The Wizard of Speed and Time

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

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Openning day

Sunday night the baseball season starts. I am choosing to ignore the games in Japan this week. But this presents me with a problem. I will not be able to watch or listen to any White Sox or Cubs games that are not shown nationally. I can listen to Cardinals, Royals or Ranger games. But it's not the same.

On the plus side, the whole family is going to the Driller's game on Friday the 11th. So we will be able to see live baseball.

The Book of Vice

This week I checked out Peter Sagel's Book of Vice from the Sapulpa Library. I was a little surprised that it was there, as the Sapulpa Library is tiny. But they must have a soft spot in their hearts for NPR hosts.

The book itself is engaging, I devoured it in two days. It tells of Sagel's tourist trip through a variety of vices including wife swapping, gambling, pornography, consumption and lying. The chapters, while always entertaining were a bit uneven. Self-deprecation only goes so far. Of course, no one is interested in talk to you at the wife swapping party if they don't have a chance of getting it on with you and your wife.

The chapters where he, and occasionally his wife, do get involved with the subjects are by far the most readable. Gambling is most fun when you have money on the line. His interviews with porn star and strippers seem to have the same themes.

But even when he's just documenting lying and consumption, Sagel was able to keep my interest. And I now know the best way to serve vodka at a party. Plus you can never go wrong with exploding tit cakes.

The Good Son in Law

For a long time, Harry has wanted to set us up with a web cam so that we can do video conferences with Sarah and the grandkids. But for a number of reasons, things were just not working out. But things change.

Two weeks ago, Sarah's mother and brother came to visit. We were all a bit crowded, but we had a good time. One of the gifts that they brought was a web cam, exactly like the kind they had. We set it up and were able to show the kids to Grandpa.

However, I still had to permanently set the camera up. Because to test it, I simply plugged it into our front usb ports and set it down in front of the monitor. Of course, since the speakers were right behind it they had some feedback and echo problems. So this weekend, I finally hooked the cam up right. This meant moving the desk and cleaning the bedroom. But it's done and tested.

Monday, March 17, 2008

St. Patrick's Day

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Star Wars vs. Saul Bass

Star Wars vs. Saul Bass

Star Wars as a 60s action film.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Does this help?

According to Yahoo, this file comes from the Clinton campaign. Would you trust the Joker on who to vote for?

Who exactly would be persuaded by the fact that a killer clown, a crazy marine, a washed up PI and a psychopathic killer wants Hillary in the White House?

And yes I know Jack is supposed to be cool and all, but just what the heck does he know about politics?

Update - Family news

Well February is over and we got some good news. Sarah has finally found a job. She's working for Life Senior Services doing something. I'm really not sure what her responsibilities are. But they're going to be paying her what she was making in Illinois. So that's a good thing. Hopefully we can start paying down this mountain of debt we have.

Nick soccer team played its first game today and came away with a 4-4 tie. Not bad considering they were down 4-0. Nick still needs to work on his skills, but he's having more fun. He's also selling cookie dough for school.

Scooter is working on getting potty trained, which is go since she's going into daycare when Sarah starts working. Scooter is currently on a Lion King fix, but that may be over in favor of dinosaurs. However, in playing dinosaurs with her today, I was the mommy dinosaur and she was the baby dinosaur. Scooter instructed me that her dinosaur needed to eat and take a nap. So we really were playing house.

Kansas City was fun, but I didn't win anything at the competition. In fact my beers scored kind of low. I'm going to have to plan my next brew better and work really hard on sanitation. I've got a few ideas but I'm probably not brewing again until the big brew in May.