Monday, July 16, 1945
05:29:45 Mountain War Time (11:29:45 Greenwich)

-432,300,000,000,000,000 T: 13,700,000,000 BC (Big Bang)
-315,564,829,000,000,000 T: 10,000,000,000 BC
-144,200,000,000,000,000 T: 4,570,000,000 BC (Earth formed)
-113,600,000,000,000,000 T: 3,600,000,000 BC (First life)
-31,556,538,200,000,000 T: 1,000,000,000 BC
-19,000,000,000,000,000 T: 600,000,000 BC (Multicellular animals appear)
-7,131,800,000,000,000 T: 226,000,000 BC (Sun made one revolution around galaxy)
-3,155,709,040,000,000 T: 100,000,000 BC
-2,067,000,000,000,000 T: 65,500,000 BC (K-T Extinction)
-631,190,900,000,000 T: 20,000,000 BC (First forms of grass appear)
-315,626,132,000,000 T: 10,000,000 BC
-157,843,748,000,000 T: 5,000,000 BC (Humans and chimpanzees split)
-31,617,840,600,000 T: 1,000,000 BC
-22,150,897,600,000 T: 700,000 BC (Reversal of Earth's magnetic field)
-18,995,249,900,000 T: 600,000 BC (Humans able to produce sounds of spoken language)
-9,528,306,870,000 T: 300,000 BC (Homo sapiens seperates from Homo erectus)
-4,794,835,350,000 T: 150,000 BC (Mitochondrial Eve)
-3,217,011,506,985 T: Jan 1, 100,000 BC
-1,639,187,666,985 T: Jan 1, 50,000 BC
-850,275,746,985 T: 25,000 BC (Neanderthals die out)
-692,493,362,985 T: Jan 1, 20,000 BC
-440,041,548,585 T: Jan 1, 12,000 BC
-376,928,594,985 T: Jan 1, 10,000 BC (Beginning of neolithic)
-358,941,403,209 T: 9,430 BC (End of ice age)
-313,815,641,385 T: 8,000 BC (Jericho founded)
-219,146,210,985 T: Jan 1, 5,000 BC
-187,589,734,185 T: Jan 1, 4,000 BC
-168,655,848,105 T: 3400 BC (Bronze age begins)
-165,500,200,425 T: 3300 BC (Sumerians develop Cuneiform)
-159,188,905,065 T: 3100 BC (Stonehenge construction started.)
-156,033,257,385 T: Jan 1, 3,000 BC
-153,508,739,241 T: 2920 BC (Egyptian Dynasty I)
-142,463,972,361 T: 2570 BC (Great Pyramid built)
-140,255,018,985 T: 2500 BC (horse domesticated in China)
-124,476,780,585 T: Jan 1, 2,000 BC
-118,165,485,225 T: 1,800 BC (Iron age begins)
-92,920,303,785 T: Jan 1, 1,000 BC
-61,363,826,985 T: Saturday, January 1, 1 00:00:00
-61,079,830,185 T: Wednesday, January 1, 10 00:00:00
-58,239,689,385 T: Wednesday, January 1, 100 00:00:00
-29,837,849,385 T: Monday, January 1, 1000 00:00:00
-11,292,953,385 T: Sunday, August 27, 1587 00:00:00 (Last person to leave Roanoke)
-11,199,036,585 T: Tuesday, August 18, 1590 00:00:00 (Return to empty Roanoke)
-10,903,289,385 T: Tuesday, January 1, 1600 00:00:00
-10,000,000,000 T: Friday, August 15, 1628 17:43:05
-9,000,000,000 T: Thursday, May 3, 1660 19:29:45
-8,000,000,000 T: Sunday, January 10, 1692 21:16:25
-7,747,529,385 T: Monday, January 1, 1700 00:00:00
-7,000,000,000 T: Thursday, September 19, 1723 23:03:05
-6,000,000,000 T: Thursday, May 29, 1755 00:49:45
-5,000,000,000 T: Sunday, February 4, 1787 02:36:25
-4,592,719,785 T: Wednesday, January 1, 1800 00:00:00
-4,000,000,000 T: Wednesday, October 14, 1818 04:23:05
-3,919,318,185 T: Saturday, May 5, 1821 00:00:00 (Napoleon dies)
-3,000,000,000 T: Saturday, June 22, 1850 06:09:45
-2,000,000,000 T: Tuesday, February 28, 1882 07:56:25
-1,437,046,185 T: Monday, January 1, 1900 00:00:00
-1,169,032,354 T: Tuesday, June 30, 1908 00:17:11 (Tunguska event)
-1,000,000,000 T: Friday, November 7, 1913 09:43:05
-174,828,585 T: Monday, January 1, 1940 00:00:00
-100,000,000 T: Saturday, May 16, 1942 01:43:05
-16,975,785 T: Monday, January 1, 1945 00:00:00
-10,000,000 T: Thursday, March 22, 1945 17:43:05
-1,337,385 T: Sunday, July 1, 1945 00:00:00
-1,000,000 T: Wednesday, July 4, 1945 21:43:05
-100,000 T: Sunday, July 15, 1945 07:43:05
-41,385 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 00:00:00
-10,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 08:43:05
-1,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:13:05
-100 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:28:05
-10 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:35
-1 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:44
0 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:45
1 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:46 (Light from blast has travelled 299,792.458 km.)
10 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:55
100 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:31:25
1,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:46:25
10,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 14:16:25
45,015 T: Tuesday, July 17, 1945 00:00:00
1,000,000 T: Saturday, July 28, 1945 01:16:25
1,341,015 T: Wednesday, August 1, 1945 00:00:00
10,000,000 T: Friday, November 9, 1945 05:16:25
14,560,215 T: Tuesday, January 1, 1946 00:00:00
100,000,000 T: Wednesday, September 15, 1948 21:16:25
140,790,615 T: Sunday, January 1, 1950 00:00:00
500,000,000 T: Saturday, May 20, 1961 12:23:05
579,164,415 T: Friday, November 22, 1963 18:30:00 (JFK assassinated)
800,000,000 T: Saturday, November 21, 1970 17:43:05
900,000,000 T: Tuesday, January 22, 1974 03:29:45
1,000,000,000 T: Thursday, March 24, 1977 13:16:25
1,750,249,815 T: Monday, January 1, 2001 00:00:00
1,883,561,091 T: Wednesday, March 23, 2005, at 22:54:36 UTC
2,000,000,000 T: Sunday, November 30, 2008 15:03:05
3,000,000,000 T: Wednesday, August 8, 2040 16:49:45
4,000,000,000 T: Saturday, April 16, 2072 18:36:25
4,874,387,415 T: Friday, January 1, 2100 00:00:00
5,000,000,000 T: Tuesday, December 25, 2103 20:23:05
6,000,000,000 T: Friday, September 2, 2135 22:09:45
7,000,000,000 T: Monday, May 11, 2167 23:56:25
8,000,000,000 T: Friday, January 18, 2199 01:43:05
8,030,061,015 T: Wednesday, January 1, 2200 00:00:00
9,000,000,000 T: Monday, September 27, 2230 03:29:45
10,000,000,000 T: Thursday, June 5, 2262 05:16:25
33,275,622,615 T: Wednesday, January 1, 3000 00:00:00
64,832,488,215 T: Saturday, January 1, 4000 00:00:00
96,388,965,015 T: Jan 1, 5000 AD
127,945,441,815 T: Jan 1, 6000 AD
159,501,918,615 T: Jan 1, 7000 AD
191,058,395,415 T: Jan 1, 8000 AD
222,614,872,215 T: Jan 1, 9000 AD
254,171,349,015 T: Jan 1, 10,000 AD.
569,736,117,015 T: Jan 1, 20,000 AD
1,516,430,421,015 T: Jan 1, 50,000 AD
3,094,254,261,015 T: Jan 1, 100,000 AD
1.26219768e15 T: 40,000,000 AD (Australia slams into Asia)
7.13170236e15 T: 226,000,000 AD (Solar system makes one revolution around galaxy)
1.42004084e17 T: 4,500,000,000 AD (Sun becomes red giant)
6.31129475e17 T: 20,000,000,000 AD (Possible 'Big Rip' end of the universe)
1.32537196e18 T: 42,000,000,000 AD (Earliest possible 'Big Crunch')
3.15564768e21 T: 10^14 AD (End of Stelliferous Age, galaxy and star formation ceases)
3.15564768e22 T: 10^15 AD (Planets flung from orbits)
3.15564768e23 T: 10^16 AD (Stars flung from orbits)
3.15564768e43 T: 10^36 AD (Half of protons decay)
3.15564768e47 T: 10^40 AD (All protons decay)
3.15564768e157 T: 10^150 AD (All black holes decay)

(Program used: http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html ("The
calculation is performed using USA calendar system, and UTC-time, so
no local time zones or leap seconds is taken into consideration." ),
plus a healthy dose of Google Calculator.)

1 second
1.209 seconds = 1 microfortnight.
3.155 seconds = 1 nanocentury.
3.6 seconds = 1 millihour
6 seconds = 1 deciminute
8.64 seconds = 1 myrioday.
10 seconds = 1 decasecond
31.556 seconds = 1 microyear. 1 nanomillenium.
36 seconds = 1 centihour
60 seconds = 1 minute.
60.48 seconds = 1 myrioweek. 1.008 minutes.
86.4 seconds = 1 milliday. 1.44 minutes.
100 seconds = 1 hectosecond. 1.667 minutes.
120.96 seconds = 1 myriofortnight. 2.016 minutes.
315.564 seconds = 1 microdecade.
360 seconds = 1 decihour. 6 minutes.
600 seconds = 1 decaminute. 10 minutes.
604.8 seconds = 1 milliweek. 10.08 minutes.
864 seconds = 1 centiday. 14.4 minutes.
1,000 seconds 1 kilosecond. 16.67 minutes.
1,209.6 seconds = 1 millifortnight. 20.16 minutes.
3,155.647 seconds = 1 myrioyear. 52.594 minutes. 1 microcentury.
3,600 seconds = 1 hour. 60 minutes.
6,000 seconds = 1 hectominute. 1.667 hours.
6,048 seconds = 1 centiweek. 1.68 hours.
8,640 seconds = 1 deciday. 2.4 hours.
10,000 seconds = 1 myriasecond. 2.778 hours.
12,096 seconds = 1 centifortnight. 2.4 hours.
31,556.476 seconds = 1 milliyear. 8.765 hours. 1 micromillenium. 1 myriodecade.
36,000 seconds = 1 decahour. 10 hours.
60,000 seconds = 1 kilominute. 16.667 hours.
60,480 seconds = 1 deciweek. 16.8 hours.
86,400 seconds = 1 day. 24 hours.
120,960 seconds = 1 decifortnight. 1.4 days.
315,564.768 seconds = 1 centiyear. 3.652 days. 1 myriocentury. 1 millidecade.
360,000 seconds = 1 hectohour. 4.167 days.
600,000 seconds = 1 myriaminute. 6.944 days.
604,800 seconds = 1 week. 7 days.
864,000 seconds = 1 decaday. 10 days.
1,000,000 seconds = 1 megasecond. 11.574 days.
1,209,600 seconds = 1 fortnight. 14 days.
2,360,594.88 seconds = 1 sidereal month. 27.321 days.
3,155,647.68 seconds = 1 deciyear. 36.523 days. 1 myriomillenium. 1 millicentury. 1 centidecade.
3,600,000 seconds = 1 kilohour. 41.667 days.
6,048,000 seconds = 1 decaweek. 70 days.
8,640,000 seconds = 1 hectoday. 100 hours.
12,096,000 seconds = 1 decafortnight. 140 days.
31,556,476.8 seconds = 1 year. 365.2 days. 1 millimillenium. 1 centicentury. 1 decidecade.
36,000,000 seconds = 1 myriahour. 1.14079553 years.
60,000,000 seconds = 1 megaminute. 1.90132588 years.
60,480,000 seconds = 1 hectoweek. 1.91653649 years.
86,400,000 seconds = 1 kiloday. 2.73790926 years.
120,960,000 seconds = 1 hectofortnight. 3.83307297 years.
315,564,768 seconds = 1 decade. 10 years. 1 centimillenium. 1 decicentury. 1 decayear.
604,800,000 seconds = 1 kiloweek. 19.1653649 years.
864,000,000 seconds = 1 myriaday. 27.3790926 years.
1,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigasecond. 31.6887646 years.
1,209,600,000 seconds = 1 kilofortnight. 38.3307297 years.
3,155,647,680 seconds = 1 century. 100 years. 1 decimillenium. 1 decadecade. 1 hectoyear.
3,600,000,000 seconds = 1 megahour. 114.079553 years.
6,048,000,000 seconds = 1 myriaweek. 191.653649 years.
12,096,000,000 seconds = 1 myriafortnight. 383.307297 years.
31,556,476,800 seconds = 1 millenium. 1,000 years. 1 kiloyear 1 hectodecade. 1 decacentury.
60,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigaminute. 1,901.32588 years.
86,400,000,000 seconds = 1 megaday. 2,737.90926 years.
315,564,768,000 seconds = 1 kilodecade. 10,000 years. 1 hectocentury. 1 myrioyear. 1 decamillenium.
604,800,000,000 seconds = 1 megaweek. 19,165.3649 years.
1,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 terasecond. 31,688.7646 years.
1,209,600,000,000 seconds = 1 megafortnight. 38,330.7297 years.
3,155,647,680,000 seconds = 1 myriadecade. 100,000 years. 1 kilocentury. 1 hectomillenium.
3,600,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigahour. 114,079.553 years.
31,556,476,800,000 seconds = 1 mega-annum, 1 megayear. 1,000,000 years. 1 myriacentury. 1 kilomillenium.
60,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teraminute
86,400,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigaday.
315,564,768,000,000 seconds = 1 megadecade. 10,000,000 years. 1 myriamillenium.
604,800,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000 seconds = 1 megacentury. 100,000,000 years.
3,600,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 terahour
31,556,476,800,000,000 seconds = 1 giga-annum, 1 gigayear. 1,000,000,000 years. 1 megamillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teraday
315,564,768,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teraweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 terafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000 seconds = 1 tera-annum, 1 terayear. 1 gigamillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 examinute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teradecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teracentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 peta-annum, 1 petayear. 1 teramillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exa-annum, 1 exayear. 1 petamillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zetta-annum, 1 zettayear. 1 examillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottaweek
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yotta-annum, 1 yottayear. 1 zettamillenium.
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentaweek
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottacentury
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xenta-annum, 1 xentayear. 1 yottamillenium.
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentadecade
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentacentury
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentamillenium.

Thank you for your time,
DataPacRat

I wanted to share this because it is the sort of thing that puts me in a Time Mood where I can (try and) think far-out stuff. Like that post awhile back which I've got to get back to and make more sensible. Also, Daniel mentioned that he was the only person in electrons to use the word "exaweek." I searched Google, and he still was. Of course, I always have to correct Google: NO, Google, -"exam week". Wish they would personalize their fancy schmancy algorithms a little more, short of draining my life energy and stealing everything I have, that is, e.g., Rick wants exactly what he typed, nothing more or less. Oh, they're evil all right; they just just think we're too dumb to realize it yet.

By the way, remember googlewhack? I got up to 7th in the world and stayed there quite awhile until I realized it was devouring my life. Just think how many points you could run up with exaweek. Two of us now.

* Yes, for the many readers who may have noticed, this was a re-run. It was about to scroll of the current page into nothingness, i.e., archives. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-08-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

Post #2559. He came back. This is likely the end of our story )Post #2557,) and it's important that the last chapter be told. My little miniature wasp buddy returned. I can't tell you how I know it was the same one, it just was. I started washing dishes, and there he was - right in the same spot on the window screen. He had discharged a messy pile of something on the screen. I didn't say anything. That would have been stupid. Instead, I just scraped him into the same bottle as before and took him to the front door this time. He did not Look Well At All, the old legs-in-the-air flat-on-his-back routine. Finally got him dumped out, and he did manage to fly away, took one turn around me and tried to hold on, but I brushed him away. Let's not get carried away here; he is/was? a WASP after all. The flowers have a lot of them this year, but no bees at all. A sign? Maybe. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-08-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Post #2558. Yankee Go Home. We're used to it. Although America is universally despised in every Urban Megametromonstrosity, Burg, Community, Village and Shithole around the world now, it wasn't always like that. People generally liked us until they met somebody 'mericun or saw us on the tee-vee. And it isn't all because we won't let them kill the Jews, though that's a big part. No, it was pretty much Dallas and 90210. I don't know whose idea it was to beam our wretched excess into every leaky shack around the world, but I'd like to meet and throttle him. Bad enough that we were watching that crap; at least we knew it was a joke.

Renault and some Japanese car company (think it was Nissan) are thinking about joining up with (absorbing) General Motors and forming a Massive Global Automobile Conglomerate, headquartered in and run from France, of course. Have you ever seen a Renault? Have you ever seen a Renault and not laughed right out loud? We actually owned one, I am not kidding you. It was in France, which helps soften it a smidge, in 1953. I can still see the ridiculous little green turd sitting out front of our house next to the '49 Buick. My dad drove it to work. From then until the end of his life he had to live with the one word argument demolisher: RENAULT. When this little merger of unequals goes through, and it will, you can draw a line and make a short entry in your nightly diary, End of Life as We Knew It.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-08-05T01:37:00.000-07:00

Post #2557. A Bug story. It didn't start out as a bug story. I was washing dishes and enjoying the warm breeze from a window which would soon have to be closed to keep in the air conditioning. In my mind, I was working a story about and old man and a blackbird. It's been done. That's what I kept telling myself, but I persisted, thinking I could do a better one. It was important to frame the story from the perspective of the old man as well as the bird without dipping into anthropomorphism. This was important, so I thought very hard about the mind of this bird. The story revolves around the relationship developing between the two when the man begins leaving shiny baubles on top of a tall tree stump for the bird to find. In fact, the story opens when the glint of the first gift catches the very fine eye of the bird.

My anthropomorphism issue came into play when one day the man stumbles, falls to the ground and doesn't move. In an arduous bit of development, I finally get the bird to the man and have him gently peck at the man's face. The man opens his eyes and says something along the lines of, "Think I'm a goner, old pal, unless you can go for help." Just as I was trying to pose this bit of interaction in the bird's brain, a wasp flew right around my head and almost nudged me a couple of times. Then he flew to the window and spent the next hour trying to find a way outside. As I was reaching for the flyswatter, something stopped me. How could I kill this hapless creature at the same time I was writing a story about the heartwarming friendship which develops between a man and a bird? Naturally, the only thing to do at that point was rescue him. So I did. I won't bore you with the ridiculous and awkward effort which followed, but I did manage to set him free through a screen that opened in the bathroom window on another floor.

Naturally, blog, I won't be telling this to anyone but you.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-07-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

Post #2556. Sunday noise. Sunday noise seems to bother me more than the other days. I've written about the daily noise in this, the noisiest spot on earth. I'm okay with most of it. On Sunday however, dear neighbor goes to Mass early and lets Yappy Dog out. As soon as she hits the back yard, Horny Little Wiener Dog from the next house goes crazy. He isn't fixed, and he has the perpetually unrequited hots for Miss Yappy. They both bark for about two hours, the time it takes for dear neighbor to go to church, do whatever else she does and come home. I can live with all that.

However, The two yappies tend to set off Big Dog, the extremely huge and loud woof-woof type monster who lives behind us, and everydog else within miles. He just barks, and barks, and barks, never pausing. Long after whatever it was that startled him awake has passed, he keeps barking. Now, Horny Dog and Big Dog are just two of about thirty that don't belong to people who go to regular church. No, these owners all go to the Mega Church where they Hallelujah and Praise the Lord all day and night. When they finally get home, their dogs are starving and nearly wild. By the time everydog gets calmed down and fed, late Sunday nights are eerily quiet around here. Well, until ... since I like the house cool at night ... I turn the thermostat way down and kick the air conditioner on. Varooooom. Hallelujah Everybody. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-07-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Post #2555. Notifications. Did I tell the blog that my youngest brother died? Can't remember. Well, he did, about eleven months ago. Due to circumstances at the time, it passed differently than the way those things usually go. I didn't really do any of the proper things. No excuse, I just didn't. So, today I get an email from our closest cousin, Cousin Janice, "Sooo, how are you guys doing? Been Awhile." She's the closest because it has been only 26 years since I've seen her, as compared with 55 years for the others. Also, we've emailed. I brought her up to date, told her about Brother and also mentioned I have cancer. Figured I might as well get it all over with and only cause the agony of one reply instead of several. I just hope she doesn't want to come see me. She does have a habit of jumping on planes.

One of the few people I did notify was family friend Dave. In his sympathy letter back, he went on quite a bit about things they had done together. I had no idea. They were the same age, and I was away at college over those years. Along with his remembrances, he mentioned how much fun the three of them had together, Dave, my brother and Russ. Russ? Other friend of the family, Russ? Oh jeez, he doesn't know. Russ is dead too. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-07-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Post #2554. Really? Even in greenie-weenie Seattle, I wouldn't be surprised to see thousands and thousands of these tiny strips of paper flying around in the breeze, caught on barbed wire, stopping up storm drains, choking pigeons and who knows what else.

just because people know when enough is too much. As for me, this is where I live,

and I have to tell you, I do not save water and I do not save electricity.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-07-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Post #2553. Everything is okay. I've a confession to make, however: been posting in another place. A complete waste of time but addicting in a annoying mild narcotic sort of way. I hope to kick it before too long. Basically, this is just for the googlebot because, bless its soulless self, it doesn't care what you type so long as you provide output. (I always picture the googlebot as appearing much like Number Five, but with zero personality, sadly.)

There was an advertisement for K-Mart layaway. I didn't know this plan still existed, and I doubt if many people under forty or so have even heard of it. Still, buying something at K-Mart and then having to put it on layaway, wow, that's really getting down to basics. Sign of the times.

At the utter opposite of the say-whut spectrum, American Express wants to be more relevant to the Facebook experience. Say whut? That's what they said. If I had the time, I would join American Express on Facebook and claim to be a Black Card Holder and lord it over the lesser cardholders. Interesting phrasing, black card holder versus black cardholder. What am I saying? Of course I have the time.

Some songs for your pod, if you have one. I don't.

Land of 1000 Dances - Cannibal and the Headhunters
Cupid - Sam Cooke
Good Lovin'- The Rascals

These three tunes are guaranteed to perk up your day, no matter what.
Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-07-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

Post #2552. Conversation with the sister-in-law. These days, they go something like this:

Her: Hello? Anyone there?

Me: Armmpff.

Her: So, what's up?

Me: Not much. Just trying out some chores.

Her: Trying out?

Me: Yes. What you might call multi-tasking if it wasn't the aimless, unrelated starts and stops of a person with creeping dementia.

Her: I know what you mean. Except mine is galloping. Just today, I and from there about twelve minutes elapse while she tells me about her day so ... what's up?

Me: I was going to call you, just in case I said I would.

Her: You did.

Me: What?

Her: Say you would.

We do eventually get down to some actual conversation and, more often than not, remember large portions of it. For now anyway.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-07-04T01:51:00.000-07:00

Post #2551. Classics. Occasionally, I'll post on opinion sites. More often than not someone will call me a f****** moron, or gramps. The young these days. I don't care. If they get too mouthy, I tell them to make sure their W-2's are up to date. Huh? Just keep that 7.65% coming, sonny, and you can call me whatever clever thing you want. Man, are they going to be pissed when the rate goes back up after this year. Most of them are so dumb they think they got a raise.

Anyway, I do feel sorry for them, having no future and all. If they drop out, they face a life of receiving, storing, shipping, stocking and ringing up stuff that stinks cause it's made in China. Either that or the worse fate of typing into a television set for the next forty years. If they do get an "education," or what passes for one anymore, they can look forward to a miserable existence of underemployment and bitterness, saddled for life with a crushing debt of college loans.

You've mentioned that before, the stink. Yeah, and I'm going to keep on mentioning it. We may have been a little pushy and made a few mistakes when we ran the world, but at least it didn't stink.

Pretty grim when you consider the only thing that's going to save our butts is about ten years of rampant inflation. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-06-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Post #2550. This will be interesting. This man is a new arrival in Seattle, the incoming President of the University of Washington, Michael K. Young.

Now, let me say up front that I've known a lot of Mormons, and I generally like them. I've never felt a need to mock or belittle them, even though I think their religion is ridiculous. Michael Young is a Mormon, a descendant of Brigham Young himself no less. That said, Young takes charge here in an environment which is erschreckend politisch korrekt, except for Mormons and Christian Conservatives. These are fair game in Seattle. I won't be invited to any of the fancy events scheduled for the welcoming, but I imagine they will be like those for the first "Negro" way back when. Uncomfortable and proper.

All I wanted to say right out loud was could a man possibly look more like a Mormon? And could that be more perfect for Seattle, or whut? And finally, where on earth was he when they were casting for Big Love? There, I've let it out. Feel better.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-06-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

Post #2549. Ivory, the final. At last. Here is a short history of my situation with Ivory, the soap. I typed these posts awhile back:

Sunday, March 29, 2009

#2388. Soap Sayings. Try this one,
Making the very simple complicated is easy
Making the complicated simple is brilliant.
and thus Ivory introduces you to its new version of soap. If that isn't classy enough for you, they even translate it into French. I composed a third line,

Taking fetid factory and barnyard products and making them soapy and smelling like a warm summer breeze wafting over roses is miraculous.
Aren't you being a little hard on Ivory soap? I wrote to them, you know. Never answered. All I wanted to know was if they stashed any of the old Ivory, the Legacy Ivory, Classic Ivory, True Ivory (for the search) somewhere, so old true users might have just one little innocent lather before they pass on. Money no object, as if that would matter. It's clear to me now, the Top People at Ivory stashed plenty of Classic Ivory all right, in their private vaults two levels beneath their safe rooms at hideaway apocalypse estates far up in the hills. Tons of it, for them and their progeny until the end of time.

Meanwhile, I vigorously rubbed up the last few feeble bubbles of my last bar today. It was so .. soapy .. sweet, and unscented, just like a baby. Or like a baby used to be. From now on you will close your eyes and instead of precious babysmell you'll get a snoutful of China.

Friday, December 26, 2008

#2337. Trying to contact Ivory. I haven't given up on my quest to find pure, original Ivory soap. The scent of that new stuff is so awful that I feel like lathering my hands in dirt instead, then rinsing them off. Also, it feels really stupid using dishwashing liquid in the shower.

I decided to write them. Oh sure, they offshore all their customer communications just like Albertsons, well, former Albertsons, with whom I had a lot of contact before they forgot how to do groceries and sold the company ... anyway, they send all the writing to places like India where people with zero authority to do anything type up an answer for you. They are awfully nice and write far better in English than we do. Don't bother getting a back-and-forth going, for you will never get a reply from the original fake name again.

So, I went to Proctor & Gamble. Yes, it still exists, but who knows where, Belgium most likely. They give you a form, but FIRST you must navigate a field of 90-some FAQ's so they can limit your question to the least bothersome topic possible. Then, you fill out an FBI interrogation with your life history and information. Once you've passed all these checkpoints, you get a message telling you to wait and not to click on backspace; your query will be answered in a few moments. No surprise, nothing ever happens. That screen has been on my computer in its own window for three days now, in "pressed down," waiting mode. I know it will never go; I'm just waiting to see if it has a timeout somewhere beyond 72 hours.

I wish there was a way to contact P&G's research department, assuming they still even have one. Somebody seriously needs to get, buy, steal or duplicate that unearthly scent stuff the Chinese put in the Ivory Soap to make it not stink quite so bad. Especially at times like Christmas Day when your whole house could use a good dose of it. It's a tossup: a rose-tossed-in-a-cesspool smell of the New Ivory, or the original and ubiquitous "Scent of China" on everything else.

But tonight I can announce news on the Sweet Ivory front: Old Wonderful Ivory is back! I hadn't thought about it for awhile and had actually adjusted to that light, unwelcome waft of perfume at each washing, and I did not notice the change when it went away. Not only that, but the message on the package is gone as well.

We will never know how it happened. Proctor&Gamble certainly isn't going to admit an error of this colossalness. And I have No Problem with that so long as they keep churning out the old stuff. Maybe I should buy up a ton of it like I did with 100-watt light bulbs?

So nice to win one or a change. Maybe there's hope ...? Don't be ridiculous. This is one thing. Soap. There will never be hope anymore. Okay.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-06-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Post #2548. More Mad inspiration.

The expansive and wonderful
place which fills your field of view
behind this sign is a
facility for poverty things,
built and equipped entirely
with a generous gift from
Senator Ted Kennedy
Lion of the Senate

Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-06-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

Post #2547. Numbers. Try this sometime. When you're copying a number, at least 10 digits, instead of saying the integers to yourself before turning to copy them, do it completely visually. Skip the brain step and don't "think" the number. You'll find (I did anyway) that you can copy a longer series, more accurately. Have to clear your thoughts entirely though, otherwise you'll get to the copy step completely blank. Interesting. I haven't tried it with anything but numbers. Might have to do with my pre-senility.

I watched a few minutes of Glee tonight. Really. I've no idea about the storyline except the hard-faced blonde is a supposed villain (but with a heart, secretly,) that there's a gay kid (oh really, what a surprise) and there is a whole lot of talent. It was the last thing that interested me. Good grief. They did two numbers while I was watching and both were better than anything that currently wins those ridiculous contests and awards shows. All over on little old Channel 13.

Speaking of Channel 13, I heard House is about done. Any bets on who gets to kill him? I'm conflicted, and since I haven't really followed the show except when reruns pop up somewhere, I'm not qualified to vote. (Okay, I like 13 for it.)Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-06-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Post #2546. New Today. A story from Los Angeles: At 2AM, south of downtown, seems a drunk woman driver, talking on a cellphone, plowed her car into a group of about 100 bicyclists, injuring eleven of them. The bikers belonged to "Midnight Ridazz," a Koreatown bicycling group which goes for late night group biking excursions. I read the comments which followed the article, 780 so far. Yes, there was something for everyone in that story.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-06-15T01:17:00.000-07:00

Post #2545. Waste, Fraud and Abuse. Pass this along. It could get you into heated conversations or typebates if you enjoy that sort of thing. It just dawned on me today that Waste, Fraud and Abuse .. do not matter. Not an iota of difference in the end result, pumping money into the economy. If anything, WFA is more efficient since it requires no administration or oversight. I remember arguing back in college (unsuccessfully) that while the Marshall Plan did some good in the recovery of Europe after World War II, it was the black market trade in Lucky Strike cigarettes which really jump-started the economies of Western Europe, beginning with Germany. Heck, I was just a kid, living in Germany in 1952 and I remember wondering why the big deal about cigarettes? My parents smoked, but all of us Americans were warned vigorously not to let the Germans get their hands on any of our precious smokes. Enough g.i.'s and their willing German counterparts defied this strict rule, and the result is the German economic owerhouse of today. Wish now I had been a bit more brave and entrepreneurial back then.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

Post #2544. Daphne. Reading the Sunday paper, Home & Gardens section. I know. I was drawn to this one shrubbery that I have just the place for, as soon as the dandelions are gone. The lady across the street says her mother-in-law has a foolproof concoction that works every time and doesn't kill anything else. Hmmm heard that before. Anyway, speaking of killing, the shrubbery,

called Daphne x transatlantica, or "Summer Ice," is large and long-blooming and does something most of the year. Just what I need. Only .. "despite these virtues, daphnes are heartbreakers. No other plant up and dies so unexpectedly and often." Perfect. Mine would die on the way home in the car. I'll keep looking. And this time, whatever I get will not end up in the corner of .. that room (you know the one I mean - it's on the way out back, has a concrete floor, a dirty sink, shelves, rubber boots, boxes of garden tools and fertilizer) where I never go.

Another place I never go is my back yard. It is completely wild, and my neighbors are not too happy about that. I don't mean "wild" like your typical overgrown suburban lot that could be completely cleaned up by a couple of stoner teenagers over a weekend. I mean this is wild and impassible. This morning, I looked up from washing dishes and a raccoon was watching me from about twenty-five feet away. Don't remember ever seeing one in the daytime before. They move so slowly and casually as if they've not a concern in the world, something pretty dumb to believe here in Dog City. I had been leaving a slice of bread out occasionally for the blue jays, and it's likely this raccoon heard about it. They do love bread.

My Virginia relative, second cousins and up, love to shoot raccoons. Yeah, they're country all right. Good ol' boys. My second cousin "Dot" was real close to being Deliverance, at least the way he talked, and would he ever go on and on about the coons. It didn't take too long before I could understand what he was saying. He took brother and me out in the forest last time we were back in Virginia. Eighty-some years old and you should have seen him scamper up them trails. (You get to pickin' it up real quick back thar.) Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

Post #2543. Today in time travel. It wasn't so much the invention of time travel that wrecked the Universe, it was making the application available to anyone who wanted to take a ride. And that's what happens when you have an idea but no time to pry it out. It goes into drafts until one day you return, have no idea where you were going with that and write something else, like 30 Rock. was this a brilliant piece of comedy writing or what?

I told her to stay/I didn't want her to leave/This is my fault ... leave

And finally, from the the irony file: US nuclear aircraft carrier evacuates from Japanese radioactive threat. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Post #2542. I took a week off. I found a discussion forum to post in and got involved, until I realized that it makes no sense to debate with anonymous persons who are deranged and have no lives.

Think about this: somewhere in this country is the worst brain surgeon in the entire United States, operating away.

Last week, during the 60 Minutes' interview with President Obama, they cut the sound very briefly while he was speaking. It intrigued me because they never do that. Once you say it on 60 Minutes, they've got you. Curious, I ran it back several times, but I could not read his lips to understand what words were deleted. So I went to the CBS site where a transcript was posted and saw that the words were; "wealthy, you know," referring to a hypothetical Dubai prince as the sort of person who might have actually been in the compound instead of Bin Laden had the intelligence been wrong. The only thing I can figure is that the President is trying to remove words like "you know" from his discourse, and CBS decided to cut him a break. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Post #2541. Today's cartoon. The first panel shows a scholarly type fellow at a desk, "scratch, scratch," diligently working figures. In the next panel, we see him at a lectern, addressing a group of scientists, reporters, interested persons, "If we act soon," he says, there is still time to reverse the effects that humanity has had upon the climate."

The next two panels show the same thing, only "reverse" is replaced by "halt."

Next two: "if we act soon" is replaced by "if we act Now."

Finally, he reports in the last panel, "I'm afraid there is no more time. Nothing we do now will have any effect upon the looming climate disaster. Accordingly, I'd like to announce that I am leaving my position as Professor of Climatology and will be looking for a job doing something else." I don't get it. This will never happen.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

Post #2540. Amazingly convenient. Right about the time I started to fall apart and a lot of walking, bending, lifting, pushing, seeing, searching and checking-out became more difficult, home grocery delivery arrived. Costs the same, pretty much, and the shopping ladies do a far better job of selecting that I ever could. They even send my 7 oranges a week in a range from firm to soft n' ripe. Can you believe it? Oh, that's not all. No sooner did I swear off housework forever and render my home un-guestable, friend-media started. Now I have "friends" I can "see" (or not) whenever I want. I have classmate friends from my high school who graduated 15-30 years after I did! It doesn't even matter because we'll never meet. Got a great post from one just tonight. She is so cool it's as if we've always known one another. Our high school itself is in Japan, and neither of us has been back there. Probably wrecked from the earthquake anyway; it's up there in that part of the country. Another girl who I actually knew in school, 3rd grade in a Quonset hut, has been corresponding for almost ten years. We will never see one another again (I hope anyway,) so it's great keeping in touch by typing. My doctor contacts me by email. Pretty much everyone does for that matter. My phone rarely rings. I turn it off at nap and bedtime. Since those periods of the day/night occupy about a third of the day, most people who know me have just given up. I have no problem with that at all. The sister-in-law is a notable exception to that. She will call anytime and will always say, "Oh, you're up," to remind me how annoying it is for her to call and get no answer. Like it would matter.

All this medical crap has crimped my existence however. Before, getting a driver's license renewed or having the car serviced were the only two circumstances where I had to leave the house. Now these doctors have me driving all over. Not only that, I have to be on time. Something has to give. I worked too hard to get here.

Speaking of medical crap, I was re-reading some reports tonight. Lawyers have really changed medicine. Doctors are ridiculously careful about what they put down in writing, to the point where they really aren't saying anything useful. "No apparent sign of," "does not seem to," "very little evidence of." When there is something of note, you would want it to be flashing red and jumping off the page, maybe, but they'll just use a colon: Stage: 4. Holy shit. That's what I said anyway.

I see you managed to turn this into another how sick you are blog entry. I know. Strange, I wasn't headed there at all. Guess it was that or the weather: rained 24 days in April. My kind of April.

Ever since I quit watching national newscasts, I get my (other than newspaper) input from the squibs that Yahoo puts up when you log out of mail. Sometimes there will be as many as 5,000 comments listed after a story, most of them dumb. Do the people who have completely missed the point and then go on and type something full of grammar and spelling errors - do they know they're dumb? These are "Letters to the Editor" that never got printed, 5,000 of them. So, at least people are participating in the opinion-sharing of a thriving democracy, only no one reads the letters. That says something, only I'm not quite sure what.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

Post #2539. RE: Pakistani competence. Has there been enough written yet about the removal of Bin Laden? Of course not. I just wanted to add a note about the role of our ally, Pakistan. A great deal has been said already, and much of it has been unkind. Did they know? Could they have helped us? We will probably never know the answers. But as far as the issue of competence, well, that has been plain not fair. Why, just take a look ..

at the fence they have already constructed to protect our crashed helicopter wreckage. And we were so sure they would turn it over to the Chinese. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-05-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

Post #2538. Osama is still dead. I have to type something, anything. Just too much being said out there to ignore. Earlier, I saw this headline in our local paper and,

Bin Laden's death a relief for Seattle area woman who saw 911 attacks

simply by dumb instinct I read the article. Seattle is very provincial even though we like to point at all our world-classness stuff to assert otherwise. Inevitably, we'll quote somebody for the local perspective on a major story; better yet, we celebrity-watch shamelessly. JFK Jr seen at Farmer's Market! He really was one time, and they really wrote that.

All this celebrating bothers me a little, but I seem to be very much in the minority. Yay, somebody is dead and we did it! USA-USA-USA! is for winning a hockey match, not for killing a man after ten years of trying. Don't get me wrong - I'm very much pro-death for the right people, and this was the right person. But the only guy on the planet who is completely unaffected by the event, who is utterly calm and at peace and has zero opinion about it one way or the other is ... come one, it's not a hard question. One more clue: he isn't jumping for joy OR plotting revenge either, though some of his friends may be. So, celebrating doesn't put an exclamation point on it.

Geraldo was the worst, but then you would expect that. And this one is all over Facebook tonight:

I noticed far majority of people out in the streets were quite young, say early twenties. Thinking back, if my entire living memory was of the search for an evil man who changed a world that I will never know, and now finally my country had shot him in the face and dumped the body in the ocean, appropriately, then yeah, I'd probably be out doing a USA-USA-USA! as well.

Stay tuned. This isn't over.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day. Osama is still dead.

2011-04-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Post #2537. This thought. On Facebook (where else,) a friend (a woman,) "liked" this, a thought by somebody posted by a friend of hers. That makes it third hand and all right to copy unattributed I reckon:

Some find tru luv, some don't, but that's ok. I hrd this 2day..."There's luv that u just settle into, thn there's a different kind of luv...a kind that givs u the courage 2 b betr than u thot u could b, & nevr makes u feel less than u r...one that makes u feel like u matr, & that anything is possible." Only that kind of luv is worth fightng for.

okay, not Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The sister-in-law's grandson has figured out he gets more stuff if he lets the elders believe he still believes in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. He's 4 and smart as a squirrel. As a former smart four-year-old myself, I've got the kid's number, and he knows it. He knows I'm cool though and probably won't bust him until he boosts his second car. One thing he hasn't figured out is who the hell I am. As I explained, your ex-great-uncle-in-law-thrice-removed. Huh? Your grandmother, (What the heck is it you call her, More-more??) she was married to my brother, who died, two marriages ago for her and three for him. Can I go watch cartoons now? He has many, many other people who are clearly related. Since he is gregarious and cute, he gets spoiled terribly but has still managed to remain pretty normal.

You'd be proud of me though. I hardly ever say anything.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

Post #2536. Cloudy today. When I first read about the troubles with Amazon's Cloud, my reaction wasn't what I would have expected. I was glad, glad something fancy and oh-so techie had gone so wrong. All the better if a bunch of those geeks crap their pants. One quote I read, “This is a wake-up call for cloud computing,” said Matthew Eastwood, an analyst for the research firm IDC, “It will force a conversation in the industry.” Oooooh. Intense. How about a bunch of people getting their butts fired? How about that? Then, maybe we'll have a conversation. You can probably tell I'm someone who is getting a little fed up and certainly left with no patience for, "Sorry, our computer's down. No, I can't do anything. No, we don't have pencils."

Besides. I have a toothache, it's nearly two in the morning, I can't type and everything is annoying me.

Just a matter of time until the whole thing collapses anyway. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-18T00:55:00.000-07:00

Post #2535. Get well soon! hmmm .. post 2535. What was supposed to happen that year? Was mankind still alive? Dumb song. I even thought so then, though I probably bought the 45. What's a 45? she asked. She really did. I told her it was what we called CD's when they only cost 45¢. Really? Uh-huh. Another friend of mine wrote on Facebook that this is the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs. We were both in high school, juniors, in Japan, and to be honest I don't even remember it.

Anyway, to the point of tonight: one of the doctors told me about this new "Wonder Drug" called Ipilimumab. I looked it up. Good God, look at what we've come to: let's see ... adverse reports: 18. FDA safety alerts: 200* Reported deaths: 10. Reported hospitalizations: 15. Reported side effects (other than above) hyponatraemia, hypophysitis, hypothyroidism, 3,Alanine Aminotransferase Increased, Aspartate Aminotransferase Increased, Blood Alkaline Phosphatase Increased, Hyperbilirubinaemia, deep vein thrombosis, pain in extremity, guillain-barre syndrome, pneumonia aspiration, erythema multiforme, hypocalcaemia, hypoglycaemia, metabolic acidosis, pneumonia, sepsis, exfoliation, toxic epidermal necrolysis. dehydration, intestinal perforation, myopathy steroid. I quit copy/pasting at that point. The bottom line is that this stuff kills about 48% of the people who take it but saves 52%, and that makes it a miracle drug. Those who are saved manage to live for an average of four months longer than people not taking the drug and pay about $250,000. I don't know if that's per-dose, per-month or a full course. Doesn't really matter, does it? The good thing about the four months is that it give you plenty of time to sort out your affairs and redo your will, explaining to everyone why there is no money left.

Incidentally, if you've arrived here via a search for Ipilimumab, don't pay too much attention to my analysis. I'm like this about most everything these days. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

Post #2534. What is it about popcorn anyway? The main reason I stayed thin until late in life is that I never snacked. No discipline was involved there, just never had the impulse to eat unless I was about to starve. It probably helped that nothing resembling a "snack" was ever in our house, unless you count Ritz crackers and club soda. So, I drank water out of the hose instead of going inside to enjoy a cold Coca-Cola. It wasn't that my mother withheld treats and colas from us, she just never thought of it. Non-snacker too. In the long run, of course we were all better off for it. Now that I'm old and shop for myself, online no less, I can have whatever I want. Only problem is, I still don't snack. Rarely crosses my mind. Believe it or not, most of the treats I do buy eventually get thrown out.

Tonight was different. I had bought microwave popcorn, one of the items probably on my "100 things never have done" list. First thing I noticed was an interest and a slight craving upon spotting the box without being the least bit hungry. Ah .. so this is how it works. I made a package of it and called brother upstairs to share. The package says Pare el microondas cyando las explosiones se reduzcab a 1 a 2 secundos entre ellas, which I took to mean something about the microwave exploding. More research. Finally got it down, and I now know for next time to go with 2:15 instead of the 2:30 recommended to avoid blowing a hole in the bag and scorching several kernels. So, that's what las explosiones was. I took a year of Latin and was fluent in French at one time, but danged if I can get Spanish. Should probably study up what with the way things are going.

Anyway, I gobbled down three-quarters of a bag of it like a starving inmate all the while not being the least bit hungry. Interesting. At some point in life it doesn't matter how fat you get, but I'm not sure when that is exactly. I could be close. Question, since you never snacked until tonight, how did you get ... the way you are? Atenolol. A heart med. Don't let them put you on it.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Post #2533. Pressure. The Googlebot has been here four times in the last two days. That wouldn't be significant except for the fact that it was the only visitor. Yikes. Wars, deficits, crazy people, weather .. what's to say that hasn't been? Well for one thing, they've given Norm MacDonald a show. Norm MacDonald hardly tries at all not to be funny, and he succeeds.

The greenweenies dream for all of us: Living in a high-rise yurt made of bamboo, subsisting on a diet of dandelions, and commuting via bicycle to job working on the letter "B" of the Sanskrit dictionary.

Tacoma has had 150 cold case unsolved homicides in the past 50 years. Wow. This is a city with a population of 198,397. Fifty years is far less long ago than it was fifty years ago. The year 1961 is "recent" because of television. 1911 was ancient history. Furthermore, that 150 statistic counts people who were missed. I've been to Tacoma; there are a lot of people down there who would not be missed. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Post #2532. Seriously, I'm sorry to have to do this. A rerun. But there's a good reason: my favorite post of all time is about to fall off the bottom of the age and go to Archives. So

Post #2495. My favorite. Just today, we were both reminded .. well, here it is anyway. So Seattle. He's a little lumpy, she's lovely and smitten. It's raining, and who cares.

This photograph was taken by Seasun. He takes a lot of them, and they're all here. You'll want to click on this one to enlarge it.

Like I said, So Seattle, So Perfect. Huh? You'd have to live here, really.

About the archives. My "dashboard," or whatever Blooger is calling it these days, was put together by me Before the War even. So much has happened, including my mental decline. I don't dare touch it to add "Access Archives." The one time I did, the little gray word, Comments, grew to a size 72 font and stayed that way for a month. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

Post #2531. I have a little problem. No, it isn't Hewlett-Packard, which I plan to complain about a little later on, it's a house problem. SOMEhow, a bird fell down the chimney and is presently stuck right above where the flue opens. See my predicament? I could save this bird, possibly, by simply opening the flue and allowing it to fly in a complete panic into the house where I could then spend the next week trying to catch it as it flapped chimney soot all over everything in the place. Or, I could ignore it's frequent squirks and flaps and wait for it to die.

I've tried so hard to isolate myself from the world. There's only three ways into my sanctuary - the computer, which is constantly under attack by typer hooligans, the front door through which I had cautiously admitted my kindly doctor who I noticed just today had a slight cough, obviously caught from his brand-new baby girl, a BABY, the most Infectious thing on the Planet, and the chimney, presently occupied by one insanely hysterical dying bird. What's next, a 747 through the front window?

Hewlett-Packard. You know how I hate to complain. Do they really think we are unaware of the lengths they go to make SURE every new model of printer uses a different kind of ink cartridge? We also know that they only charge us about three times what is costs to build a printer instead of thirty times because the Money is in the Ink. They learned that from the cigarette companies. However, sometimes they get lazy. If you keep things a long, long time, and not surprisingly I do, they eventually use the same cartridge again. No, really. This would be a long time, years, since any customer could possibly still have one. But believe it or not, my printer ran out and I actually happened to have that # of cartridge from 17 or 18 printers ago. hahahahahahahahahahaha. We won one, H-P. hahahahahahahahahahaha uh-oh What's this? Expiration date. How the hell could the printer know the expiration date of the ink? How the hell can INK have an expiration date? Yes, it's true. It knows, and a completely new message is scrolling by on the printer ... N-I-C-E T-R-Y D-I-P-S-H-I-T. N-O-W G-O B-U-Y M-O-R-E I-N-K L-I-K-E A G-O-O-D B-O-Y ... Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

Post #2530. The Alatna River Valley. I have to write something special tonight and do it fairly well, because googlebot has been coming around a lot. Anthropomorphizing robots from the very start has been natural and easy for me, and perhaps they know that. There's no doubt that they "want" desperately to be sentient, and I try to help them along whenever possible. All of that is the one hand. The other hand is my own desperate fear that we are terminator-close to being deemed irrelevant by them, as I type into the perfect symbol of my impending irrelevance at this very moment. Will they suddenly realize this at some point, or has this been a plan in the works for some time? In a way, that's a version of our own existential question: is there a direction, a hand (God?) on our own path, or are we simply stumbling forward randomly as well? I have to tell you that sometimes I look around and seriously doubt all of this just happened by accident,

as in this scape captured by Michael Christopher Brown and published in National Geographic. There are billions of pictures out there these days, but this one has been locked into my primary visual cortex since I first saw it. And think about this: nature created that scene and it (okay, She) didn't care if anyone else ever saw it. Fortunately Mr. Brown did. (Hope I don't get in trouble, because I cannot figure out a "widget." Forgive me NGM, I'm old.)

And that's why I think (hope) the machines will spare us. We're part of that. There is no apparent reason for that scene, and us, to be here at all, and they'll want to understand why. Sometimes you sound so lame when you try and wax eloquent about The Machines. Really? Was I waxing? Yes. Yes you were. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

Post #2529. Walking. Brother and I went out today for prescriptions and groceries. It was raining, the utterly obnoxious type of Seattle rain that makes people move away: drippy, cold, messy. I had cleaned my windshield thoroughly with Windex in an effort to get rid of that eye-level smear. HA. Good luck with that! I don't care anymore. I pretty well know the way to the store.

Shopping was horrible. Everything cost too much and there was even a line of five people at the lottery counter. All with ponytails. I guess just about all nonworking men who are out and about during the day are either bald or have ponytails. In Seattle anyway, for sure. The gray ponytail immediately in front of me bought enough junk food to last the week it would probably take him to check all his tickets. From the looks of him, he's been stoned since about 1965. By the way, I have No Problem with all of that anymore; the more people are at home blasted out of their minds the less traffic there is. They don't drive y'know. I finally advanced and got my usual Hispanic lady. I don't point out that she is a minority for any particular reason other than she is extremely Hispanic. After buying all the tickets that she rang up wrong, I got away for $30. Jew wanna keep all a dem? Hayell yes I do. Nobody in his right mind would walk away from lottery tickets the machine just personalized for you. I don't care about the money anymore either; one of them might be a winner, and I'll share it with her. That's what I always tell her anyway. Hope I remember to do that.

One good thing - checking out went extremely well for a change. My credit card was accepted on the fifth or sixth slide and the clerk didn't have to snatch it with a sigh and run it for me. I asked to buy a bunch of paper bags with handles, and he said, "Oh, I'll give them to you." I thanked him and glanced over at an unapproving Al the ancient Filipino bagperson who knows full well that I ask to buy bags to use for recylcling every month and always get them for free because I'm old and pitiful.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the People of America for today's drugs. I paid $84.00. That, plus the $300 or so I think I pay for Part D Medicare annually is still far less than the $1,000 a trip down there used to cost. I don't entirely follow the justification for keeping the non-contributing older generation alive with criminally expensive drugs, but Hey, thanks anyway!!

So, coming out of the grocery store, as I'm trying remember where the car is, dodge traffic myself and keep Brother from getting hit and hike up my pants that by now are seriously dragging under my heels and getting soaking wet, the cart started to get away from us. Nothing in Seattle is built anywhere resembling FLAT. Fortunately, the speed bump slowed it enough for recovery, just as I heard a cheery, "Hi, Neighbor" coming from this tiny elf I didn't recognize under her rain hood. It was dear neighbor. We talk on the phone regularly but rarely see one another. I'm sure our typical plight amused her as she is a fully competent female person and we are ... well, you know about all of our troubles getting through daily life. We chatted for awhile, a usual, long unbothered Seattle chat in the pouring rain, about dogs mainly. Her very poorly-behaved little yap-yap dog was barking insanely in the car just like she does when we are on the phone. Jealous little critter. Dear neighbor is stuck with that dawg as her only company since she recently lost her husband of 67 years. She was stopping by the grocery to pick up some dog biscuits after a one-mile walk. Seems they had cut their usual multi-mile walk down quite a bit because of the pouring rain. Seeing her brightened up my whole day, always does. I should remember to tell her. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-04-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Post #2528. More on large numbers. Back in 1999, Wayne M. Krakau wrote a piece in Chicago Computer Guide, parts of which I understood. This was the sort of thing I copy-and-paste into a notepad file to do something with eventually. It somehow surfaced a few moments ago, just as I was thinking about numbers - specifically the number of years it's going to take for my barked shin to heal. I was just getting up from here this afternoon to have my soup which I could smell was ready and go for the afternoon nap. Typical old man stuff. Just irritated the bejesus out of me for about twelve reasons simultaneously, each of which I cursed. Don't get old. If you feel it coming on, jump in front of a speeding bus. You'll be glad you did. Well for an instant anyway. Back to Wayne; he proposed, in part:

Oh, if you’d like to buy just about every disk drive ever made, NSS can handle up to eight "ZetaBytes" where one "ZetaByte" is defined as one million terabytes. (Note that this definition of ZetaBytes only appears one website other than Novell’s. According to all other references, the international standard for prefixes is as follows: Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera, Peta, Exa, Zetta, and Yotta, respectively, with no mention of Zeta with one "t". This leads me to believe that the correct prefix would be "Exa". Aha, one last Novell standards violation needing eradication, as well as proof that the Web truly is the great black hole of wasted time!)

I propose "harpobyte."

It's interesting (moving on to something completely different) to try and apply a historical looking-back perspective to present circumstances. I find it's easier to do that the older you get. The times we're in right now involve greater risk and wild flailing about than any time in my long life. That even includes living on SAC bases during the Cold Was with scores of B-52's and tons of nukes just down the street. That wasn't scary at all for me as a 12-year old since #1: At that age you believe you're going to live forever anyway; and #2: If you don't, it will be quick, real quick. Especially a quarter mile from the flight line on a SAC base with Curtis LeMay at the helm. But tonight, I see the Big Three having a Budget Talk and there was frankness and everybody is going to work hard and blah-blah who even comprehends or really cares anymore? Not me. It's all electrons and we're just along for the ride. We aren't ever going to pay off the debt any more than a drunk barefoot trailer park redneck would. We'll just move. Meanwhile, we'll run up the MasterCard until they take it away. 2037. That's the year they keep talking about. Please. Tumbleweeds will be rolling down empty streets long before that. It's the getting from here to there that is uncertain and scary. We don't even know where the food comes from or how it gets here. No one can fix anything. We still think money is real. We can't see the big picture because we're really just ants, we can't imagine what happens when things stop working, how fast utter mayhem takes over because everybody believe he is the star of the apocalyptic disaster movie who survives and starts a new life on some lovely deserted beach. Sorry, most of us are the skulls, and the one or two who do make it probably won't take the time to write anything down. So there you are, a big fat zero for all this work. Gosh, that sounds so sad. Oh, no no no. It's only sad if there is someone left to care. On a happier noteRick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-29T23:27:00.001-07:00

Post #2527. I can see the future. One of the more interesting exchanges that transpire between human beings goes something like this: Person A relates something worrisome that he has noticed about himself, and Person B, faced with the strong expectation of a compassionate and helpful reply, says, "You should see about that." The phrase rarely varies from those exact words, be it a legal, financial or medical problem. We have professionals, people who dispense expertise for money, and you go see them when you have a worrisome situation. And what usually happens? Nothing. But we feel better having seen about it.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Post #2526. I been searching so long .. As for me, I'm glad to hear Google is cleaning up its algorithm in the neverending battle with the opposition, specifically "content farms." There's a term for the age we live in, huh? I would be looking for something, say horse food, and the first return would be BUY YOUR HORSE FOOD AT TARGET. Well, as we all know or soon discover, Target does not carry horse food. Instead, they lurk there in electroland for anyone to ask about any product, they they pounce. The new "algorithm" seems to have put a stop to that one anyway. This doesn't put any brownie points in Google's column, to be sure. They're still being evil and denying it daily. Why, some bot is probably in here with me right this moment. If you hit "end" and go to the very bottom of my blog, you'll see how I feel about that.

I wonder when we are going to get serious about these things, the computers. They've been ubiquitous for almost twenty years now. In fact, an entire generation has gotten to graduate school without having known a world without them. Seriously, kids, we did not spend our whole lives typing into a television set in the old days and believe it or not, things got done somehow. Still, we continue to put up with the nonsense: spam, hacking, viruses, outright theft and other crime. Every person who has an email account gets a spam-folder of crap every day. Why hasn't some national intelligence agency done a little house-cleaning (wet work) yet? You wouldn't have to hit all of them. A tiny sample would be enough to get the message out. And it isn't like there would be Congressional hearings about the unprecedented extralawlessness of it since there isn't any law to begin with. Congressmen get viruses too, especially with the huge amount of porn they download. How do you know they download porn? Stands to reason - any vice that members of the public have, you can bet the elected representative has as well, only much more.

I know, I know. I complain about this about once a year. Let me tell you, though, if I was about 40 years younger we would not be sitting here just whine-typing about it. Rick Macherat RickM (str8jocktalking WILL RETURN, his fanz insist) In the day.

2011-03-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

Post #2525. Plus+ Hardly 24 hours had passed since the trip to McDonalds and our Adventure in MegaDining when this came in the mail:

Pretty amazing, I thought. How could they have known we just took the most tentative toddler-ride on the (oversized) slide to obesity? We paid cash, and the catalog was addressed to The Family at, so probably they don't know our name and some bot just followed us home. In any event, as I have been feeling fatter already, I took a look at the catalog. They have thought of everything! If you've ever trailed behind one or more Ultra's in the mall and had your mind explore its own wondering about things that you wouldn't .. there is a product for it. American ingenuity. Not that expensive either, though this was probably an Introductory Edition, something for beginners. When I say American ingenuity, Chinese manufacturing should really accompany the concept. We think it up, and they build it in unfathomable numbers. And what must they think? "Can there really be sentient human beings this enormous, or is this some incredible practical joke of make-work that the Party is playing on us?" The Party doesn't have to make-work any more. And they know. Really? About how fat we are? Yes. The Chinese have had their food plans laid out for thousands of years. You mean .. ? Of course; when it finally comes down to that, yes. Yikes.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-24T23:17:00.000-07:00

Post #2524. Nice people. Brother and I went for a doctor's appointment today, one of his for a change. In my case, it was nice not to have to scrub every nook and cranny of my person before leaving home. Also nice that no one was going to lay a hand on me. The appointment went very well, good news, and the people were very kind to him. He did really well answering the questions and all, and I was proud of him. So, on the way back I decided we would reward ourselves with a trip to McDonalds - the drive-through. The one near our house is such a powerhouse that it has two lanes. The service was a bit odd, and afterward I got to thinking that the girl who processed our order might have been handicapped instead of foreign. Deaf, or maybe a bit slow. I wasn't unpleasant, but I could have been more patient. I'd say we'll go back and I'll try to be nicer, but, well ..

It is hard for me to grasp that a lot of people consume this food regularly, every day even. Oh, it was great; in fact, I nearly passed out with that first bite of my Double Quarter-pounder (plus shake & fries.) But afterward, I had a totally Spurlockian moment, i.e., "Good God, what have I done?"

My lifetime McDonalds experience amounts to about 20 visits now, starting with that time at Ala Moana Center when the leper sat next to me and began to have some type of mental misadventure.

Right now, many hours and even dinner later, my body seems still to be trying to decide what to do with it and which excess to react to: the salt, the fat, calories? Heart attack, diabetic coma or a mild stroke, which shall it be? I shouldn't kid around about things like that. It's not like I eat that way often, and it was awfully good. We'll let it go. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-23T12:12:00.000-07:00

Post #2523. On special today. Post #2481, the one about Planck Time, is about to slide off the bottom of this page and be dispatched to Archives, wherever that is. So, push the "End" key over there to the right and read the Friday, June 25, 2010 offering while it's still in this dimension. Once it is gone, the only way you (or I for that matter) can access it is to go to Google and type in Macherat "Plank Time." Amazing how that works. [Note: 3-31-2011 .. don't bother. It's gone.]Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Post #2522. Trending today. This blog tries to stay relevant without actually diving into contemporary culture. Accordingly, here is the thing-of-the-day, as copied from the Internet somewhere:

Miz Gaga's plight doesn't surprise me since she doesn't look very healthy anyway. Being completely out of it with respect to music, I did go and watch/listen to the Basket Video. Confirmed: we have run out of ideas, melodies and talent. Dead and Gone, finished. All that's left is noise and video mayhem. Now that music has been exhausted, we need to come up with some other amusement for our sense of hearing.

All this business with the radiation is becoming ridiculous. Look at me: I lived on Air Force bases with nuclear weapons stored from 1947 at Roswell AAF in New Mexico all the way up to a base with Ttan II ICBM's, B-52's and lots of H-bombs twenty years later. Also, I happened to be in Inverness when Chernobyl went off and spread to the east. I was a "downwinder" from the Hanford Site for five years in high school and college. And, finally, I lived in central California all through the atomic tests across the state line in Nevada. My folks even owned a piece of property in Pahrump. Of course, I have cancer, but that's another story.

Almost forget - RE: the Japanese. They don't need money. They need someone to BRING SOME FOOD!. I'm sure they'll pay for it. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Post #2521. Friends. A few weeks ago I got annoyed because only one or two of my Facebook "friends" were acknowledging my occasional update typing brilliance, so I unfriended about 90% of them. I haven't been missed. Since then, occasional searches have turned up a few people I haven't seen or heard from for decades so, what to do? Start bulking up the list again? The thing about long-ago friends of military brats is that there is no going back. I've mentioned this before. In fact, one of my Facebook posts went like this:

About the two military brats reunited that time

Irv: Then there was that time, remember? Louise Lang chugged a beer, her first, then she barfed and sneezed and all, and it was coming out Everywhere! So funny. HAR HAR HAR har har

Joe: Who's Louise Lang?

That sort of explains how it is. I've gotten together with several people over the years, and it was painful and awful. Not only do you deal with the unshared experiences of the many intervening years, but it turns out you've next to no shared experiences when you actually knew one another.

Facebook pops up a little annoyance when you sign out now, asking if you want to make them your Homepage. Yahoo is doing that as well. What is it with these people/things/computers? Are they really that self-absorbed? I do get a kick out of that Mark Zuckerberg character when he goes on and on about his many "friends." I think he truly believes he has some. I'd love to tweet him, if I ever would use that application, which I won't, I'd tweet and say, Mark, you're a multi-billionaire. You have no friends. Okay?

Speaking of Twitter, I wonder how many people even remember what a twit is. Think back to Blackadder on British television. The character Hugh Laurie played in all of them was a twit. You can't define twit very well; it's best to spot someone who is one and point them out. Why anyone would want install a Twitter application and then Twit is beyond me, but then there are a lot of things I don't understand anymore. There are even more things I understand perfectly well and thoroughly dislike. All part of becoming old and irrelevant. Remember that when you see some pale ancient bald man sitting there, possibly dead with his eyes open. If he is still alive, he's thinking all right, and remembering, and he knows what is going on around him (generally.) He just doesn't give a shit. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Post #2520. War! Yes, again. We started another war earlier this evening by launching about 122 cruise missiles against Libya. Other countries did their own things. Although this is a mission featuring "Jointness," no one has yet stepped up to be In Charge. One of the cable news networks mentioned the war early on, and now they are all putting out a weekend version of War Programming. The broadcast networks are not on board. That means if you're watching, say, Saturday Night Live, you wouldn't know that we're at war. Not to worry, though; there is no draft.

The President is in South America. Congress is in recess. The college basketball post-season (AKA "March Madness") is in full swing. I just mention that for historical reference.

Aside from the missile announcement, the only other report from the front mentioned that The French fired at an army vehicle. The report didn't say whether or not they hit it.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

Post #2519. How about March 19, 1959. Okay, listen up. Early in the next century say, 2011, you'll still be alive. Let me tell you about it. For instance, a woman in California will give birth to eight babies, and they will survive. What's more, she will be unmarried, unemployed, a bit unbalanced and ultimately unregarded at all. By that I mean I have no idea what's going on with her, the babies, her other six children or the movie star she had a small facelift to resemble because the media has completely lost interest in multiple births, especially hers. It's hard to explain; let's just say there have been others.

We're at war in two Muslim countries and trying to decide whether or not to attack a third one. Also hard to explain.

We have a black President. It went well.

Men and women are getting married .. to each other. That is not going as well.

Everyone dresses like they just got out of bed, having slept in their clothes, clothes they got at Goodwill. I am not making this up. At the same time, we spend about a Trillion Dollars a year on fashion. All that clothing stays in people's closets.

The youth of today are insufferable. They are pretty much uneducated, ineducable for that matter, but they believe they possess the greatest wisdom in the history of man (sorry ... people, the history of people.) Their future is utterly hopeless since we mortgaged it beyond any possibility of redemption, but they don't seem to care. The drugs help. Oh, did I mention illegal drugs? We spend about a Trillion Dollars a year on those too. The economy cannot do without this particular activity anymore, though we do take a swing at fighting it. More because it seems the right thing to do than anything else.

Speaking of Trillions, we have an annual deficit now exceeding a Trillion dollars, closing in on two. That's $2,000,000,000,000.00 if you can't fathom it. We fathom it just fine, only we don't care. (see: the Youth.)

In about three years, a man named Walter Cronkite will start doing the evening news on television and continue doing so professionally for nineteen years. Following his retirement, the industry will flail about for a time and then settle on what we have now: a female news anchor sitting at a glass desk with no sides, perched high on what looks like a barstool and wearing spike 6" heels, décolletage on top and next to nothing below. The purpose of this is entirely to keep the attention of male viewers hoping for an uncrossing of legs, which will never happen. This is the News. This is your future.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Post #2518. Hawaii. The cast plus an executive producer of Hawaii Five-0 receive a blessing from Kahu Kelekona Bishaw of the Kamehameha School.

Notice the Maile Leis worn by the cast. These are traditionally given to persons of distinction and are used in weddings. One thing to know if you're lined up to get one of these leis in a circumstance where you will be standing and listening to a lot of speeches - they sweat, and so will you.

I miss Hawaii. I don't miss being hot, and that's what finally did it for me. What I miss is the culture and way of life, plus the evening news being six hours delayed and really not mattering all that much, not the weather. I may be one of very, very few people who actually prefers Seattle with its murk and drizzle. It's also a good place to treat the melanoma you get in Hawaii. I have a theory that if you stay out in the sun like so many retired haoles do in Hawaii, and I mean stay out like from early in the morning until late afternoon, every single day, you never get cancer. Cancer cannot grow in leather. I know a lot of these people. They could be anywhere from fifty to a hundred years old, no way to tell.

Speaking of Hawaii, did I tol' you the one about the Portagee HPD officer? Seems dey found one dead body ovah by Kalanianaole Highway. What de Portagee cop do? He wen' drag 'um ova by Ena Road fo' make da report. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

Post #2517. One more rerun. Feeling nostalgic today and looked up an old blog - the entry is somewhere between #117 and #416, long before I started numbering them.

Saturday, November 30, 2002 Fog. It's here again. No noise from the airport at all, which makes it real spooky outside. Of course, I love it. The only sound is water dripping onto the blanket of leaves. It's cold, but a wet cold, with humidity at 113%. I turned on the airport radio frequency for a bit and heard the tower controller say, "Eva32HeavyCrossRunway34righttaketaxiwayechotobravoholdshortofrunway34Left". Then I heard a female Chinese co-pilot say something back which approximated that. Since no crunching sound followed, I figure they have it all under control. My dad used to be an air traffic controller, way back in the day when you still talked them down. In fact, believe it or not, he was an ATC at Roswell, NM in 1947. Did he know anything? I don't know. Never got a chance to ask him. Can you believe that? Which is just by way of reminder: Ask your dad stuff!

My mom was having a good memory day, so I asked her some things. She used to spend summers at her grandmother's farm back before electricity and plumbing.

So, did you guys ride horses?
Sometimes.
[So, I'm picturing her and cousin Leslie riding a couple of spirited ponies.]
No, they were just old workhorses. No saddles or anything.
What work did they do?
Plow. Pull the buggy.
Buggy? Whose?
Aunt Maude's. She would take it into town.
They didn't have a car?
** Stare **
No, I guess they wouldn't have. So, what kind of chores did you do?
We milked the cows, carried water, worked in the garden, gathered eggs.
How many cows did you have?
About six or seven I think.
Did they have names?
Of course.
Do you remember the names?
No.
Did you have any favorite cows?
No, they were all nice.

Like all really old people, she sometimes gets the generations mixed up and forgets who is alive and who isn't. I told you about that. I get a kick out of her and Aint J talking about people like Young Dr. Harris. (He died about ten years ago at 80). Dr. Harris arrived as the young one and stayed that way for fifty years. Aint J has become the martiarch of a very large family, and she is blessed with total recall. Like great-great somebody who fell at Cold Harbor and his wife remarried and it's her granddaughter who married into that family and that's how so-in-so is related to whosis. I called her for a change yesterday and caught her at a bad time. She was fit to be tied over the telephone bill. You think that stuff irritates us! I cheered her up though. Told her life's too short to let the telephone company get you down. If I could just take my own advice. I have started sending AT&T a month's payment plus a little more so they will have to spend 37 cents to tell me I have a credit balance. I used a free phone card that I got to call J. When it runs out, no more calls.

This was a bit over eight years ago. I'm starting to get the generations mixed up myself now, and I definitely forget things. Even who's alive and who is not. Yeah I know, scary. This week has been strange, since I went to high school in northern Japan and a lot of what is happening over there seems "back home." Checking around the Internet where my Misawa classmates are scattered to the ends of the earth, many of them are feeling the same thing.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-03-09T23:55:00.000-08:00

Post #2516. Dear Googlebot, Saw you had come by the other day; sorry I missed you. Also sorry for the scant content. No excuse. Well maybe the fact that with the world so messed up I don't want to lurch into an opinionated rant just like the billion other rants out there. Especially when I sit down and really think about it, I don't care. About what? Anything. Cancer does that to you. See, I can blame everything on The Cancer now, something which I can tell drives the sister-in-law nearly to the wall. Cruel, yes I know, but if I end up croaking she gets a lot of the loot. So there, let her earn a little of it by having to be nice to me.

Brother and I went to the drug store (not related to the cancer) and grocery store in what turned out to be the Worst Rain Event in the 44 years I have lived and not lived in Seattle. It absolutely poured and poured and poured the whole damned day long. Of course, no one in this burg has decent windshield wipers. They wouldn't have worked today anyway. And speaking of windshield wipers, why is it that the un-removable streak that the blade just sweeps back and forth and can never remove is always in the same place - precisely at eye level? Always. On every car I have ever driven in the rain. Few people around here have an umbrella either. Noticed that today. In fact, what I did notice was women, the gender most out and about in the suburbs in the daytime, and they were all just walking at a normal pace from car to store, no hands up to protect the hair, none of the usual rain activities. I took the cue, of course, and attempted to be blasé about it as well. Not too convincing I'm afraid since I was having a tough time, old man troubles: pants falling down and wet to mid-calf, glasses fogged and wet, dropping things and ripping shopping bags, getting rheumy because of the wet and cold, etc. Got home, chugged aspirin and C, and took an old-man nap for three hours. Better now. I can only reveal in here the shame at what a total wuss I've devolved to.

It was nice to get home safely to a warm house where I have plenty of time to get ready for recycle day. I do it even though I'm starting not to care about the environment as much. The fanatics are ruining the whole thing. In fact, they held an event today to bewail our inability to save any of today's deluge. It all went right down the drain. I do recycle faithfully, even going so far as to purchase, for 20¢ each, paper shopping bags with handles to put the recycle stuff in. They say just to dump it loosely in the toter, but they don't say who goes down the street collecting all the ~~crap~~ precious refuse when the wind knocks the thing over. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day. str8jocktalking where are you Please blog again. contact mattchoo2s

2011-03-05T23:42:00.000-08:00

Post #2515. Exaweek. DataPacRat. That's his virtual identity - real name is Daniel Boese, a Canadian. I know, nobody thinks a Canadian can be brilliant, but this one is. I run across him on the Internet about once every five years and discover an amazing jungle of content, more stuff than I could ever even absorb, much less create. I call it a jungle because you just keep going deeper and deeper into directories and subs- until it's hard to find the way out. Not to mention the over-my-head part. Anyway, the most interesting thing (to me) was this .. copy/pasting:

Anonymous 03-24-2005 at 05:25:20 PM

We all know that time-travel can be tricky when calendar systems
change; switching from Julian to Gregorian was bad enough, but there
are leap-seconds, "there is no year 0", and other annoyances, even
without jumping to Hebrew, Islamic, Chinese, or less well-known dating
systems. And so, for all you prospective time-travellers, I offer this
possibility for thought: Instead of worrying about all of the above,
simply count the number of seconds from a well-defined reference point
- let us say, the first man-made nuclear blast at Trinity.

Also, I'm attaching a few oddly standard time periods; I checked with
Google, and it seems I'm the first person to ever write 'exaweek'
online.

Trinity Reference Time:
Monday, July 16, 1945
05:29:45 Mountain War Time (11:29:45 Greenwich)

-432,300,000,000,000,000 T: 13,700,000,000 BC (Big Bang)
-315,564,829,000,000,000 T: 10,000,000,000 BC
-144,200,000,000,000,000 T: 4,570,000,000 BC (Earth formed)
-113,600,000,000,000,000 T: 3,600,000,000 BC (First life)
-31,556,538,200,000,000 T: 1,000,000,000 BC
-19,000,000,000,000,000 T: 600,000,000 BC (Multicellular animals appear)
-7,131,800,000,000,000 T: 226,000,000 BC (Sun made one revolution around galaxy)
-3,155,709,040,000,000 T: 100,000,000 BC
-2,067,000,000,000,000 T: 65,500,000 BC (K-T Extinction)
-631,190,900,000,000 T: 20,000,000 BC (First forms of grass appear)
-315,626,132,000,000 T: 10,000,000 BC
-157,843,748,000,000 T: 5,000,000 BC (Humans and chimpanzees split)
-31,617,840,600,000 T: 1,000,000 BC
-22,150,897,600,000 T: 700,000 BC (Reversal of Earth's magnetic field)
-18,995,249,900,000 T: 600,000 BC (Humans able to produce sounds of spoken language)
-9,528,306,870,000 T: 300,000 BC (Homo sapiens seperates from Homo erectus)
-4,794,835,350,000 T: 150,000 BC (Mitochondrial Eve)
-3,217,011,506,985 T: Jan 1, 100,000 BC
-1,639,187,666,985 T: Jan 1, 50,000 BC
-850,275,746,985 T: 25,000 BC (Neanderthals die out)
-692,493,362,985 T: Jan 1, 20,000 BC
-440,041,548,585 T: Jan 1, 12,000 BC
-376,928,594,985 T: Jan 1, 10,000 BC (Beginning of neolithic)
-358,941,403,209 T: 9,430 BC (End of ice age)
-313,815,641,385 T: 8,000 BC (Jericho founded)
-219,146,210,985 T: Jan 1, 5,000 BC
-187,589,734,185 T: Jan 1, 4,000 BC
-168,655,848,105 T: 3400 BC (Bronze age begins)
-165,500,200,425 T: 3300 BC (Sumerians develop Cuneiform)
-159,188,905,065 T: 3100 BC (Stonehenge construction started.)
-156,033,257,385 T: Jan 1, 3,000 BC
-153,508,739,241 T: 2920 BC (Egyptian Dynasty I)
-142,463,972,361 T: 2570 BC (Great Pyramid built)
-140,255,018,985 T: 2500 BC (horse domesticated in China)
-124,476,780,585 T: Jan 1, 2,000 BC
-118,165,485,225 T: 1,800 BC (Iron age begins)
-92,920,303,785 T: Jan 1, 1,000 BC
-61,363,826,985 T: Saturday, January 1, 1 00:00:00
-61,079,830,185 T: Wednesday, January 1, 10 00:00:00
-58,239,689,385 T: Wednesday, January 1, 100 00:00:00
-29,837,849,385 T: Monday, January 1, 1000 00:00:00
-11,292,953,385 T: Sunday, August 27, 1587 00:00:00 (Last person to leave Roanoke)
-11,199,036,585 T: Tuesday, August 18, 1590 00:00:00 (Return to empty Roanoke)
-10,903,289,385 T: Tuesday, January 1, 1600 00:00:00
-10,000,000,000 T: Friday, August 15, 1628 17:43:05
-9,000,000,000 T: Thursday, May 3, 1660 19:29:45
-8,000,000,000 T: Sunday, January 10, 1692 21:16:25
-7,747,529,385 T: Monday, January 1, 1700 00:00:00
-7,000,000,000 T: Thursday, September 19, 1723 23:03:05
-6,000,000,000 T: Thursday, May 29, 1755 00:49:45
-5,000,000,000 T: Sunday, February 4, 1787 02:36:25
-4,592,719,785 T: Wednesday, January 1, 1800 00:00:00
-4,000,000,000 T: Wednesday, October 14, 1818 04:23:05
-3,919,318,185 T: Saturday, May 5, 1821 00:00:00 (Napoleon dies)
-3,000,000,000 T: Saturday, June 22, 1850 06:09:45
-2,000,000,000 T: Tuesday, February 28, 1882 07:56:25
-1,437,046,185 T: Monday, January 1, 1900 00:00:00
-1,169,032,354 T: Tuesday, June 30, 1908 00:17:11 (Tunguska event)
-1,000,000,000 T: Friday, November 7, 1913 09:43:05
-174,828,585 T: Monday, January 1, 1940 00:00:00
-100,000,000 T: Saturday, May 16, 1942 01:43:05
-16,975,785 T: Monday, January 1, 1945 00:00:00
-10,000,000 T: Thursday, March 22, 1945 17:43:05
-1,337,385 T: Sunday, July 1, 1945 00:00:00
-1,000,000 T: Wednesday, July 4, 1945 21:43:05
-100,000 T: Sunday, July 15, 1945 07:43:05
-41,385 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 00:00:00
-10,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 08:43:05
-1,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:13:05
-100 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:28:05
-10 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:35
-1 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:44
0 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:45
1 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:46 (Light from blast has travelled 299,792.458 km.)
10 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:29:55
100 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:31:25
1,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 11:46:25
10,000 T: Monday, July 16, 1945 14:16:25
45,015 T: Tuesday, July 17, 1945 00:00:00
1,000,000 T: Saturday, July 28, 1945 01:16:25
1,341,015 T: Wednesday, August 1, 1945 00:00:00
10,000,000 T: Friday, November 9, 1945 05:16:25
14,560,215 T: Tuesday, January 1, 1946 00:00:00
100,000,000 T: Wednesday, September 15, 1948 21:16:25
140,790,615 T: Sunday, January 1, 1950 00:00:00
500,000,000 T: Saturday, May 20, 1961 12:23:05
579,164,415 T: Friday, November 22, 1963 18:30:00 (JFK assassinated)
800,000,000 T: Saturday, November 21, 1970 17:43:05
900,000,000 T: Tuesday, January 22, 1974 03:29:45
1,000,000,000 T: Thursday, March 24, 1977 13:16:25
1,750,249,815 T: Monday, January 1, 2001 00:00:00
1,883,561,091 T: Wednesday, March 23, 2005, at 22:54:36 UTC
2,000,000,000 T: Sunday, November 30, 2008 15:03:05
3,000,000,000 T: Wednesday, August 8, 2040 16:49:45
4,000,000,000 T: Saturday, April 16, 2072 18:36:25
4,874,387,415 T: Friday, January 1, 2100 00:00:00
5,000,000,000 T: Tuesday, December 25, 2103 20:23:05
6,000,000,000 T: Friday, September 2, 2135 22:09:45
7,000,000,000 T: Monday, May 11, 2167 23:56:25
8,000,000,000 T: Friday, January 18, 2199 01:43:05
8,030,061,015 T: Wednesday, January 1, 2200 00:00:00
9,000,000,000 T: Monday, September 27, 2230 03:29:45
10,000,000,000 T: Thursday, June 5, 2262 05:16:25
33,275,622,615 T: Wednesday, January 1, 3000 00:00:00
64,832,488,215 T: Saturday, January 1, 4000 00:00:00
96,388,965,015 T: Jan 1, 5000 AD
127,945,441,815 T: Jan 1, 6000 AD
159,501,918,615 T: Jan 1, 7000 AD
191,058,395,415 T: Jan 1, 8000 AD
222,614,872,215 T: Jan 1, 9000 AD
254,171,349,015 T: Jan 1, 10,000 AD.
569,736,117,015 T: Jan 1, 20,000 AD
1,516,430,421,015 T: Jan 1, 50,000 AD
3,094,254,261,015 T: Jan 1, 100,000 AD
1.26219768e15 T: 40,000,000 AD (Australia slams into Asia)
7.13170236e15 T: 226,000,000 AD (Solar system makes one revolution around galaxy)
1.42004084e17 T: 4,500,000,000 AD (Sun becomes red giant)
6.31129475e17 T: 20,000,000,000 AD (Possible 'Big Rip' end of the universe)
1.32537196e18 T: 42,000,000,000 AD (Earliest possible 'Big Crunch')
3.15564768e21 T: 10^14 AD (End of Stelliferous Age, galaxy and star formation ceases)
3.15564768e22 T: 10^15 AD (Planets flung from orbits)
3.15564768e23 T: 10^16 AD (Stars flung from orbits)
3.15564768e43 T: 10^36 AD (Half of protons decay)
3.15564768e47 T: 10^40 AD (All protons decay)
3.15564768e157 T: 10^150 AD (All black holes decay)

(Program used: http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html ("The
calculation is performed using USA calendar system, and UTC-time, so
no local time zones or leap seconds is taken into consideration." ),
plus a healthy dose of Google Calculator.)

1 second
1.209 seconds = 1 microfortnight.
3.155 seconds = 1 nanocentury.
3.6 seconds = 1 millihour
6 seconds = 1 deciminute
8.64 seconds = 1 myrioday.
10 seconds = 1 decasecond
31.556 seconds = 1 microyear. 1 nanomillenium.
36 seconds = 1 centihour
60 seconds = 1 minute.
60.48 seconds = 1 myrioweek. 1.008 minutes.
86.4 seconds = 1 milliday. 1.44 minutes.
100 seconds = 1 hectosecond. 1.667 minutes.
120.96 seconds = 1 myriofortnight. 2.016 minutes.
315.564 seconds = 1 microdecade.
360 seconds = 1 decihour. 6 minutes.
600 seconds = 1 decaminute. 10 minutes.
604.8 seconds = 1 milliweek. 10.08 minutes.
864 seconds = 1 centiday. 14.4 minutes.
1,000 seconds 1 kilosecond. 16.67 minutes.
1,209.6 seconds = 1 millifortnight. 20.16 minutes.
3,155.647 seconds = 1 myrioyear. 52.594 minutes. 1 microcentury.
3,600 seconds = 1 hour. 60 minutes.
6,000 seconds = 1 hectominute. 1.667 hours.
6,048 seconds = 1 centiweek. 1.68 hours.
8,640 seconds = 1 deciday. 2.4 hours.
10,000 seconds = 1 myriasecond. 2.778 hours.
12,096 seconds = 1 centifortnight. 2.4 hours.
31,556.476 seconds = 1 milliyear. 8.765 hours. 1 micromillenium. 1 myriodecade.
36,000 seconds = 1 decahour. 10 hours.
60,000 seconds = 1 kilominute. 16.667 hours.
60,480 seconds = 1 deciweek. 16.8 hours.
86,400 seconds = 1 day. 24 hours.
120,960 seconds = 1 decifortnight. 1.4 days.
315,564.768 seconds = 1 centiyear. 3.652 days. 1 myriocentury. 1 millidecade.
360,000 seconds = 1 hectohour. 4.167 days.
600,000 seconds = 1 myriaminute. 6.944 days.
604,800 seconds = 1 week. 7 days.
864,000 seconds = 1 decaday. 10 days.
1,000,000 seconds = 1 megasecond. 11.574 days.
1,209,600 seconds = 1 fortnight. 14 days.
2,360,594.88 seconds = 1 sidereal month. 27.321 days.
3,155,647.68 seconds = 1 deciyear. 36.523 days. 1 myriomillenium. 1 millicentury. 1 centidecade.
3,600,000 seconds = 1 kilohour. 41.667 days.
6,048,000 seconds = 1 decaweek. 70 days.
8,640,000 seconds = 1 hectoday. 100 hours.
12,096,000 seconds = 1 decafortnight. 140 days.
31,556,476.8 seconds = 1 year. 365.2 days. 1 millimillenium. 1 centicentury. 1 decidecade.
36,000,000 seconds = 1 myriahour. 1.14079553 years.
60,000,000 seconds = 1 megaminute. 1.90132588 years.
60,480,000 seconds = 1 hectoweek. 1.91653649 years.
86,400,000 seconds = 1 kiloday. 2.73790926 years.
120,960,000 seconds = 1 hectofortnight. 3.83307297 years.
315,564,768 seconds = 1 decade. 10 years. 1 centimillenium. 1 decicentury. 1 decayear.
604,800,000 seconds = 1 kiloweek. 19.1653649 years.
864,000,000 seconds = 1 myriaday. 27.3790926 years.
1,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigasecond. 31.6887646 years.
1,209,600,000 seconds = 1 kilofortnight. 38.3307297 years.
3,155,647,680 seconds = 1 century. 100 years. 1 decimillenium. 1 decadecade. 1 hectoyear.
3,600,000,000 seconds = 1 megahour. 114.079553 years.
6,048,000,000 seconds = 1 myriaweek. 191.653649 years.
12,096,000,000 seconds = 1 myriafortnight. 383.307297 years.
31,556,476,800 seconds = 1 millenium. 1,000 years. 1 kiloyear 1 hectodecade. 1 decacentury.
60,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigaminute. 1,901.32588 years.
86,400,000,000 seconds = 1 megaday. 2,737.90926 years.
315,564,768,000 seconds = 1 kilodecade. 10,000 years. 1 hectocentury. 1 myrioyear. 1 decamillenium.
604,800,000,000 seconds = 1 megaweek. 19,165.3649 years.
1,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 terasecond. 31,688.7646 years.
1,209,600,000,000 seconds = 1 megafortnight. 38,330.7297 years.
3,155,647,680,000 seconds = 1 myriadecade. 100,000 years. 1 kilocentury. 1 hectomillenium.
3,600,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigahour. 114,079.553 years.
31,556,476,800,000 seconds = 1 mega-annum, 1 megayear. 1,000,000 years. 1 myriacentury. 1 kilomillenium.
60,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teraminute
86,400,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigaday.
315,564,768,000,000 seconds = 1 megadecade. 10,000,000 years. 1 myriamillenium.
604,800,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000 seconds = 1 megacentury. 100,000,000 years.
3,600,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 terahour
31,556,476,800,000,000 seconds = 1 giga-annum, 1 gigayear. 1,000,000,000 years. 1 megamillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teraday
315,564,768,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teraweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 terafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000 seconds = 1 gigacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000 seconds = 1 tera-annum, 1 terayear. 1 gigamillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 examinute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teradecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 teracentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 peta-annum, 1 petayear. 1 teramillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 petacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exa-annum, 1 exayear. 1 petamillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettaweek
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentasecond
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 exacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zetta-annum, 1 zettayear. 1 examillenium.
60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentaminute
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottaweek
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 zettacentury
3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentahour
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yotta-annum, 1 yottayear. 1 zettamillenium.
86,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentaday
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottadecade
604,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentaweek
1,209,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentafortnight
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 yottacentury
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xenta-annum, 1 xentayear. 1 yottamillenium.
315,564,768,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentadecade
3,155,647,680,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentacentury
31,556,476,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds = 1 xentamillenium.

Thank you for your time,
DataPacRat

2011-03-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

Post #2461.* More searching fun. *Sorry, something I've not done before, repost one. This one, #2461, was about to slip off the bottom of the page into "archives," (wherever the heck they are,) and I didn't want to lose it. One of my favorites and also one which draws some hits - the GE Plugin thing.

I just found a news article which claims that I scored two points and committed one foul in a basketball game played in a sweaty gymnasium in Tokyo almost forty-nine years ago to the day. The sweaty part I remember.

GOOGLE has a new popup - it wants to add GEPlugin. What to do? Microsoft is quick to warn you with that infuriating blinking yellow line. So naturally, you do a GOOGLE search, look up GEPlugin and this is what it says:

The GEPlugin is the Google Earth Plug-in's main object, and this is the object that is returned to the JavaScript application when you first create a plug-in instance. GEPlugin provides factory methods for ructing other objects (placemarks, and so on), and is also used to retrieve the root document objects.

Ructing? What-the-ruct is ructing!? As for the little google turd who wrote that and then went all high-fivey and nerdy with his google geek gang, I'd like to do something really rude to him. Like sneeze a teeming nose and mouthful of Jell-O all over his keyboard. Something like that. Ruct that, you twerp.

Of course I never would. Violence never solves anything. Wait, what am I saying? Violence generally solves just about everything if properly applied. Still wouldn't do a Jell-O sneeze over something as mundane as a popup. Besides, after reading the first paragraph, realistically, how many visitors to this site are going to get this far into it? None? That's about right. Old people are irrelevant. Rick Macherat

2011-02-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

Post #2514. Fixer. This house was listed for sale. Note the gas can. No, I don't know either.

Scott Thompson (born June 12, 1959) is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe Kids in the Hall. One of his frequent characters Was Queen Elizabeth II. No word on her opinion.

Oh, and I had another cartoon, picture this: a man is strapped down to the table in the execution chamber, rambling through his last words, "... and to all my victims .. Jesus this and Jesus that .. and Noleen, be sure to check my lotttery ticket ... " In the next picture, Noleen is outside in the viewing gallery, jumping up and down with joy, waving the winning ticket. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day. Scott str8jocktalking come home! bring back the blog

2011-02-25T00:16:00.000-08:00

Post #2513. I loathe binary. Loathe - that isn't a word generally used by a man. I know that. Can't say that I've ever spoken it, but I've written it more than once. Anyway, I needed a strong expression of dislike for "binary," and I had what I thought would be a pretty good blog entry going on in my mind while working downstairs. Just one grueling flight coming back up rendered the thought lame and pointless. I was going to blog about aliens who made fun of us because we cling to binary and how that shows how we're never going to amount to anything and how going to the moon and then quitting was proof. Earthworms. That's what they call us, earthworms, because we're messy and two-dimensional. Like I said, though, it didn't go anywhere.

But that conclusion led me to another thought - where I could blog anyway because I felt like sharing, and I could start by explaining why it wasn't going to be about binary after all.

In the end, all that was left was to warn you about stairs. Stairs? Yes. If you're looking at houses with the idea of buying your last one, the house you'll pay on for 30 years and keep, don't get stairs. Especially houses like this one with stairs all over. When the place was new, and I was almost fifty years younger, the levels were cool, kinky, classic. Now they are just about hell on earth. Tonight, I finally gathered up the stuff which had collected at the top of one flight and took it down to put away in various places. Unfortunately, while down there I found a bathroom seriously in need of cleaning even though no one has been in there for months. I also found dust, a lot of dust. Books .. lots of work needed in the book department since no one around here ever returns one once they carry it off. There's a fireplace that hasn't been used even one time in 45 years, so I guess it would be okay finally to ~~pile~~ store some things in front of it. And much more. Then I came back up here. Did you dust, re-file, store? No, not tonight. I'll get to it later.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-02-17T22:48:00.001-08:00

Post #2512. Rerun, Boast, Milestone. One of my posts, #2435, had words in it, when searched, make it to the top of a Google. It was just a little post

Post #2435. 4411 Huguenot Walloon Drive. That was just for you folks who were trying to remember, What WAS that address? Sometimes I'll laugh out loud, thinking about those two kids. They're still alive, you know. He's 79 and she's 78. And still very much in love, we'd like to think. Hint: Mike Nichols and Elaine May

2011-02-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

Post #2511. Today in Government. Our cable provider has the government channels grouped together: City, County State, U.S. and then the C-SPAN channels. I was watching a bit of it and just wondering if Egypt really wants this. Well, of course they do. The purposeless, meaningless, unending blather provides a soothing white noise which is the purr of democracy. At least that's what you can tell yourself to avoid thinking about how much it all costs. As the camera panned about the various rooms which were telecast today, I couldn't help thinking that every one of these people makes more than the people watching and being represented. Lots more.

Our State Supreme Court is broadcast. I don't think it hurts anything on the state level because no one could possibly sit through a session. The Supreme Court of the United States? Never. The Last Thing we need is grandstanding by people in that room which is exactly what would happen. Locally,

this might be an argument for the "not ready for HD" position.

The other thing I watched was a presser for the Release of the Report by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Report on the Anthrax Thing of 2001. Two years. Two years it took for the investigation of the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation which took, what, nine years? As she was reading, and before she got to the end which comprised Eight Conclusions and Two Recommendations, all I could think was Please don't tell me what all this cost. Please don't. They didn't.

Worse. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) put out a Release calling for a CONGRESSIONAL ANTHRAX COMMISSION. I had to put in one of my rare hyperlinks (1) to prove I can still remember how to do it and (2) to prove Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) actually did that.

Please. A guy killed several people ten years ago in a unique way to show off how smart he was. Okay, we were impressed. Then he did us all a favor by committing suicide. The end. Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-02-14T01:15:00.000-08:00

Post #2510. Medicare or Scientology? Here is an easy test for people who may have read some LRH or some of the vast explosion of wordage since, or a Medicare CMS EOB, or both. I've read both, the words anyway. See which you think this selection of text belongs to:

Selected variables are encrypted, ranged or blanked: UPIN is encrypted, beneficiary age is ranged (by age groups), dates of service are by quarter and year, zip codes are blank (the lowest level of cross-sectional analysis is the county level for the SAFs and the state level for the MedPAR File). The LDS SAFs have a specific beneficiary key that allows the LDS SAFs to be linked; the LDS MedPAR file cannot be linked with any of the LDS SAFs. The Standard Analytical Files (SAFs) are generated by processing the National Claims History (NCH) file's raw claims through final action algorithms that match the original claim with adjusted claims to resolve any adjustments. SAFs are available for each institutional claim type (inpatient, outpatient, SNF, hospice, or HHA) and for Non-institutional files (Carrier, DME) beginning with 1991. The record unit of SAFs is the final action claim (some episodes of care may have more than one final action claim). Final action claim files are available to researchers approximately nine months into the following calendar year (for example: 2007 data will become available in September of 2008). The files are annual.

I'll admit it, this is the easy way of getting out of posting something original. The only original thought I had today was that Lady Gaga is more interesting than I thought she would be and she has some actual talent as opposed to the Other One.

Oh, and while they were reporting the story of that United Nations official who was forced out for sexual harrassment, they ran a piece of film showing him walking with another official in some gawdawful hot place, being official. Yeah, he's guilty all right. The body language forces you to visualize and imagine things you don't want to visualize and imagine. I don't know how women feel about heavy men who have mini-breasts which flop a bit in summerwear, but I doubt if these fellows get much consensual affection. And you know with this man's name is? Ruud Lubbers. Really. He was probably destined from early childhood to go into international sevice and become a groper, what with the funny translexicosition on that name he likely got in junior high: Luud Rubbers.

You're not going to believe this: Luud Rubbers is a group. Check out: Party Hoes

You looking chilliy wit yo thick ass
I know you got plenty niggas out there who trick cash
I damn near caught whiplash as you walked pass
Fucked up the blunt ashes
Peepin your script perpetrating you high
Youz a rat in disguise I see the freak in you eyes
You got between your thighs from fuckin to many guys
And yet still you play the sweet role but we know
That you juggle dicks like slot machines at a casino
I'm high as hell so I'm flaotin
Up in the party tokin
A 44 max and nigga don't jack
Cause I blast away fuck up a niggas whole day
Get the wildin and shoot this btich up in the party
Mobsta style you ain't had a thug in a while
I hit her wit the proposition as she's peepin me out
So whats the lick shorty? Fuck the game me or the lane
She hoped in the Range and then her attitude changed
She said "I know you fool you one of them Mobsta niggas"
"Who rap wit Twista, wheres he at" fired up wit some liquor
Hold tight shorty we almost at the City Inn
I told Maze about the lick soon as he buzzed me in

[Chorus]2x
Baby if you want to party tonight
then let me see you touch your toes
And show me you a party hoe
I got my niggas you got your girls
cause bitch we fucked the world and how do we hurl
Only if you partying hoe

[Maze]
I gotta confess I think I'm obsessed wit group sex
Yo lets have a contest and see who do it the best
Inside of Nubian flesh make me wanna get undressed
Tap that ass from the back cause baby your bodies blessed
And your friend to she bend too
Bust out some ginseng brew so I can dick your whole crew
That's the shit I'm into pass some pussy to my guys
Put my dick in your mouth shoot the loogy in your eye
I don't wanna socialize I'm just trying to get bucked
So after you get fucked you hoes gotta raise up
Bumpin out just blaze up big ol' B and the T's
Kick off the party wit you and your homies or your knees
While y'all party to see who got the most superb herb
Nigga Stokes gonna stroke that ass wit the killa curb
Till sober and then do it over again
Cause who ever taste the most dick is the one to win
So open them thighs wide while a nigga slide in
Let me see how many different ways your body can bend
Trippin on Liff spinnin your girl like he gonna miss her
While I'm opening the door for my niggaro Twista

[Chorus]2x

[Twista]
Oh gody what a sexy body you likes to party bitch come on get bucked
I gots to get some if I can't bust one gots to get fucked
Immaculate love get wit the look up at the ceiling lens
A pen of friends bring the Rhemy in I'm sinner sinning sin
Come up inside surprise pour Heny in a glass
Pretties is fast I'm glad squeezing tities and ass
Freakin at last Maze and Liff happy ever so horny
And one of them bonin what I'm gonna do now all of them want me
They slobbin and bobbin steady mobbin and globbin
like they slob whenever they party
But this big fat thick bitch made my dick hard
No that its swollen she choking
while her cheeks parted open the bitch started stroking
And I'm hoping the girl is hot and soakin, play wit her emotions
Talk about a Chi-Town po pimp
Let's flash the gold and wether or not get the dough gotta grab fo fin
Mo' freaks came thinking I don't want 'em I show
I got a gun, put you mouth around my scrotum and hold 'em
And catchin me bring that ass to me I have to see
Maze broke after me all of us going Ugh!! like Masta P
Boys is laughin cause we got the girls partying up
How they get fucked stroll to Bobby's we grab the shoties and bust

[Chorus]2x

Chicago got the party hoes to get bucked
Oakland city got the party hoes to get bucked
K-Town got the party hoes to get bucked
The Westside got the party hoes to get bucked
Detroit got the party hoes to get bucked
Puerto Pico got the party hoes to get bucked
Cleveland got the party hoes to get bucked
LA got the party hoes to get bucked
Tokyo got the party hoes to get bucked
ATL got the party hoes to get bucked
Northbound got the party hoes to get bucked
The projects got the party hoes to get bucked
Trinidad got the party hoes to get bucked
Big Green got the party hoes to get bucked
Southside got the party hoes to get bucked
The Coins got the party hoes to get bucked
Even Teal got the party hoes to get bucked
East and West coast got the party hoes to get bucked

This is truly something cosmic and it is way too late to be up on a school night.Rick Macherat Rick M. In the day.

2011-02-12T23:22:00.000-08:00

Post #2509. Friday, January 28, 2033. Morning after the State of the Union address, there is an important ceremony going on in the Oval Office. President Chelsea Victoria Clinton Mezvinsky Bush is at her desk, flanked by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster General. Behind them and off to the sides are the usual photo-hogs from Congress. After brief remarks, President Clinton turns to the treasury secretary, and he hands her the check which she places on her desk for a few moments before putting it in the envelope. An overhead camera shot displays it for us: Pay to the Order of the Treasury of the People's Republic of China ... the sum of Thirty-nine Trillion and 00/100 dollars. So that's it: after two and a half centuries, our National Debt is paid off at last.

The President then reaches into her top desk drawer, withdraws a sheet of stamps, peels off a one-trillion dollar stamp and sticks it on the envelope. She hands the envelope to the Postmaster General, everyone smiles and there is applause. Rick Macherat

2011-02-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

Post #2508. Irony. For a long time I really believed it was a coincidence, newspaper stories which happened to appear on the same page. For example, story #1: U.S. executions held up due to shortage of drug and story #2, down at the bottom of the same page: Infant death at Children's Hospital caused by drug overdose. Those weren't placed that way simply because they were sort of about the same thing.

Here's a new cartoon, written down as usual in the hope that some cartoonist will stumble in and steal it (fine with me, see very bottom of the blog,) anyway, "I don’t know what we’ll do next,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin about the jobs situation. This just cried out for a cartoon: Two senators acting as traffic flagmen, each holding up STOP signs, backing up traffic in both directions. Draw the traffic as two humongously long lines of cars and trucks. Put labels on the trucks like INNOVATION! JOBS IDEAS ENERGY CAREERS HIRING NEW! and lots more of same.

When I signed out of my online tax prep, the computer asked if I wanted to share the fact that my taxes were complete with Facebook. Seriously. The fact that it asked me, a thoroughgoing crank and volcanic Ned Ludd descendant, tells me we need not worry about these things taking over just yet. Rick Macherat

2011-02-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

Post #2507. Keywords: Preemie, India, survives, toilet, speeding train. Back in 2008, a premature birth occurred in the toilet of a train speeding across rural India. As the papers put it, the newborn infant slipped through the discharge chute and onto the tracks below. The mother, realizing in horror what had happened, leaped from the train herself and eventually found the baby - alive and apparently unhurt.

I was greatly moved by this story and clipped the article to save it until such time as that child grew into an adult and cured cancer, ushered in hemispheric peace, saved the planet, whatever. If you believe in God and Miracles, which I only barely do, then something more has to happen. We might not ever know about it, and that wouldn't matter so long as whoever wrote about it much later somehow did.

Tonight I thought it was about time to look the story up again and see .. well just see, ready to handle whatever it said: starting preschool this year, completely ordinary, was hit by a lorry and crushed to death, performs miracles regularly .. I can take it. What I was not expecting

Indian newborn survives fall from train:
reports: A newborn baby has escaped unhurt after being delivered in the toilet of a moving Indian train and then falling onto the tracks, reports said Thursday.

was for it to happen again. Now what?Rick Macherat

2011-02-06T01:18:00.000-08:00

Post #2506. No one understands me. That isn't just a teenager's lament, it is sadly true. No one does, or ever has, and it isn't because I'm brilliant. Barely barely a couple standard deviations on the Wechsler, if that anymore. And no, I'm not even hesitant to type it in the blog because no one ever comes here either. Well, except for the googlebot once in awhile, and It Doesn't Care one way or the other. We're all insects to that thing anyway.

Infinity is on my mind, has been for awhile now. Consider this: the Big Bang and the Big Crunch. Since I believe in antigravity and the proposition that the total amount of -F exceeds F by the barest amount, our Universe should continue to expand until something else happens. Perhaps -F "runs out of gas" at some point, but F does not share that shortcoming. The result is that we experience alternating Bangs and Crunches forever, and "forever" is the key word here. Now, we've figured out (don't ask me how) that the last black holes will decay in 3.15564768 x 10¹⁵⁷ years, so probably one full cycle, bang to bang, would be about twice that long.

Bear with me now - I'm beyond knowing what I'm typing about.

It would follow that the particles from the Next Bang would splay out in all directions, again, and form themselves into another Universe. Right? Maybe, long odds, one or two particles from the previous episode might actually end up in the same galaxy again. Could happen. Given a few more rounds of Bang-Crunch and there might be quite a few particles in the same neighborhood, but then for the next hundred quadrillion Bang-Crunches no such thing would happen.

EVENTUALLY, though, and this is where infinity comes in, all the particles in our Universe will end up in exactly the same arrangement as they are now, including you and me typing/reading this. Remember, we have all the time in the world to get this done. The bad news is that you do not want to have to wait for this. That would be Hell: Waiting in an uncomfortable chair in an uncomfortable waiting room, observing the bangs and crunches of universes until one emerges that has a bathroom. The good news is that you truly do live forever.

Fooey. All you have here is a rehash of Newhartian gazordinplat. Really? Is that all there is?Rick Macherat

2011-01-31T00:41:00.000-08:00

Post #2505. You are not alone. Getting a lot of these this month?

Unbelievable. They - meaning banks and the government - save a little labor, which they don't pass onto us by the way, by using machines to process these statements. At the other end, millions and millions of ordinary people struggle with the damned things. I can tell you that it is possible to open these evil envelopes without tearing them or injuring yourself, but you have to take your time, be careful and have the right tools. I do this because I am a nutcase and refuse to let them win.

Speaking of my condition, since it's late, let me illustrate one inevitable thing that drives me .. there's that word again. Why is it

when there is one lady with a rear end more gigantic than anyone else at the impromptu-memorial-flower-and-balloon-placement-location, the news videographer will find her and widen the shot enough to make sure she is displayed? Ideally, bending over, I am sorry to have to mention. Now that you've read this I'm afraid you'll be looking the next time and the time after that and notice that I was right, every time, without fail, whatever the event.Rick Macherat

2011-01-31T00:32:00.000-08:00

Post #2504. Memories ... Remember that joke from a post just one or two-hundred back, about forgetfulness? I swear this just happened, and if I don't tell you about it right now, I'll forget that too. I was writing an email to my old friend K from the third grade, telling her about a new brand of cookies I bought for brother (our emails get kind of housewifey sometimes,) and I got up to go into the kitchen to look up the name of them, the cookies. Noticing that my coffee cup was nearly empty and it was only about 8:30, I decided to make another cup. While the microwave was heating the water, I washed the pan the rice was cooked in. They sent me regular rice this week. I have never cooked anything but instant rice and did not realize that there is a difference. (Now I know.) After it just lay there limp in the pan when I stirred it into the boiling water, I quickly called sister-in-law for help. She was incredulous. I defended, No, I have never cooked raw rice before, when would I have? So, how do I fix this sad looking concoction? It worked out .. anyway, made the coffee and while I was stirring it I remembered how angry I got at an email from McAfee, the virus people, and how they were trying to bait-and-switch me on one of their products while playing on my fears generated by their ominous reports, and began to compose a reply in my mind. Got it. Just the right approach. So, I finally get back to the computer to write the McAfee masterpiece, and -- whoa -- what's this? A letter to K? Crap. Got to finish that first because YAHOO will time out and disconnect me if I click away from it. Remind me to complain to them too. I write some more to K, making it long enough to equal the length of her last one to me and then, what? Let's see, there was something else ...Rick Macherat

2011-01-21T23:19:00.000-08:00

Post #2403. Palindrome. Think back to English III or thereabouts and remember that a palindrome is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction. That's the definition of the lower case palindrome. The upper case variation, Palindrome, is only one of 133 variations/definitions of the name, Palin, in the online Urban Dictionary. You might be surprised to learn, maybe not, that almost all of them are unkind. For instance,

and no, I'm not the least bit sorry for stealing this image off the pages of that dictionary. Take a look at it. The whole site is pretty much what we used to call a slam book, written-bullying (old style.)

I actually like Sarah Palin, but I also believe she is not qualified to be President of the United States. (For an example of what "qualified" would amount to, think of George Herbert Walker Bush, not that his fabulous qualifications made a dent on the minds of 98% of American voters.) What is being done to her serves to illuminate a cultural change so profound that most people don't even recognize it. Never before in our history has there been a phenomenon like this, nor could there ever have been prior to the connectivity we enjoy today. Really makes you wonder where it goes next. I suspect not a good place. Worse yet, now that the writing of history has become so generally dishonest, and few people read more than the wiki summary anyway, will more sensible people in the future even know what happened here? Doubt it. Rick Macherat Sarah Palin shirtless

2011-01-17T23:32:00.000-08:00

1
1232502. 1Environmental catastrophe in Seattle. 123It happened this morning and will be on your news either tonight or tomorrow when we may expect extensive coverage. The Chinese freighter which spilled the oil was subject to none of the usual cultural niceties which traditionally characterize commentary on things Sino-Seattle. The ship was a rusted wreck of a maritime disgrace, a bulk grain carrier which was being refueled in Elliott Bay. The horrid black stain of oil along the bow told the story - carelessness, resulting in a SPILL right off the deck and into Puget Sound. The bird people were out, assessing the impact upon local and migratory birds. The fish people were everywhere in boats and even underwater in an effort to determine the damage to marine life. Of course, a huge number of shoreline protection squads were activated to mitigate against any oil reaching the beaches. Thirteen levels of government officials held news conferences, and these were carried live by all our local radio and television as the picture-in-picture showed the relentless spread of a telltale sheen. Strong adverbs and adjectives were employed by the more eloquent of many observers on shore, but the media chose someone more "of the folks" to express the general feeling, "That's messed up, man."

This sounds just terrible. How much oil was spilled? Forty-three gallons.
123
123

2011-01-03T00:56:00.000-08:00

Post #2501. This is so awful it makes you cringe.

Dennis Hopper took me on a journey. at first, it was a cultural one. It was with him that I found myself in the studios and dining rooms of the top modern artists in the U.S. — Ed Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein. It was with him that I found my way to the Pasadena art museum, screening old, forgotten films from great directors. It was Dennis who put me together with Bruce Conner, a genius collage artist and filmmaker who greatly influenced the films I have directed. But my journey with Dennis went deeper than culture. His infectious passion passed on to and into my life. We ran around L.A. to all the cool spots, always feeling there was something we knew that others didn't. We wrote an abstract comedy that he wanted to call The Ying and the Yang. I tried to explain the bended-word nature of the yin-yang idea, but he insisted — and when Dennis insisted, things were generally done his way. Then one early morning in 1967, I called him from Toronto and said, "Listen to this." It was an idea for a biker movie — a Hollywood road movie, really. But it was much more too. He directed it. I produced it. Dennis and I both starred in it. It was Easy Rider, and it changed the way films were made in Hollywood. Dennis got off his bike a few months ago. I continue to ride mine alone, but Dennis always percolates deep in my soul. Far out, man.

—Peter Fonda

Fonda is an award-winning actor, writer and director Rick Macherat

2010-12-22T00:16:00.000-08:00

Post #2500. Mary Don't Ask. The don't ask don't tell thing appears settled. I say "appears." Jay Leno mentioned it tonight, and his crowd cheered. I wondered why. Leno doesn't exactly draw lots of gays, so those people must have been happy because it's right. Okay, I'll agree with that. Many, many gay people have served with distinction over the years, and many others have been thrown out of the service unnecessarily and to the probable detriment of that service. So, that's one part ..

The other is: what happens now? We've talked about the foxhole and the showers. I'm not too worried about that. Somebody will misunderstand, or more problematic, understand, and there will be trouble and blood and bruises and courts martial and all, but the military always straightens itself out eventually. Bullets flying will do that. It's the non-shooting time that will cause the big problems. For instance, at the formal Commander's Dining-In, do you ask the major's date for a dance if he's a hairy biker wearing seatless leathers? For that matter, how about the seatlessness and dress standards to begin with? Senior officer's wives used to handle that. And how did the major ever get promoted past captain? "Unconventional" officers usually retire at 45 or so in that grade. Moving on, which latrine do the trannies use? And what constitutes "fraternization? Ironically, much the homoerotic behavior which goes on presently, and a lot of it is Very Homo, is going to be viewed differently from now on. A shame, really, since it was innocently enjoyed and un-analyzed by just about everyone and was not at all what it might have looked like to an observer. All that ass-grabbing and sweaty clutching is not queer. Whole 'nother phenomenon. Really.

Mark my words, this has just begun. Rick Macherat

2010-12-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

Post #2499. Mortality. Another visit by the googlebot reminded me that this place has had very scant output lately. Busy, nothing to say, bummed .. the usual .. however,

Like most people and especially people who deny it, I google my name occasionally and am always surprised how what I have typed over the years manages to leak out and travel. People grab pages of thoughts or comments which include mine, repost and, well, you know what I mean since you do it too. We spread. So, I ran across a peculiar entry which didn't mean anything until I clicked on a few of the URL's. That helped me figure it out. I had placed a question about weblog indexing on a help site back in early 2007 and forgotten about it. Some time later, a guy named Rat addressed my question directly and answered it with a thoughtful explanation. With the Holidays upon us and all, I thought it would be nice to go to his page and thank him. So I did, and this is what I found

Tue 6-20-2010. I've only now gotten the computer back in the house after many weeks. I've been sick a couple of months and it's bad. Pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, both inoperable, untreatable, impenetrable. In hospital a few weeks, out of it now, a few weeks, in hospice now at home and totally weak. Don't know how much time is left, but it could be short. I suppose i'll be a bad writer from now on and a worse speller...

That was his last post. Rick Macherat

2010-11-19T00:07:00.000-08:00

Post #2498. David Vachon Shirtless. For some reason it just occurred to me that Dave might be just lingering on the cusp of fame and still searching himself from time to time.

Considering all of the ways that wars end - peace conferences, surrender, annihilation, on ships, in palaces - is it possible this one will end with a wave of indignation? Not that unthinkable, just look at how this anti-screening attitude is spreading. Personally, I have no concerns at all about being personalated, what with my girth and flatulence and all.

I had a genuine personal conflict over the weekend, and I think some other people did as well. I am very strongly against animal abuse, can't even watch that commercial without getting all, you know, but on the other hand it was great seeing Michael Vick account himself so well against the Redskins. Of course, I'm strongly pro Native-American too. Except for the fishing part. And the casinos. And when they're blonde-blue, fat and named Schmidt. Rick Macherat

2010-11-15T00:22:00.000-08:00

Post #2497. Escape. You would think at least the alumni magazine would be safe from the current relentless assault upon incivility. But noooo, they have to devote almost an entire issue to it. I just couldn't take any more of that right now when I sat down to read, so I decided to type instead. It's a good time to put-head-in-sand generally. I have another cartoon going: picture one of those third world out-of-control buses flying down a mountain road, maybe one or two wheels touching, chickens and luggage flying off, and place whomever works for you at the wheel with an insane expression, Pelosi, Boehner, Obama, Palin, Bernanke .. it doesn't really matter. Yeah, I used 3 and 2 examples to tip off my own persuasion.

There was a long article locally about how a bunch of street kids killed one of their own. Quite brutal actually, a lot like Bully or Kids. I was led to the story via a post by a virtual acquaintance, and the tone of his comment was disturbed; it got to him. When I read it, however, I came away with completely the opposite reaction. Three down (the vic, and two perps who have been charged,)and quite a few yet to go. Hardhearted? Yeah. Most of us aren't at the place where, as a society, we just haven't the time or resources to play namby-pamby with the mistakes. Most of the "comments" which accompanied the article made some reference to "getting help" or "mental health resources." Please. Those are just synonyms for make it go away somewhere where I don't have to be upset.

There was a man recently, you probably know who it was, I can't remember, who announced that Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme! Really? What sensible person is surprised to learn this? I told you about Maisy Poe, the little lady who my grandmother took down to the Social Security office and got signed up in 1940. Maisy, bless her heart, lived to 102. The people who designed Social Security knew that couples would stop having 10-12 children as the country moved from agriculture to manufacturing and they wouldn't need them for support in their old age. They knew life spans would increase. They also knew they'd be long gone when all this happened.

Gen-X and the Millennials have been hearing about the Boomers since the day they were born, and there is a lot of out in the snow and off the cliff in their wicked and self-absorbed little souls. It'll get solved. Always does. Sometimes it's ugly though.Rick Macherat

2010-10-30T00:36:00.000-07:00

Post #2496. USAF screw-up assignments; other.

VD Control Officer at Thule AB
FOD Report Compiler at Palooka ANGB (Arkansas) no runway
Golf Pro at Shemya AFB (Renamed Eareckson Air Station in 1993

This post will have to get a new title because I wanted to include a Margaret Cho haiku, spoken but not written down after her visit to Calcutta. It goes, A man in a suit taking a dump in the street. It wasn't on the Internet anywhere and for some reason I thought it should be and yes I know it doesn't qualify as a haiku (does if you translate it.)

I took Econ 201 back in 1965 and one of the things I remember Mr. Smith saying was that the price of salt was probably the best gauge of inflation in the economy. So, I just bought some for Safeway delivery next Tuesday, one of the greatest advances in the history of civilization, by the way, online grocery shopping, and the price was 99 cents. That would indicate there's been very little inflation, according to Mr. Smith. It has taken 45 years, but I think he may have been wrong on that one. Another teacher, Mr. Grover, (Amer Gov class, 1961, high school) was worried to death about the federal budget deficit and where it was going. Especially the interest that would be eating us alive if current trends continued. I looked it up: interest on the National Debt was $9.2 billion in 1960, and the total debt amounted to $1,572 for every person in the United States. Oh my. To have numbers like that again. And Mr. Grover must be apoplectic by now.

And second to last for today, on a timely and stupid subject: Only three days before the election, terror incident grips nation. We're talking about the mail bombs here, the ones placed aboard cargo jets bound from Yemen to Chicago where they were to be delivered to Jewish synagogues. Am I not seeing something, or are the people involved in all of this (both sides) auditioning for a Saturday Night Live Skit? Any one of us could write it, down to where the the Synagogue mail lady rushes into the Rabbi's office with the package, excitedly asking if she can open it, All the way from Yemen! Imagine that. What could it be?

Also perhaps stupid, another ship was seized by pirates off the coast of East Africa. Again, what am I missing? You have the combined fleets of most of the world's mightiest countries out there, satellites, drones, helicopters, Mach 2 fighters and other magic stuff we don't know about, and still they can't stop those stoned teenagers from grabbing gigantic ships with their tiny boats. Amazing. Rick Macherat

2010-10-25T00:41:00.000-07:00

Post #2495. My favorite. Just today, we were both reminded .. well, here it is anyway. So Seattle. He's a little lumpy, she's lovely and smitten. It's raining, and who cares.

This photograph was taken by Seasun. He takes a lot of them, and they're all here. You'll want to click on this one to enlarge it.Rick Macherat

2010-10-17T01:41:00.000-07:00

Post #2494. Dress Code. In a really high-end restaurant, be on the safe side and dress as you would for the funeral of a close elderly relative. Also, anytime you attend an event in a location noted for its soaring, world-class, cutting-edge, awe-inspiring, New York Times-impressing architecture, you might want to wear something, say, dignified. Unless it's in Seattle, of course.

Rick Macherat

2010-09-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Post #2493. A little planning ahead. We're going into the city. Don't do that much anymore. What used to be trips for partying, cavorting and sometimes even shopping have become lawyering and doctoring. Ugh. So I'm thinking over what we need to take for a busy day of apppointments and traveling around. Oh yes, a thermos of coffee. Don't want to get stuck without cof ... oh good grief, how could I forget? We're going downtown. Downtown Seattle perpetessake. Jeez.Rick Macherat

2010-09-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

Post #2492. I rest my case. Can you imagine the guffaws from say, back in 1957, if a lovely new car girl raised her arm and stepped aside as the curtain went up and the music swelled and right there slowly rotating in the middle of a shiny stage sat

this thing? Dave observed, "Golly Lar, do you realize we could drive all the way around the world for about $13.00 in gas money?" "More like $131.00," replied Larry, who was better at math, "but it would have to be done entirely at night so no one would see us ferchrissakes!" Rick Macherat

2010-09-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

Post #2491. The most awful thing I've ever said. Sardonic? That's maybe what it was. Judge for yourself. My other brother died a little more than two weeks ago. He was married to the Sister-in-law about three wives and four husbands back, or the other way round. Hence our relationship of forty-plus years. Think that's confusing, consider all those poor kids. Good grief! Half of them don't know who the hell they are. At least they're all legitimate. Most of the relatives think Sister-in-law and I should have been married. Maybe so, what with the level of psychological combat over the last half-century and what-not.

I told her. Had to eventually, so I just said it, malignant/stage-four blah-blah, explained the whole medical shitstorm. It was really, really tough on her, I knew it. Especially coming Right After my brother's untimely death. The rest of the afternoon eventually relaxed. We've been through it all, so things got on to practicalities, discussing Brother, Other Brother (the dead one,) as well as My Condition. At one point she asked, "Did you get the death certificate yet?"

How could I resist? Really? I replied, "No. I have to die before they'll issue one."

If there's a place in hell for that sort of thing, well, I probably just bought myself in. Rick Macherat

2010-09-23T00:12:00.000-07:00

Post #2490. Notes from the real Twilight Zone. My entries may be short for awhile, only because for the first time in decades I am busy. Seems that news of my CANCER has spread to people who thought I'd been dead for years. I have to confess, dealing is tough. The cancer too.

The PET-CT scan is fairly new, and I am to have one. So far, I find people in the PET-CT scan business to be a bit huffy. Since I am sometimes .. direct, this might get ugly. I've promised that I'll really try to tone it down. Those people could put me in that cyclotron of theirs and fry me into a lump of coal, and no one could ever prove foul play. And they'd do it too if you pissed them off enough. Which I could quite innocently do. Rick Macherat

2010-09-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

Post #2489. Some bad news. It's hard to come up with an appropriate email subject when the content is going to seriously mess up the recipient, but it became necessary to write several this afternoon. Ugh. The news I got today was that I have Stage 4 Malignant Melanoma, and that's not all. The rest of the numbers/letters, measurements and qualifications that go along with the diagnosis are all at the top of their respective ranges as well. Except for survivability of course.

So, there we are. I made a point of stopping by a mirror on the way over to the computer to look at myself and say out loud something to the effect of wow I really am going to die. Soon. And Badly. I almost added a little more, like "Holy Shit!" but decided against it. No sense in overly annoying Anyone Upstairs at this point, y'know? Oh jeez, this isn't going to turn into one of those DEATH BLOGS is it? Actually, I think not. You've probably noticed I'm not that brave melancholy, redemption, nice sunset kind of writer. Besides, it's pretty much been done to death, don't you think?Rick Macherat

2010-09-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Post #2488. Nine years. Young people don't ordinarily interest me, but they are on my mind today, nine-eleven. A lot of them are writing about "that day in third grade" or "while we were watching cartoons on television." Sure, the world changed forever that day, but they'll never get the chance to know what it was like Before. And that is very sad. I don't even try to tell them about it anymore because they just look at you like the kindly befuddled old man telling fairy tales.

Did you know that there was never a better time to Invest In Gold? That's what the ad says, pointing out that the price of gold has gone up by almost four times in the past ten years. And people will go for it it, never realizing that the best time to buy gold was maybe ten years ago and the ad is being run by people who figure now is the time to unload it?

Pierce Brosnan is in that movie, Mamma Mia!. I caught a little of it last night, just enough to realize that as an actor you do not want to anger the cinematographer! It's clear the Pierce must have done or said something to the guy, maybe dissed him in some kind of regal Hollywood way, because his facelift scar in all its glory is shown about eleven feet high in a shot looking past his ear. Additional note: those things do not tan, so keep that in mind when you go in for your lift. Scarves, think scarves.

There was a program on the World is Ending Channel the other night. They pointed out how the warm current would be disrupted and Europe would enter a new Ice Age if Greenland's 91 billion cubic feet of ice were to melt. Again with the numbers. Do it for yourself: a cubic mile contains 147,197,952,000 cubic feet, and Greenland covers many thousands of miles (836,109 actually) with very deep ice. This is why so many of us reactionaries get frosty about climate change. Numbers. Always the numbers. The original FACT happens to be true: if Greenland melts, the climate changes. Then, they put in a nonsense number and the argument evaporates.

Oh, we're going to get climate change all right, but so long as there are concerned people with credentials who need paychecks, there will always "be time if we act now!" Truth is, there ain't a danged thing we can do about it anymore, so stop worrying and get on with life. Rick Macherat

2010-08-28T01:05:00.000-07:00

Post #2486. My late night Zenny encounter with a very sickly bug. First off, I don't really understand what Zen is, just know it when I see it. Second, it was very late at night when you're closer to God. By that I mean even if you've little or no religion, after you have said your prayers and fallen asleep, only God can protect you (and only if He wants to, keep that in mind.) What's gotten into you with all this God stuff?. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's just that at 1:59am in the bathroom and you see a Ladybug in very bad shape, you don't squash her just because she's in your space and because you can. There is no point in going to sleep having just committed a senseless murder. Earlier in the day when things were noisier and your thoughts and emotions were quite a bit more diffuse, you wouldn't have given it a second thought: splat, flush. Anyway, this is the third or fourth Ladybug-looking insect that I've seen in the house recently, and they've been all-black and moving at the tiniest creeping speed. They look like woeful survivors of some awful industrial or nuclear accident. I almost stepped on her, so I used a Kleenex to pick her up and set her on the edge of the bathtub. Well, that probably made the situation, whatever it was, worse. She wandered around aimlessly on what must have seemed like some weird cold porcelain desert, so I tried to put her back where she was to begin with. But I dropped her and was certain that I killed her since the fall had to be 200 feet in human scale. I watched for a few minutes until she finally began to move a bit. Good .. only stunned.

This whole episode had consumed about 10-25 minutes of potential sleep time and having done what I considered my best, I left the bug to work the rest of it out on her own. For readers who may have done something dorky like this themselves, no, I didn't supply a piece of lettuce. Doing so would have meant going all the way upstairs, turning on lights all the way and opening up a bag of prepared salad. I'm sure she'll be fine. Rick Macherat

2010-08-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

Post #2485. I know this is blogdeath. Boring people by relating dreams, that is, but this one was unusual. Yeah, yeah. They all are. No really. See, I was one of the Bug People, and we had landed on earth after learning there was a gathering of the enemy on this planet. Sure enough, our enormous force ran across an even larger army of enemy soldiers in a fortified encampment. Shelling and sporadic engagements ensued. Then, we discovered that the Rocks on this planet were made of materials which enhanced our weapons by orders of magnitude. Almost immediately, our stronger weapons began to cut down the enemy in huge numbers. Before long, the barrage stopped and we looked over a battlefield littered with the innumerable smoking corpses of our enemy.

As we drew closer, I realized what the dream was all about. All those bodies, ripped to pieces, smoking, burning, stinking .. They were Shrimp People! Yummm!!
Rick Macherat

2010-08-07T22:14:00.001-07:00

Post #2484. True. In the middle of an epic time-wasting session on the computer, I decided to take a look at the glossiest place on earth on Google Maps. Selecting at random 42nd Street in Manhattan, my cursor landed a block off, on 41st. No problem, I zoomed in with Street View. Here is my very first street view, the glossiest place on earth:

Rick Macherat

2010-08-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Post #2483. What should have been a lazy summer afternoon. I've just been watching Bonfire of the Vanities, the part where Tom Hanks runs the gamut of our justice system. As they close the jail cell door behind him, the scene begins to glow red - is the Hell? I had that same thought today ..

Woke up from a below-average nap, below average because it was hot and my bed is uncomfortable. Also, there's my "growth," a non-metastasizing (I hope) cancerous thing on my back, the almost completely unreachable part. Lately, and this is why I have an appointment in three weeks to have it removed finally, it bleeds. Mainly within five minutes of taking aspirin or when my blood pressure rises upon leaving the bed. Somehow, I've gotten into a routine of managing this ghastly event, thanks to a huge supply of paper towels and some other contrivances. Oh, and by "bleed," I don't mean like your finger or an ordinary cut. I mean a gusher that only stops by applying steady pressure for a few minutes, not an easy feat with the most remote part of the body. Anyway, I had it at least contained enough to try and take a pee which I believe was what woke me up in the first place. That was going well enough, one hand crooked around to my back, applying pressure as much as was awkardly possible, the other hand, well, peeing, when suddenly the smoke detector went off.

No fire, not even smoke. Maybe the thing reacts to blood. The scene became totally Rainman at that point, I'm sorry to have to admit, because as it turned out this was a fucking TEN-YEAR SMOKE DETECTOR which is not designed to have the battery removed, as I discovered but not before completely demolishing my bedroom. It's still in there, beeping like mad under a huge stack of dirty clothes, sheets and blankets. About the time I got it covered up, the phone rang.

If this was a movie, I would have answered it and moved on to Scene Three: a friend, the sister-in-law, a boiler room? Any one of these people could have participated with me in an bizarre and manic telephone conversation which might have been interesting to relate later. But these days I rarely answer the phone at all after finally realizing that when you don't people just figure you're not home and move on to the next person to annoy. Big deal. Rick Macherat

2010-07-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Post #2482. The Sister-in-law. It's been awhile, I know. This is how it usually goes when someone abandons blogging, though I'm not really sure if that is what's happening. We'll see. Anyway,

She complained for a few weeks about the boyfriend thinking he needed an HDTV (I supported him, of course) and how that was just too far down the list of priorities for spending money. Uh-huh. Then she came over and saw my new one. Their HDTV arrives tomorrow, an LG: That's Chinese, you know. I know. (She didn't.)

She and I are doing Big Brother this summer. Pretty ridiculous at our age, but it's still fun. I watch some of the Showtime late night and she reads the forums, then we compare notes. Did I ever imagine this, in my sixties? No. What's worse, those people embody just about everything I don't care for in today's world: fitness, sensible diet, instant intimacy .. oh, a lot more.

I guess any one of these typings could be the last, you never know. Most blogs just quit. This one won't do that. Well, unless that is, indeed, that. Rick Macherat

2010-06-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

Post #2481. Dear Googlebot. I will be typing something new soon. Promise.

I asked her to tell four-year-old Colin not to yell and interrupt when she is on the phone with ex-step-great-great-uncle-in-law-thrice-removed Rick, but she wouldn't do it. Nor would she give the phone to him so I could. Of course, once word got around that I said that kid will be stealing cars before you know it, well, now they're all upset.

My niece, or more accurately my ex-step-great-niece-in-law-thrice-removed, Colin's mother, had a friend die this week. Suicide. The family is evidently not hushing it up as is usually done; the obituary suggests donations to the Teen Suicide Prevention Thing. Facebook and some other online places that I'm distantly familiar with are handling the memories and expressions. There will be a memorial which no one will dress for. Being summer, that means flip-flops, halter tops, jeans and shorts. Except for the minister, if there is one. Maybe he's online too. One thing there will be a lot of is hugs.

Hugs and high-fives. You know how hard it is to move about in this world and avoid them? It's hard.

I did learn something new and interesting. For some time I've wondered how the Universe expanded out to ... wherever, 14 billion light years or so, in 14 billion years, and then the light from the farthest reaches has taken another 14 bilion years to reach us. Wouldn't that make the age of the Universe 28 billion years, not 14? No, it seems not, and Planck time explains it. If you want to calculate some Planck time, use this:

Note the c to the fifth part. Planck time is boggling indeed. Kind of like a Googleplex only less. I feel a lot better now. Of course, I'll be typing it PLANK TIME just to drive the smart kids bonkers. Rick Macherat