The Wizard of Speed and Time

Just a bunch of things I think are interesting or funny.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Isn't it obvious?

I never had any doubt.

Your results:
You are Superman
Superman

80%
Iron Man

65%
Spider-Man

60%
Robin

57%
Hulk

55%
Supergirl

50%
Batman

45%
Green Lantern

45%
Catwoman

45%
The Flash

35%
Wonder Woman

30%
You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.
Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Jay, Don't drink the wine!

This week the EU ministers were in England for a summit and Tony Blair served Welsh white wine and English red wine. This apparently offended the Swedish Prime Minister. So the Italian PM sent 24 bottles of Italian wine to his Swedish Counterpart. Click here for story.

Frankly, I don't think that the Swedish PM has anything to complain about. Can anyone name a Swedish wine? But I can also see his point. Why didn't Blair serve a nice pint of Fullers or Young's? Hey Samuel Smith's Winter Warmer is in stores, just go and pick some of that up.

Santa scares children

We all know this. BUt finally a government report in Scotland agrees. Click here for story. The link also includes a story of a police department's decision to abandon an anti -drunk driving campaign which included images of Santa being run over by a drunk driver. Totally cool.

Let the hunt begin!!!

The annual Haggis Hunt is officially open. Click here to start hunting. The season started on St. Andrew's Day and will go until Robert Burns Day. I've already spotted three. Time to go a havering again.

Whole house is sick

Well its that time of year again. It started with Amelia, went to Sarah and I finally got it. You can't stand for ten minutes in my house without hearing someone sniffle. Its been less than fun.

Monday, December 12, 2005

How Chimps are smarter than Scottish toddlers

Some scientists took a dark book, put some food inside and showed some chimps how to open it. They should them with several completely unnecessary steps. Then, they replaced the dark book with a transparent one. The chimps abandoned the unnecessary steps.

The scientists then did the same thing with Scottish 3 and 4 year olds. They continued to use the unnecessary steps. Click here for story.

Filling in the cracks

Opening the new firm is frought with all sorts of challenges, like consistantly paying the mortgage. So to help fill in the income gaps, I've been doing some side work. I've been helping a friend at his homebrew shop in St Charles, but I've also been studying taxes with H&R Block. And now I'm working for them to during tax season.

Busy Night for the church

Tonight our church had the winter voters meeting. During this meeting we vote for the new budget and elect half of the church council. And since this is the time when the whole congregation is together, it is the time to bring up new business. Needless to say this is a long meeting.

But, first things first. Sarah had volunteered to do kid sitting during the meeting. This was mentioned several times in church to get those with kids to come to the meeting. Unfortunately, this very afternoon, Nick comes down with a fever of 102. There is no way he's leaving the house. Which, of course, means that there is no way that Sarah can leave the house. Thus I had to scramble to find someone at the meeting who I could ask to work for Sarah. Luckily, I was able to convince a member of the youth group to fill in.

As for the meeting itself, other than the hour that it took to get the budget squared away, there were two things of interest. First, I was elected secretary of the congregation. Now since I was running unopposed, you can tell how inviting such a position in the church is. Yet, I'm glad to be back on the council.

Second, and far more remarkable, is that the congregation agreed to allow our unused parsonage to be made available for temporary housing for disaster relief victims or refugees. Since November, I have been the point person for this project. And I didn't think the congregation was going to approve this.

This year the parsonage was used by our vicar, however, we could not afford a vicar this year. This particular piece of property has been a contentious white elephant. We have it free and clear, but the home is so old that to use it for anything other than a house would be to expensive. It sat unused for two years, was used by our vicar who just left, and was about to go dormant again. Many people wanted to do things with the building, but without new funding, nobody's plans could really go beyond pipe dreams.

Added to that, the congregation is alittle skittish and slightly zenophobic. The neighborhood is turning Hispanic, but the congregation has made no effort to attract them to the church. I have heard, on more than one occasion, that newer immigrants would not be a positive addition to the church.

But, apparently my presentation (and the Holy Spirit) must have won enough of them over to give this a try. Also the fact that the Gospel reading two weeks ago was Matthew 25 didn't hurt. The only limitation they put on me is that we are trying this through March and re-evaluating it then. Luckily, World Exodus Service called me on Friday with a possible need. I hope to get this rolling as soon as possible.

Monday, December 05, 2005

A day of sadness.

Yesterday, I admitted defeat and dumped the remaining bottles of the Cardinal Sin Porter which were infected. Based on the smell alone, this was the right thing to do. The pungent odor was overpowering and sickening. No beer should ever smell or taste like this. In all , 67 bottles went down the drain.

This sad turn of events leaves me in the worst situation imaginable. There is no homebrew in my house. And my current financial situation has curtailed all discretionary spending. My attempts to persuade Sarah that homebrew is a necessity, have to this point failed.

Nick loves to shout.

During this week's trip to the library, we checked out a chipmunks CD. On it was Shout, the Otis Day standard from Animal House. Nick just cannot get enough of this song. I can. Listening to Alvin's high whiny voice butcher this song is akin to torture. Thank God for headphones.

They also attack Love Shack by the B-52s. When I heard this, I pulled out my copy of Cosmic Thing and played Nick the original. He was unimpressed and preferred the Chipmunk version. I cannot wait for him to get out of this phase.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Library Memories

Every week we take Nick to the library. We usually borrow three to five books, a couple of puppets, a movie (picked by Nick) and a computer game (again picked by Nick). It's a good deal as we read three stories to Nick each night before bed. This way we are not always reading the same ones over and over again (which shouldn't be a problem as Nick has several dozen books of his own).

Well tonight, Nick wanted a Star Wars book. So he got "The Star Wars StoryBook" written in 1977 by Geraldine Richelson. I had this book growing up. I remember reading it and acting it out with my action figures.

But now its even cooler. Because it was produced in conjunction with the movie but it appears to be printed prior to the final cut of the movie. Why do I say that? Well the book begins "In another galaxy, in another time..." not "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...". It contains pictures which did not make it into the film. Including ones of Luke in a horrible hat looking through binoculars at the fight between the Star Destroyer and Leia's cruiser. You can find a picture here.

It also includes pictures of Luke and Biggs on Tatooine, where Biggs confides to Luke that he is planning to join the rebellion. It calls the x-wings and TIE fighters planes. All in all a weird read.