Great moments in golf ball launching

Yes, they do shoot this golf ball into many objects. I started playing golf after my senior year in High School. I don't play nearly as often as I would like, but I still really enjoy getting out on the course and putting the ball into the hole. It is a brilliant game.

Comics Hijinks

This guy makes me laugh out loud as I read his posts dissecting the daily comics. I actually enjoy some of the comics, but so many are bland, or are soap operas that I don't have the patients for. However, these daily examinations of such comics are too much for me to handle.

The comics in the papers seem to be dying out, in part because of the way papers handle voting. When cutting space for more "important" things (like Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson divorcing) they have people vote for their favorites and least favorites. This leaves a few good comics that everyone likes, and all the bland ones that people have no real reaction to. The ones that in some way excite a negative emotion from some people get cut, while the ones that excite no emotion are left. Thus Garfield is still running.

Shopping Cart Returns

I have noticed at several stores here in California a disturbing lack of shopping cart return slots in the parking lots of the stores. The other day this came to my attention at the Fry's Electronics (Wild West themed). Just tonight I was at Safeway and had the same problem, and even Costco seems to have fewer then needed. They have a few cart return places, but they are small and not well placed. Back in the Midwest I didn't have these problems. It is a real pain to cross back over the traffic lanes in front of the store with an empty cart, and I am loathe to do this. I also am annoyed by carts just left in parking spaces, or pushed up into the planters. So I end up crossing a row of spaces and pushing the cart most of the way back to the store to the tiny return. I just don't understand why they are so lacking on the service, where elsewhere in the country this is not a problem. And according to Wikipedia (but sadly not referenced): "20,000 children are injured each year in shopping carts." I imagine this comes from cart jousting, or maybe just bad wheels causing the cart to overturn.

Tonight I cooked up some spaghetti with sauteed mushrooms, hamburger, and some olive and caper sauce. That should serve me for a few meals this week, mmmmmm.

Will it Blend?

I am cracking up watching this.

Hint: yes, it will blend, whatever it is.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Nathan and Kathy and a few of their neighbors. Still just a quiet week here.

I finished And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie this week, and didn't figure out the killer by the end. She is pretty tricky, but there were a few details at the end that I think were a little bit of a cheat.

I am really enjoying John Adams by David McCullough and continue to be surprised by how much I didn't know about him.

Non-Post

Quiet week.

I didn't get a Wii yet. I was 26 in line at a Toys R Us that only sold 24. Hopefully more will hit the stores soon.

The Shark Tank

Last night my Dad led a bible study examining the metaphor of the church being the bride of Christ in terms of Jewish marriage practices of the time. Most of the information he presented was totally new to me, and really gave a better reference for many comments Christ makes in this area.

This morning my parents found out that their flight was canceled, but found out that a new flight was out at 4pm, so we had the morning to do a few more things. We hit San Francisco with Nathan, Kathy, and Arthur. The Palace of Fine Arts is always a good little spot to enjoy the outdoors. We talked and looked out over the bay and at the Golden Gate.

This evening Nathan invited me along to the HP Pavilion (The Shark Tank) down in San Jose to watch the Sharks play the Philadelphia Flyers. It was a pretty lopsided game finishing up for the Sharks 6-1. It was my first time to attend a sports game in a box seat. We were invited to the game by a friend of Nathan and Kathy's that works for a company that does a sort of timeshare with sports box seats.

Hopefully, on Sunday I will be able to acquire a Nintendo Wii as it is launched today. I think I will be able to pick one up at the local Target, but have some backup stores in mind if they sell out.

The Parent Trap

A little excitement this week. My parents just flew in this evening from Vegas to spend the end of the week here in San Francisco. I have opened up my apartment to them, and they are enjoying my air mattress in the other room. Just a reminder that I can house guests :) They were in Vegas for the Ophthalmology conference, and decided to visit the family out here. I guess they will spend time with Kathy and Arthur while Nathan and I work the next two days.

I hope to pick up a Nintendo Wii on Sunday (hopefully without too much difficulty). Getting a PS3 before Christmas seems like a lost cause. Good thing I was never planning on trying.

I stuck my corn starch liquid in the fridge for a few days, and it became a solid that would not revert to the previous state. Totally uselss. Now I guess I will have to make some more.

Down to Shakeytown

On Saturday I left rainy San Francisco for sunny LA (weekend pictures here). Amy Jackson and Lisa Zaagman (visiting from Grand Rapids, MI) picked me up at the Burbank airport and we were off to Santa Monica. In the car Lisa and I made PB&J sandwiches (about 17). Note to self: do not attempt making many sandwiches in a car again. At Santa Monica we met a group from Pepperdine, including Braden Mogler, who had over 300 sandwiches and also drinks and other foodstuffs. We handed out all of this and clothes to the homeless there.

I walked around with two of the students to some of the parks. At the first park down overlooking the ocean a man walked up, asked and indicated that he wondered if he should take off his shirt. At first we were a little confused, but then got the idea that he was offering to give us his shirt for us to give away. He took it off right there and put on a new one he had just bought before he met us. That is an action I will remember for a long time. Literally giving away the shirt off of his back. The entire operation was very good with almost everyone interested in the food and drink. I think only one or two people were not interested out of the probably 40 sandwiches I handed out. We also saw a group of people camping out waiting for the PlayStation 3. I guess I don't know who has $600 to spend on entertainment, but also a week to waste sitting on a lawn chair in front of Circuit City.

That evening there was a young group bible study down in Hermosa at Justin and Robin's. Daniel Luthi led the study on prayer. We all had dinner beforehand and a singing afterwards. It gave me many thoughts to ponder about prayer.

Sunday after church most of the young group headed out to Ingrid Steiner's to help rebuild a giant K'nex roller coaster and enjoy games and dinner. All in all quite the weekend.

In other news: Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and his opponent weirdness: 2000 Lieberman race results, 2006 Lieberman race results. Notice both times his closest opponent got 448,077 (A republican in 2000, a democrat in 2006).

I thought this was so cool I went and made the fluid myself just to check it out. The stuff is a liquid, until it gets disturbed in a serious way, then it solidifies. I can punch it and tap it. If I slowly push into it then it acts almost as thin as water. I tried increasing the corn starch and it is almost like playdough unless I move really slowly, but if I pick up a piece it soon liquefies and will drain out of my hand. I can almost roll a ball out of it. But it is coolest when it the mixture is just enough to make it possible to slap it without coming away with more then a little liquid sheen on the hands, which quickly drys to corn starch powder. Now all I need is a kiddy pool and several dozen boxes.

Global Warming?!

I find this Article and accompanying cited references interesting to say the least.

So the evidence points to some form of global warming. We just don't know if this is unnatural or how severe a problem this is. If it is true that back in the 1200's the world was maybe 1C hotter, then that bodes wells for us. It means that we are not close to some "greenhouse cliff" that will cascade into serious disaster and we still have time to figure out what is going on.

Whatever the reality, clean air is still good, and we are gonna run out of oil at some point.

The Karma Ghost

I stumbled upon a little movie that I found interesting. If there really were karma ghosts the world would be a little different.

This is just trippy.

Electioneering

Yup, today is November 7, 2009. If you are like %40 of the people in California you have already voted absentee. When I got my California drivers license they had an option to register to vote, and an option to be a permanent absentee voter. So I got my ballot in the mail and sat down last night (procrastinating to the last minute) and checked out the candidates and ballot measures and voted. I actually liked having as much time as I wanted right there to decide on the ballot measures, much better then having to remember in the booth.

Happy voting day!

Only in India

OK, there was some skepticism about the previous post and photos. I don't know if I agree that there was photoshop involved in those, but this is a video, so no photoshop.

For those interested in photoshop pictures, worth1000 has some really cool photoshop contests.

Blogging Theft

I stole this link from my sister-in-law's blog, I cannot decide which picture is the most outrageous.

Pie Chart Jokes

More Bad Ideas.

I just cannot fathom why anyone thinks these poor voting machines are a good idea.

Electronic voting either needs to have a paper trail, or to NOT happen at all.

This will continue to be a source of major problems until one of the two solutions above happens.

We can only hope.