Bender bender

Looks like they got the go-ahead for 4 Futurama movies. It should definitely be interesting. I'm not sure if I'll like movies better than shows.

Why I'm not registered with political parties

It's true, they're both full of crap. Now there is a study to prove it. My favorite quote:

We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning

My second favorite quote:

None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged

Coming together

It's always interesting to me when several things in my life seem to follow similar themes.

I'm currently reading this book that Grant lent me. It is about the history of reconnaissance. It talks about balloons that were used during the civil war to photograph troop positions, and moves on to planes and satellites. Overall, it's pretty cool. It really makes you think about what politicians are saying and what they might know. I no longer trust any of them.

Anyway, this morning I got an email from the coworker who was in charge of building Stubby, the 3/4 scale Patriot missile that we have now launched twice. He is starting up a new project to try to launch a rocket with the goal of taking video of Earth from space. There are quite a few difficult parts to this project, including getting a nearly 20 ft rocket to go Mach 4-5 and coming up with a telemetry system to send down real-time video from the rocket. I promised myself after building Stubby that I wouldn't work on another big rocket project unless it is really cool. I think sending a payload to space and taking video of Earth really does meet that criteria.

The spec sheets are currently pretty vague. There will be 2 rockets built. The first one will be testing the telemetry system and home-made solid rocket motors, and the second will be the real deal. It looks like rocket 1 will be shooting for a 50,000 ft ceiling, and rocket 2 will be going for 150 km.

This morning I was reading Ron's post about what makes a person a nerd. I am a nerd because I am building this rocket. I think nerds are people who use knowledge to do something not because it is necessary, but because it is fun. Greg is a car nerd. Ron is an electronics nerd. I am a rocket nerd.

Open mouth, insert foot

"It's extreme disbelief, from the Polamalu interception reversal to Jerome's fumble, everything seemed to be lined up in our favor. I guess the Lord forgot about the football team."

That from Mike Vanderjagt. If there's one thing I hate about atheletes, it's their insistence that God plays favorites in competition.

If I were God, I would have let the thing play out exactly like it did. After listening to Vanderjagt call out Manning after the playoff loss last year, I would wait until I could make Vanderjagt the goat. Why? Because I would be the God of Irony.

Now I really believe it.

I didn't really think it could be true. I do not live in the best country in the world. The best country in the world wouldn't put Scrubs on hiatus while looking for the next Friends.

I thought it was odd when I could watch Scrubs in New Zealand, but not here. Putting Scrubs Season 3 on sale in the UK and Australia in Febuary is just plain cruel. They haven't even given us a release date here.

Will somebody please shut him up?

Seriously, haven't we heard enough from TO. The poor guy feels used. He claims Philly used him to win a couple games. Then when the Super Bowl came, they didn't need him anymore.

Now let's check into reality land. By his definition, I'm being used. The only reason I get a paycheck, is so my company can make money. Over in the NFL, players get paid so teams can win games. The end result is the team can make money.

Also in reality land, have you ever heard a team say, "Well, since x got hurt, we have no chance of winning this week." Would you want a player on your team who didn't think they could win? Of course not. So of course McNabb said they could win the Super Bowl without TO. He didn't think TO was going to play. He would be labeled a defeatest if he had said they were going to loose without TO.

There is only one good thing that has happened out of this whole TO mess. Donovan McNabb has shown that he is a player of true class. Through all of TO's rants, he has taken the high road every time. When he has addressed the media about the situation, he has used more self control than I'll ever have to not take cheap shots at TO.

I guess that's how you know true class. They don't even bother to address the classless.

I'm the sucker

who went to college. This recent survey says all I really needed to do was learn to read.

Adults with ability to perform challenging and complex reading tasks made an average yearly salary of $50,700 in 2003. That is $28,000 more than those who lacked basic skills.