Snow Tomorrow

wunderground.com predicts a 90% chance of snow in Amboy tomorrow.
Renton is scheduled for Friday, I think.
Hey Mimi, what's the snow report in Belgique?

More Old Video Games

I'm not vouching for the quality of these, but it looks like a large assortment of video games from the 1980's is available here:
http://www.1980-games.com/us/

How Cold Is It Anyway?

Today's forcast is for snow in Amboy. It's definitely cold and windy outside, with thick ice on the ground. But the clouds don't look very thick yet.
Inside, this morning the new $3 thermometer I bought yesterday said it was 60 degrees F in our living room. My office, where I'm sitting now, is considerably colder than that. That sounds really cold to me, but it didn't feel really cold. So now I have to confirm the accuracy of the thing.

Red-headed Sapsucker?

Red-headed Sapsucker?
Originally uploaded by King Cnut.

Time once again for, Name That Bird!!
There will be no prizes. The journey is its own reward.

Tis The Season for....Lichen!

Why don't you ever hear people say "Amboy is so beautiful when the lichen are in bloom!" Or, "Isn't the moss simply redolent this year, darling?!"
I have a few ideas on that, but I'll let you formulate your own, without interference.

Have I mentioned the book Guns, Germs & Steel yet? Great book. It's also a video you can rent from Netflix.
I just learned, while reading it this morning, that Thomas Edison didn't realize that the phonograph was best suited to replaying music until 20 years after he invented it!!!
That fact was meant to support the notion that invention is the mother of necessity, not the other way around as is commonly understood.
Another interesting notion, that the best invention isn't always adopted by a population. As case in point he mentions the computer keyboard, which you probably know was modeled after the typewriter keyboard. But the typewriter had a limiting feature that keyboards don't; that is, the mechanical arms and their potential to jam if two keys were pressed simultaneously. Consequently the layout of the letters is designed to disperse commonly typed letters widely around the keyboard in order to slow you down!! Clearly this is not what you want in the computer age, but the QWERTY keyboard is so entrenched it is showing little sign of being displaced by designs that would increase speed by double and reduce the total effort by 95%!!
So now, in order to not feel like some ignorant brute I'm going to have to get a Dvorak-style keyboard so that I can achieve the typing speed of....a really fast typist.
Lief introduced me to this concept more than a year ago, but some of the problems I read about prevented me from taking the plunge. The most significant challenge being the switch back to QWERTY whenever you use someone else's keyboard.
Here's an excerpt from fingerworks.com:

The DVORAK key layout was carefully designed by August Dvorak in the 1930's and became an ANSI standard in 1982. All vowels are placed on the left hand home row keys, and the most common consonants ('D','H','T','N','S') lie on the right
hand's home row. This way most (70%) typing is done within home row, and finger hops between upper and lower rows of keys are minimized. This is a stark
contrast to QWERTY, which requires finger hops for common letter sequences like 'EC','EX','CR','CT','CE','BR','BE', and 'UN'. (Compare finger travel to type
'EXCRUCIATING' on QWERTY versus on the DVORAK layout above).

Hold The Phone Folks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

This year, in addition to my usual thankfulness for family, friends, health and wellness, I'm thankful for technology.
Technology has come such a long way since the days of the pilgrims. And each new year brings great strides. For instance, this year you don't have to scour magazine ads looking for all the stuff you want your family to buy you for Christmas, all you have to do is go to a site like bf2005.com and review all the stuff that's on sale day Black Friday (tomorrow) then you can give a detailed map and directions as to where they should go. When I say they, I'm referring to those crazy (but incredibly generous) relatives of mine that are willing to face the crushing crowds physically tomorrow, in the hopes of getting the coolest Christmas gifts for the lowest prices. Whereas I figure the money I overpay by not going, is a pittance compared to the psychiatric bills I'd incur by going. No, no, no, crowds are not for me. I'll be shopping online this year, which brings us back, tidily, to my ode to technology. For instance, costco.com, not Costco, but only costco.com is offering the Oregon Scientific CableFree Weather Station for $25 off the normal price!!! You gotta love that. Using technology to help you buy more technology. Heaven, I'm in heaven.
Am I imagining this, or has the Christmas season come earlier this year? I wonder if there is a greater sense of malaise this year than usual and people just need to make Christmas bigger and sooner than ever?
Well, it's working for me. All this Christmas-list making and Black Friday planning has me in the highest of spirits. They may even be high enough for me to start thinking about what other people may want this year for Christmas. Hmmm, strange.

Ice Cream, tire, Phoebe

Ice Cream, tire, Phoebe
Originally uploaded by King Cnut.

Two of our three new cats. Ice Cream is the gray one. Jamey named him. Phoebe is Arthur's. She has the orange nose stripe. Flower, not pictured here, is Heidi's. Flower looks exactly like Phoebe, except her nose is black.

The G.O.A.T. Gets Bush's Goat

Is it just me, or does Ali's fist look a little menacing in the picture here? Not to mention the more obvious curiosity of what he intended by that gesture. There's a video of the moment that's interesting because of how fast Bush moves aside and just as fast two handlers move in to escort The Champ away. Calls to mind the movie Gladiator, when Commodus keeps trying to look good but can't in comparison with a real hero.

Lounge Club

IMG_1171_adjusted
Originally uploaded by King Cnut.

Have you checked out my photostream yet?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingcnut/

The State of Biodiesel

Washington's Biodiesel industry is still largely in the minds of its proponents. But the interest-level is heating up. Here's an article in the Seattle P-I about it.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Northwest_Biodiesel_Canola.html

Yikers!

Advair and Serevent are potentially dangerous?!
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,16781,1647524,00.html

Maybe this is not a big deal, but thought some of us might want to keep an eye on this story.

Google is Directly Awesome

My previous post about Google being evil should probably be taken in the context that they are overwhelmingly good. I think you all knew that, which is why I didn't talk about that part. However CNET news and, ironically, The New York Times makes it easy to give them their fair shake:

Thank you, Google.
Without intending to do so, the company set in motion multilateral disarmament by telling its first advertisers in 2000: text only, please. No banner ads, no images, no animation. Just simple words, which would go either at the very top of the page, above the search results or, alternatively, as the experiment evolved, at the far right. These "sponsored links" had to conform to strict limits on length and aggressiveness in punctuation and phrasing. If you wanted to claim in your ad that you were the "best," you had to display the third-party authority that authenticated the claim.

King Cnut

King Cnut was a Dane who ruled England and Denmark at the start of the 11th century.
His is also the name I've chosen for my new Flickr account. Flickr is a service for hosting photographs. I've just uploaded some photos there of Heidi and the boys. I'm posting them there because it is fast and easy and they offer several sizes all at one upload. They do the resizing automatically.
Check 'em out if you want: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kingcnut/

Magic Flute?

Get your mind out of the gutter. This is about an actual Magic Flute.

We took Jamey and Arthur to see a performance of Selected Scenes from The Magic Flute by Mozart, courtesy of the Vancouver Children's Symphony last night. It was kind of dicey, I thought. Hard to decipher the story both because the words weren't clear during the singing and because it was 'selected scenes' which jolted me out of the suspension of disbelief so that I couldn't become engaged in the performance.
However, the entire production was greatly redeemed by the final song, a rapidfire duet between arguing lovers Papagano and Papagana. Jamey literally jumped out of his chair in excitement over it. And Arthur kept repeating papapapapapapapa....and then chuckled as we left the auditorium.
We also saw "The Wright Family Band" which is a bluegrass-playing family from Amboy that has some very talented musicians in it.
It was a long day for all and the kids were rummy as pirates by the end. Hopefully they will sleep WAY in today. They're still asleep now, and that's a good sign.

Christmas Makes Me Berserker With Greed!

Will's response to my McMaster-Carr post brings to light another interesting place to shop. Not that I'm advocating consumerism.
Lehman's is interesting to me because of some of the high-quality tools, such as this Diamant grain mill. The fact they carry European-style scythes, among other items shows a willingness to carry heirloom-quality tools, which I find refreshing.
This brings me to the realization that some of you may be looking for Christmas present ideas this time of year, (Christmas '05 or '06, whatever). And, since I now have a small collection of sites that I enjoy looking through, I bring you:
James' Gift-Idea Generation Tool!*
Simply click randomly on one of the following links to delve into a world packed with a wide assortment of creative and high-quality items which may or may not present terrific gift-giving-ideas to you personally, but which I find compelling.
Cool Tools
Lehman's
McMaster-Carr

I used to think Christmas was for kids, but now I realize how cheap and easy it is to please kids (just provide them with grandparents.) Christmas really just gets better with age.
They say the more you want the happier you are. Well I must be one ecstatic dude then. Here are some of the things I couldn't imagine living without in '06:

• Weather station


• Mp3 player


• JBL Creature II powered speakers


• Tablet PC


• FM Transmitter


• Xbox 360


• Diamant Grain Mill


• Digital Projector (gaming and movies)


• Screen for projecting on


• Every accessory they make for the Canon Digital Rebel


• More, more, more…

But enough about me, what do YOU want for Christmas?
Let's see if Amazon and their "Madonna CDs" and their "Star Wars" DVDs are right, or are there other things that you yearn for?


*I'm still thrashing around like a hamstrung rhinoceros for gift-ideas, so this is by no means a guarantee of success

$100 Laptops!?

Nicholas Negroponte is on a mission to bring IT to everyone. It's a noble mission. I hope he succeeds. Here is a quote:
The device is intended to be a computer, e-book, games console and TV all in one, and its promoter, MIT Lab chairman Nicholas Negroponte, evangelised about a production run of millions within just one year.

Buying a Tool?

Try McMaster-Carr
They have everything, in lots of models. A clean efficient website as well.

Google is Indirectly Evil

Because Google News routinely links to 'subscription' news sources, The New York Times, which has an irritating "Free" registration. And worst of all, they link to Forbes, which apparently has to dilate it's cervix to deliver a page. And only after serving an ad or two.
In order for Google to live up to its goal of "not being evil", they should desist linking to news sources which deliver painful user experience.

Delta Paint Scam

Delta Paint Scam!
I have several "acquaintances" that like to paint. The paint they use is Delta acrylic paint. Thing is, every new project they paint requires several new colors. This has led one of my acquaintances, who has been buying paint for several years, to acquire what I consider and excessive collection of obscure colors. When I say obscure, what I mean is this: most of the paint in the bottle has dried up because it's only useful for highlighting Rudolph's red nose in the mid-nineties. Nowadays, people see Rudolph's nose a little darker, more cranberry-ish. I mean, is it ALWAYS glowing??
Not only is the sheer size of the collection astonishing, but it inevitably leads to absurdly frequent trips to <wide-eyed grimace>CRAFTERS WAREHOUSE, or JO ANN's!!</wide-eyed grimace>
My proposal is this: Delta should release the formula for all of their colors in 'drip-ratios'. This would save probably billions of dollars annually in transportation costs nationwide as painters throughout this great nation could save the emergency trips to the aforementioned houses of horror and actually (gasp!) Mix Their Own Paints!
I realize that Delta has some disincentive regarding this course of action, but since what they are doing is obviously and inherently evil. They need to stop it. Now. Or else, someday Google is going to index their colors and provide the conversion right on their search page. Then where will Delta be. Nowhere my friends. Nowhere at all.

Blogging From Word

Blogging From Word     
Is this going to work? Answer: Yes!
Wow!  I just blogged from within Word 2003 with the Blogger Add-on.
It was super easy and quick. I might start doing it more because I'd like to save a local copy of my posts. Call me anachronistic, but I just can't quite let go completely and yield to the bliss of Google as sole possessor of all my data. Although I know it's futile to resist.

Election News

We're a little disappointed and a little relieved at the outcome of yesterday's election for Clark County Cemetery District 4 Commissioner Position 2.
The disappointment stems mostly from the failure to succeed for Heidi's supporters. And from the knowledge that the results will ensure a one-family monopoly on the Cemetery District, which simply isn't healthy democracy.
One key lesson learned: get in the voters' pamphlet, or don't bother running.
The results bespeak an underinformed electorate, including strong favor for those that appeared in the voters' pamphlet.

Rude Awakening

After attending Abby's 3rd birthday party last Saturday and delivering the boys to 'camp out', by which I mean camp-in, with their grandparents, Heidi and I checked-in to a luxury suite at the Renton Holiday Inn. It was through the kindness of the clerk that we were allowed to stay on the 6th floor, home of the prestigious "Priority Club" suites.
It was, in fact, a nice room. Spacious and conspicuously lacking that ambiguous, musty smell of the standard rooms on the lower floors. Despite this, my inner skeptic prevented me from buying-in to the marketing card left on the bed reading:
"Give us your hungry, your tired..." blahblahblah "...those who yearn for a good night's sleep."
Yes, I yearn, it's true. However a little piece of cardboard (that looked reused at that) placed on my pillow was not the sort of token I'd perceive as a guarantee of success.
While I love being proved correct in my skeptical ways, in this case I would have been, at minimum, just as happy to have been wrong.
For minutes after midnight, just as I was undoubtedly settling in to my 2nd hour of peaceful slumber, an insistent rattling rang from our door-handle. Heidi is a light sleeper and such aggressive clatter had her alert as the meerkat-on-watch instantly. Meanwhile, my consciousness began to surface like an old tire dredged by a fisherman from the bottom of a lake and quite coated still, thickly with the mud of sleep, so that the true tread of my wakeful self wasn't apparent. Deep inside I knew I had set the safety-latch on the door so that no-one could barge in and disturb us, not to mention the improbability of someone foiling the electronic card-key system. So I resolved to resist the fisherman's insistant tug and was succeeding fantastically, dropping deeply, darkly, back to slumber when suddenly: bright light, loud voice.
Yes the rattling revelers had managed, incomprehensibly, to open our door as much as the safety-latch would allow.
Terrorist? Murderer? Mugger? Idiot? My mind sifted through the options while the intruder proceeded to unleash all manner of arguments and persuasions designed to rouse us to some action. Heidi could explain the whole plot-arc of his tirade, but to me it was all but indecipherable. Nevertheless, I attempted to diffuse the situation with this silver bullet: "We're sleeping!" in as irritable voice as I can muster. And, as most of you know, I can muster like Custer when you wake me up.
Bafflingly, the man was not yet satisfied with my logic and tone, although substantially subdued, according to Heidi.
He carried on blah blah blah blah blah, and finally, as my senses were very nearly clear, suggested that we might both contact the front desk. That struck me as a capital idea indeed, so I readily agreed to call the front desk, wishing wistfully that some just punishment would befall him for his evil actions.
Whatever. He left. Yay. The front desk said, weakly: "Sorry, won't happen again." I should hope not.
The thick slog of adrenaline through my tired heart promised to keep me awake for 30 minutes more at least.
It was all worth it though. Heidi hailed me as a hero for "handling" the situation. In particular the setting of the safety-latch prior to retiring to bed. And, for intimidating the fellow with my curmudgeon-iest voice.

Jamey the fearsome, green dragon. 

Like my tail?