My nephew Ryan received his second degree black belt.
Month: April 2006
bookmark_borderNeeded the Laugh
From BBCNews:
Keith Richards ‘tree fall’ injury
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has been taken to hospital in New Zealand after injuring himself while on holiday in Fiji.
A band spokeswoman said Richards had suffered a “mild concussion” and was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Media reports in Australia and New Zealand said Richards had hurt his head when he fell out of a palm tree.
The legendary musician is mid-way through a world tour with the famous British band.
The band most recently played in New Zealand and start the European leg of their tour in Barcelona next month.
“Following treatment locally and as a precautionary measure he flew to a hospital accompanied by his wife Patti for observation,” the spokeswoman said.
The incident happened earlier this week but the star was taken to hospital on Saturday.
The spokeswoman said she did not know how the injury happened.
No further details on the 62-year-old rock star’s condition were immediately available.
I read this nearly an hour ago and I am STILL laughing! WTF was he doing in a tree??!! It took me several tries before I could tell Lorna what I was laughing about.
bookmark_borderBroken
Something is broken
Not like the first morning
More like the rip-tide
Took me without warning
Tears without reason
Anger without a goal
Disapointment and
Pain: all out of control
Why were all my dreams
Built upon sifting sands
And gone when I wake
Not at all like I planned
bookmark_borderSci-Fi Fodder
From University of Pennsylvania:
Water and Nanoelectronics Will Mix to Create Ultra-Dense Memory Storage Devices, Researchers Say
April 26, 2006PHILADELPHIA — Excessive moisture can typically wreak havoc on electronic devices, but now researchers have demonstrated that a little water can help create ultra-dense storage systems for computers and electronics.
A team of experimentalists and theorists at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Harvard University has proposed a new and surprisingly effective means of stabilizing and controlling ferroelectricity in nanostructures: terminating their surfaces with fragments of water. Ferroelectrics are technologically important “smart” materials for many applications because they have local dipoles, which can switch up and down to encode and store information. The team’s work is reported in the April issue of Nano Letters.
“It is astonishing to see that a single wire of even a few atoms across can act as a stable and switchable dipole memory element,” Jonathan Spanier, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Drexel, said.
Spanier and his colleagues successfully demonstrated the benefits of using water to stabilize memory bits in segments of oxide nanowires that are only about 3 billionths of a meter wide.
Now, I don’t understand all of it but it has great potential for AI, cyborgs, and futuristic world settings. The human(oid) body is mostly water. What would happen if this technology and our bodies were combined? Holy Pin Cushion, Batman!
bookmark_borderCover Art
With all the other fun-fun-joy-joy stuff going on, I almost forgot something important!
Got an email today from the woman who will be doing the cover art for Butch Girls Can Fix Anything. We chatted back and forth a few times and she’s going to see what she can come up with.
This makes it more real. You know?
bookmark_borderDesk Parts = Desk
Got the final parts to the desk project I have. And, by jove, I think I’ve got it!
I tried two different ways to mount it and think I am close if not there.
You can see the concept and drawings at the webpage I set up. Some day, I’ll get the pictures done and post them too.
I also go Friday to the DME to get some adjustments done to my chair, including putting on some arm supports.
What this means is that I will soon be able to write for long periods of time again! I used to be able to do well over 1000 words an hour including breaks for chit chat. Now, well, I can’t sit here for a half hour at a time.
But all that will start to change! I am psyched, stoked, and wound up!
bookmark_borderDigital Cameras/Camcorder
I’m looking for a digital camcorder that also takes digital stills.
Any suggestions?
bookmark_borderProcess of Elimination
Lorna drives a 94 Subaru Legacy. It’s the vehicle she uses on the mail route.
Shortly after she got it, she had trouble with the front passenger window. We took it to this fella that does just Subarus who sprayed the contacts of the switch and it worked right away.
Earlier last week, three of the windows stopped working. All but the driver’s window was stuck. She took it to this other place (the Subaru guy was out of town) and they took the door apart, fiddled with the switches, nothing. They finally manually lowered the passenger window so Lorna could at least deliver the mail.
Yesterday Lorna took the car to the Subaru guy to have him look at it. He fixed the problem within two seconds. See, there’s this little button on the driver’s door that locks out the other windows. Kind of like a child safely lock. Lorna had hit this button and didn’t realize it.
So she comes home and I ask if he figured out what was wrong with the windows.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Ouch. That expensive a fix?”
She stares at me. “I don’t want to tell you.”
I know then that it must be interesting. She finally tells me and I laugh my butt off. Normally, I check out the problem too. But I wasn’t able to this time. I’m one of those folks that if the computer won’t work, I check to make sure it is plugged in. You know, start at the beginning and the simplest. Our truck has one of those switches too, although it is better marked than the much older wagon’s.
Still, we had a good laugh and she is feeling less like an idiot today. She didn’t tell her co-workers yet (who, by the way, the majority of them also drive Subarus) which I think is funny.
Laughter is good for the soul.
bookmark_borderMore Software
Inspiration software was recently upgraded and after thinking it over for a few days, I spent the money and got Inspiration v8. I like the changes they’ve made just to the main window. I just got it today so I’ve not had much of a chance to play with it yet.
Inspiration is, basically, a brainstorming program. It uses an outline, images, ‘thought bubbles’, and any combination therein. I wrote about it over at the main site. I’ll update that page as soon as I get around to it.
I use this program for when things get stuck in a manuscript or when there seems to be a lot of loose ends. I am VERY visually oriented and this helps tremendously. I can lay out the book and get an idea of where things are (and aren’t). It also helps me to get a grip on time frames.
My main gripe with Insp. is that it is geared toward mainly kids. There’s Kidspiration, for kids in grade school and there’s Inspiration, for middle and high school. On the one hand, it makes it easy to learn due to the age group, but on the other hand, most of the images are useless to me. Version 8 has the option of making your own which may come in handy. I guess it’s not really a gripe, since that is who they made it for. That’s kind of like visiting an online UK store and complaining that all the prices are in british pounds.
bookmark_borderReality Suckage
Hey, I got some writing done! Ain’t I just special! I am about to get to work on it again, actually.
The problem is, see, I can’t write but a few minutes at a time. Earlier today I pushed myself to nearly an hour and I am still paying for it. Such is the life of a crip writer, I reckon.
The good news is that the surfACE board should be here soon and I can finish that wheelchair mounted desk. It is my hope that it will make writing much easier and fun again. If not, well, I don’t know what’s next.
Does anyone reading this use a Voice Recognition Software? If so, which one? Has anyone tried one?
Dragon Dictate is the universal favorite although it is not truly hands free.
QPointer is truly hands free but doesn’t have quite as good a speech engine as Dragon.
IBM’s Via Voice is not worth mentioning. Is it even still being made??