Easter

Jay and I just got home from Easter dinner at my parent's house. Jay's in the market for a used truck, so we went by way of Stillwater to take a look at a truck he saw advertised online. The truck looked like a really good deal online, but in person we saw some minor body damage and the paint was flaking off. Jay decided to pass so we headed towards my parent's house but passed through a couple more dealerships on the way. We got to my parent's house around 11:30 am and started setting the table, and helping my Dad haul stuff out to his SUV as the others arrived. Roy was the next to show up, followed by my brother and his family. Most of us spent time carrying my niece around because that seems to be a pretty fool-proof way to keep her from fussing.
For dinner we had salad, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, and all the other usual side dishes. We took a little break between dinner and desert. I played around with my brother's iPhone a little. I found the William Tell Overture - Mom Song on YouTube and this time it had subtitles so Jay actually had a chance at understanding it! After a little time to digest, desert was served. A little after that, around 4:30 pm, people started heading out.
We checked out a couple more car dealers on the way home, and Jay saw a couple more candidates. We got home in time for Jay to feed a howling cat and catch this weeks Amazing Race.

Elmo talks drugs, child abuse, and the holocaust

Well, not really. Elmo was actually told to stay away from those topics by Ricky Gervais as seen in a clip on Graham Norton.

I'm never gonna use this in the real world!

I guess Calculus does have its uses!

Movie Night Slumber Party

Last night our friend Bill had a slumber party themed movie night at his place. It started at 6pm but luckily work called at 5:58. I just kicked off a job that would take about an hour to run, then Jay and I headed out.
Bill went all out by ordering pizza from Lou Malnati's in Chicago! He must have had the martinis primed because I think Erin was already a little tipsy by the time we got there! The first movie was The Boys In The Band. The first half of the movie was full of some great one-liners, but the second half definitely wasn't as cheery. When the movie was over, everyone was up for another feature and we narrowed it down to Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias. Seeing as we were in a townhouse full of gay men, it could have gone either way, but we wound up going with Steel Magnolias. After the second feature everyone was ready to head out, and go to bed!

I guess the Prius is too popular...

I finally got around to doing my taxes and I was ecstatic when I saw I could get about $3000 back from the Feds for buying a hybrid! The excitement was short lived when I found out only the first couple thousand owners of each make and model get the tax credit. Bummer.

Thanks to my Dad for this one

This will warm your heart...

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.
Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.

Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Mbembe was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teen aged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.
The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe's legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly...



Probably wasn't the same elephant.

Unix Lovers to Party Like It's 1234567890

Thanks to my friend Mel for passing this along. The original story can be found over at Wired.

By Dylan Tweney February 12, 2009 | 3:34:16 PMCategories: Geeks

Unix weenies everywhere will be partying like it's 1234567890 this Friday.

That's because, at precisely 3:31:30 p.m. Pacific time on February 13, 2009, the 10-digit "epoch time" clock used by most Unix computers will display all ten decimal digits in sequence. (That's 6:31:30 Eastern, or 23:31:30 UTC.)

Unlike time systems intended for humans, Unix time simply counts the number of seconds since midnight UTC on January 1, 1970. It's a convenient way for computers to measure elapsed time, provided the start date wasn't before 1970. On Friday, the number of seconds will hit 1,234,567,890. Celebrations are planned in San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles and about 10 other locations worldwide, so don't be surprised if it takes the guys in IT a little longer to respond to your calls tomorrow afternoon, or if the Gadget Lab crew is hard to find.

We couldn't find any watches that display Unix time, but the above desk clock from ThinkGeek, will do the trick. It will also display the time in binary, octal, hexadecimal or Roman formats. Mark your calendars: It's only 11 and a half years until XX:XX:XX X/XX/XX day.