My Traveling Family

AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-AM can kiss my butt

February 8, 2010 in Thoughts n Rants | Leave a comment

Again this year the AT&T golf tournament in Pebble beach is happening. This used to be a fun event from what I’ve been told. Now it’s $60 a head to get in per day. Here’s a list of things your NOT allowed to take in with you, including any food, water, or a Camera. Why the hell go if you can’t even take a damn camera? Who’s stupid ass idea was that?!?! Basically after your strip search you get on a bus and in your fricken underwear you’re “allowed” the paid privilege of watching the tournament.

I don’t think so. I hope they bitch about low attendance all the way to bankruptcy.

Prohibited Items

Cell phones, PDAs, distracting devices, cameras, bags, backpacks, food containers, coolers, signs, banners, posters, televisions and radios, outside alcohol, non-service pets, bicycles, ladders, metal spiked golf shoes, weapons and any other item deemed potentially injurious, unlawful or dangerous as determined in the sole discretion of the PGA TOUR, tournament security personnel or law enforcement officials, are prohibited inside the entrance gate of the AT&T during the time period of Thursday through Sunday of Tournament week

Lonely Brother

February 8, 2010 in General | Leave a comment

I found this poem in a 1916 leather bound pocket book. It was made to fit in the pocket of a British uniform during WWI. It’s mainly filled with inspirational poems for soldiers at war, and has made for pretty interesting reading.

The Kings Highway by John Oxenham.

Lonely Brother
Art though lonely, O my brother?
Share thy little with another!
Stretch a hand to one unfriended,
So both thou and he
Shall less lonely be.
And of thy one loneliness
Shall come two’s great happiness.

It just doesn’t make sense to me

February 8, 2010 in Climate Change, Thoughts n Rants | Leave a comment

As most know, I’m not a member of the “Church of Global Warming”. I am however a fan of things that help our environment and ourselves. As long as it makes sense.

Forcing people to get away from those horribly cheap and useful incandescent lights and make them use those expensive, mercury laden CFL’s CFD’s. Oh ya, that makes sense, Not! But gee you “save so much in energy” which Has to be good for the environment, I mean Global Warming. Oh wait, please ignore the whole Mercury issue, you know. how according to the EPA if you drop one of those CFL’s CFD’s you have to clear out the house and it’s now legally a hazardous waste area? Minor details, it’ll just be our dirty little secret? Okay? He’s a few bucks for your next campaign.

So, why am I ranting on this. Well, one of the blogs I like to read has a big deal on replacing 5 light bulbs with these new wonderful LED lights that just Must be better for the environment. Each light is 12 watts and is replacing 75 watt lights (why they aren’t already 60 watt bulbs is a good question).

Anyhow if you figure 5 75 watt bulbs (which is what he’s replacing) running 8 hours a day 7 days a week 30 days a month with a cost of $.11 a kilowatt hour (that’s the hosed up price I pay to Enron, I mean PG&E). So, doing the math it turns out that it costs $9.90 a month for those 5 lights. Doing the same math with 60 watt bulbs turns out to be $7.92 a month. For the new nifty LED’s it would cost $1.58 a month. Better right?

So, we have $9.90 a month vs $1.58 a month at the two extremes. Now the cost of the LED’s. $98 a pop, for a total of $490 plush shipping and tax. We’ll just call it $100 a light for ease. So, to make up the cost of the LED’s at the extremes would take a total of (Incandecent cost per month – LED cost per month) * X months >= $500. X months turns out to be 60 plus change. So, to get break even on buying these would be 5 years. Taking into account the savings in electricity.

Now for maintenance costs over those 5 years.

A regular incandescent bulbs lasts about 7500 hours or roughly 2.5 years per bulb at 8 hours per day. But to buy a pack of 4 is a $1 or so. In 5 years you’d need to replace on average 10 bulbs total. So, total maintenance cost for bulbs, less than $10.

LED bulbs. $100 a pop. Life span 50000 hours, or just over 17 years. So they would need to be replaced an average of one every 3 years and change. So, over 5 years you’d average replacing 1.5 bulbs, or $150.

So, if you buy these nifty LED’s and replace your existing 75 watt bulbs you would save about over the course of 5 years (break even time for initial cost). $10 in incandescent replacements – $150 in LED replacements, or -$140 total.

Your total savings over 5 years is -$140. Yes, replacing your existing horribly wasteful incandescent bulbs with those wonderful “Green” bulbs will Cost you an average of $30 a year.

If you replace the 75 watt bulbs with 60 watt bulbs the total savings over 5 years would be roughly $118.80 in energy savings. Yes, you SAVE $24 a year by using 60 watt bulbs rather than 75 watt bulbs.

Using 60 watt bulbs instead of LED’s would save you an average of $54 a year.

So why switch to CFL’s CFD’s and LEDs? Besides to make all those lobbyists happy? Well to “SAVE THE WORLD FROM GLOBAL WARMING! Oh wait, it doesn’t? It makes it worse? Um, my bad, never mind.

Don’t read the fine details. Just shut up and go with the crowd. You need to save the world right? Sheeple. Nothing but a bunch of sheeple.

Just my 2 cents on the subject. Sometimes using old technology makes more sense than trying to use nifty new tech. Incandescent bulbs are made of a bit of glass, a tungsten filament , metal base, a bit of glue, and some vacuum. Done. CFL’s CFD’s? All the same except replace tungsten with Mercury vapor and add all the crud that goes into the ballast. LED’s? Who knows what chemicals are used to make all the parts for those lights. I guess I could do the research, but I’m figuring it’s not going to be good for the environment. Not from what I know of chip making.

Update: CFL is Compact Flourescent Lights. CFD is Computational Fluid Dynamics. You can see my confusion.

One step closer to a cure

February 5, 2010 in General | 2 comments

I just ran across this article on EurekaAlert.

New Study finds possible source of beta cell destruction that leads to type 1 diabetes.

The following paragraph pretty much sums up the whole article, at least to me.

It is generally understood that inflammation plays a vital role in beta-cell destruction. But the precise factors are not well known. A protein-based enzyme found in beta cells, 12-LO produces specific lipids that cause inflammation and can lead to the death of beta cells in laboratory models. In fact, EVMS researchers have demonstrated that deleting the gene that produces 12-LO prevents the development of Type 1 diabetes in mice.

It’s little (big) steps like this that will eventually lead to a cure for type 1 Diabetes. No more shots, no more pump, no more sticking my finger over and over again. In my 12 years as a diabetic I’ve stuck my fingers (roughly) 17,500 times.

The 800 pound gorilla

February 3, 2010 in Cancer, Thoughts n Rants | Leave a comment

I’m finding it difficult to keep up the web page, at least with a semi happy tone, with the 800 lb gorilla called Cancer sitting in the room.

When you wake up in the morning thinking about it, and go to bed at night thinking about it, and it’s always in the back of your head during the day. It takes a concerted effort to ignore sometimes.

I don’t want this site to become just one upsetting fact after another on this trip we are on, and it’s definitely a trip this whole family is taking together. I don’t want to put up posts every time the doctor comes back with more bad news. And yet, that’s my first thought. Crap, another tumor, post post post.Which isn’t what I want this web page to be. It’s supposed to be about the whole family and how we’re living our lives. Right now, that’s a little focused on just one thing, but that doesn’t mean a lot of other things aren’t happening.

So, if I’m not posting about the cancer, it’s not because nothing is happening, it’s because I am avoiding it. It’s better to post happy things and ignore the hot pink 800 lb monster in the room.

And yes, this rant is because her cancer spread and she’s now got more tumors. So piss off and have a happy day!

NPOESS in trouble

February 2, 2010 in Climate Change, Thoughts n Rants, science | Leave a comment

As most who know me know, I’m working with the Navy on a project called NPOESS, or the National Polar orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. This was supposed to be a fairly long term stable position, which is why I moved over from eHPC to the NPP/NPOESS team. NPP stands for the NPOESS Preliminary Project.

Well, like any good government project it’s been fraught with politics, budget overruns, inefficiencies, etc. In fact the launch of the NPP satellite has been delayed again from January 2011 to November 2011 because the primary sensor released the magical blue smoke during a power up test. The original launch date was 2006, so you can see there’s been some serious delays.

Anyhow. Spaceflight Now has an article discussing NPOESS.

Today the White House is announcing that NOAA and the Air Force would no longer continue to jointly procure the polar-orbiting satellite system called NPOESS,” the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s budget summary stated.

I’m not sure how this is going to effect my contract, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to do something. I suppose the title of the article says it all.

Budget slashes NPOESS weather satellite program

Anyhow, we’ll see how it plays out.I’m betting we’ll continue with the NPP portion of the program at least. Which is what I”m actually working on currently, getting ready for the full project later.

So, for now it’s continue working as normal. No worries, no panic, no resume.com. So why the post? In case anyone runs across the article and knows what I’ve been working on, they won’t think “Oh Crap!”. Nah, things are what they are. Having this happen wasn’t a big surprise.

Here’s a pic of the NPP satellite. Not sure if it’s before or after that magical blue smoke appeared.

The NPP spacecraft under construction. Credit: Ball Aerospace

The face of stupidity

February 1, 2010 in General, Thoughts n Rants | 5 comments

How do you detect stupid? Here’s a good hint

Progress Report For Hickey, Megan as of 2/1/2010
Summary Report
PERIOD 1(A) 1(B) 1(C): UNSCHED 1 (Teachers: HS_Staff, PG)
  Current Grade:   Absences: 6  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 2(A) 2(B): FRENCH 1 (Teachers: Olin, Janine)
  Current Grade: F  Absences: 6  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 3(A) 3(C): FOODS (Teachers: Schueneman, Adrian)
  Current Grade: F  Absences: 1  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 4(A) 4(B): PE - CORE 9 (Teachers: Buller, Todd C)
  Current Grade: F  Absences: 2  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 5(A) 5(C): GEOGRAPHY (Teachers: Morgan, Ronald Christopher)
  Current Grade: F  Absences: 1  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 6(A) 6(B): INTRO TO ART (Teachers: Muhl, Norman B)
  Current Grade: --  Absences: 2  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 7(A) 7(C): ENG 1 (Teachers: Keller, Sean B)
  Current Grade: F  Absences: 6  Tardies: 0
PERIOD 8(A) 8(B) 8(C): Community Service HS (Teachers: Paris, Kristin)
  Current Grade: <48  Absences: 0  Tardies: 0

How the hell do you fail PE and Food???? WTF?!?

Experiencing life differently

January 29, 2010 in Thoughts n Rants | Leave a comment

I was wandering the web today and started reading about Savants, (don’t ask). Anyhow I just learned that Kim Peek, one of the primary inspirations for the movie Rain Man died of a heart attack on December 19th.This started me thinking about other savants and how they viewed the world around them. One famous savant, Daniel Tammet, is what’s considered a highly functional autistic savant. Basically what that means is that Mr Tammet has a higher than normal IQ and fairly normal social abilities. On top of this he also has the ability to do things like recite PI to over 22,000 decimal places. He also invented a fully functional language as a child called Mänti. (An article that mentions Manti)

One of the amazing things about Mr Tammet is that he has the ability to describe what is happening in his mind when he is performing, to us normal folk, these amazing feats of intelligence. One thing he describes is that he sees numbers as shapes, colors, textures, and motions among other things. I was just perusing his blog and he’s posted a poem about PI that I find absolutely fascinating. When you read this imagine it’s him describing what he sees in his brain as he recites PI.

Three, One, Four, One, Five, and On
The numbers recount their endless tale.
Three – Barefoot green, a silent voice.
White as hunger, One is twice
Bright like babies’ eyes.
Four is timid, envious of E.
Five, Punctuation or a pregnant sigh
Precedes proud Nine, colour of falling night.
Two, an unfastened knot,
A wayward wind, the hollow of Six resounding.
Nearby, Eight, a cloud of fireflies above a lake
Over which I skim Sevens
Remembering that Zero is nothing but a circle.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to be able to look at the world through another’s eyes, even if just for one brief moment?

Addition: I once thought I was cool. I could recite PI to over 100 places from my head. Then I met a girl at ARSC, who offhandedly mentioned her head could spill PI to over 1500 or so places. Since then, and through many other humbling experiences, I realized that no matter how amazing I thought I was, there was always someone else out there that could best me. (-; Live and learn.

FYI. 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510 or there abouts.

Well that was fun. Not.

January 28, 2010 in General | 3 comments

Quick background.

I’ve been having weird chest pains off and on for about 3 weeks now and last week I finally had it and went to the Doc in a box. They did an EKG and said, good news is you’re not currently having a heart attack, bad news is that it could well be angina, or a blockage in your heart. We’re not sure. If it happens again make an appointment with one of these cardiologists. If it happens, doesn’t go away and you have any other symptoms Go To The ER!

It’s happened a couple of time since, I just didn’t tell Roberta. Then last night when driving home my chest started aching again. And didn’t quit, this started around 6pm. Around 8pm my arm started to join in the ache. I walked around, tried cracking my neck, stretching, laid down for a bit, and it still wouldn’t go away. Around 8:30 I told Roberta. Roberta “You Are Going To The ER! Shut Up! I Don’t Care If You Think It’s A Waste Of Time! Dying is not an option for you right now!”

So, off we go. I tell the nurse what doc in a box said, she took my vitals, said you’re going back into this room here. A doc will be with you shortly. Normal stuff. Next thing I know I’m hooked to another EKG, monitor, given baby aspirin, had a thing stuck in my arm, crud load of blood drawn for tests, and Nitroglycerin in a spray. WTF?!? And no, Nitro will not make you run faster! I asked. (-: Works for funny cars but not people. Kind of a let down really.

I was told this was all standard procedure when the symptoms matched mine. Unfortunately I hit all the trigger words. Area pain, stress, family history, type 1 diabetic, and now an ache thats spread to my upper arm. EKG didn’t show heart issues and the blood work looked okay. By this time my chest no longer hurt but I had a dinger of a headache from the nitro. Doc comes in and says I’m not currently having a heart attack, that’s the good news, the bad news is they can’t count out angina/blockage and I might as well get comfortable, I’m not going anywhere. Crap!

18 hours after entering the hospital, 3 blood draws, countless vitals, 2 radioactive dye injections, treadmill stress test, before and after 3d heart images, x-rays, etc. They finally come back and say “We don’t see any blockages.” Images look good. We think everything is okay with your heart. We don’t know what the pain is, but with the stress of your life right now it could be a host of other items, but not a blockage. So, go home, eat right, exercise, and here’s the bill. (-: (insert real heart attack here).

Good news, it wasn’t a blockage.

Bad news, it was one hell of an expensive boondoggle. But, better than the alternative I suppose.

FYI. They have this red glowing thing they stick on your finger to monitor blood oxygen levels and in the middle of the night I thought it would be fun when the nurse came in to point at her with it and say “ET Phone Home!” It was funnier in my head. (-: Nurse just shook her head at me.

Wally is fixed

January 24, 2010 in General, Thoughts n Rants | 2 comments

Since I was going to have to order the darn gasket and wait a week I decided to chase down some gasket material and make my own. Which wasn’t all that difficult really. Just take the intake manifold and use it as a template to cut a new gasket. $6 and 15 minutes later I have a new gasket. (You can only buy the gasket material in bulk).

So, as I’m scraping the old gasket off I make a discovery. I found the reason that the gasket blew. And darn it, if it wasn’t my own fault. If you look at the close up below of one of the bolts studs you will see an odd discolored ring. That’s a washer under the old gasket.

From Wally the Superbeetle

Yep, seems I put the washers on the studs when I took the motor apart so I wouldn’t lose them. And then forgot they were there. So, no matter how tight I cranked down the bolts, there was always going to be a gap. Grrrrrr. My own mistake. Oh well, live and learn. It’s fixed and running much much better now. Idles nicely and has decent power again.

Anyone need a bunch of gasket material? I’ve got lots left over.