Happy 00100101 B-Day David

Happy birthday to my friend David. He's:

• 00100101 in Binary, or
• 25 in Hexadecimal, or
• 37 in Base 10.

DVD - My Neighbor Totoro

We watched My Neighbor Totoro, the wife's choice, at my suggestion for Family Movie Night. This is the DVD of the Fox VHS. It's in pan and scan and dubbed, but I like it. Funny, I've read reviews of it and people said to stay away from it, but I rather like it. I don't know if Disney is ever going to release their DVD version. I want to get it just to see it in widescreen and with the original Japanese audio track. I could probably find an import someplace on VCD if I really looked for it. I might do that eventually. After all, the Disney version was supposed to be out in November 2004.

(written on 12/17/2005; back-dated to 12/10/2005)

Dr. Demento

Listened to some of the Funny Five:

• Reinstalling Windows
• The Devil went to Jamaica - I just don't like this song.
• Thank God I'm a Jewish Boy - extra song
• Song number one was My Cat is afraid of the Vacuum Cleaner

Still waiting to hear Missing Him, Missing Limb or Dog with a Plastic Stomach.

Notebook Maps

Years back, I picked up a plastic coated map that fits into a standard three-ring notebook. It has a world map on one side and US map on the other. It's made by Universal Map. I would like one with a China map with provinces and all in English. I checked the site and should send them an email. Of course, I could find a good map and just laminate it.

Family Movie Night Plus

Watched most of Finding Nemo and later after running the old starter back to Auto Zone and some shopping, we watched most of Recess: School's Out, which has a great soundtrack. Went out to the library and reseved the DVD and the CD sountrack - it was that good. After the daughter went to bed, the wife and I watched Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl - known as Tian Yu. The scenery was beautiful.

(written 11/20/2005; back-dated to 11/19/2005)

Van Woes - No Go

The wife called went Andy and I were in line at Chipotle. The van had not started and was still at the Post Office. She had walked home and was cold. Andy and I finished lunch and I called around and found an Advance Auto Parts in Hilliard that could check the van, if we could jump-start it and get it there.

Headed home and picked up the wife and first checked on the van - it would not start. I pulled the battery hoping that was the cause. We left a note on the van and she let the folks in the post office know we'd come back to get the van by tomorrow. We ran her transcripts out to the High School - she's applying to be a substitute. Then we went over to Advance Auto Parts and after the battery was checked and found to be okay, we price checked a starter. Then we drove down to Auto Zone and found one for about $10 less.

By now it was time to head back to be in time to pick up the daughter from school. Called the father-in-law and he said he'd be over early to work on the van.

The moon is rising too late to sketch it. The daughter and I will have to get up and draw it during the day.

Watched some of Acting and Directing. It is quite unusual. The wife and daughter went to flute practice and then the wife went scrapbooking in the evening until late.

(written 11/20/2005; back-dated to 11/18/2005)

Tom Cruise Kills Oprah

Sure it's old, but it's funny. Go here for the clip.

Comedy Central Rocks

I watch way too much TV, but sometimes it's great. It also seems that things I've been looking into have a habit of coming back up another way. Last week, I'd wondered why I never looked up anything on Scientology on Wikipedia. I use it as a reference all the time. So I did some reading.

Last night as I'm watching South Park, I was amazed at the episode shown. The "John Smith" & "Jane Smith" credits were a hoot as well.

The Daily Show continues to be one of my favorites and last night's program was great.

(written 11/17/2005; back-dated to 11/16/2005)

First Snow of the Season...

Brrr! As much as I don't like cold weather, I wonder why I don't move further south.

City Library - Pt III

Stopped by briefly and realized that if I need to talk to Rob, I will have to catch him at the book discussion next month.

(Written 11/17/2005; back-dated to 11/16/2005)

City Library - Pt II

Went by the city library again to speak to Rob and he was not there. Browsed the DVD and VHS stacks and found several things I'd like to borrow:

• Xiu Xiu: the sent down girl
• Black Adder (seasons 1 through 4)
• Black Adder Christmas
• China: Dynasties of Power (documentary)
• China and the Forbidden City (documentary)
• From the Earth to the Moon
• Beijing Bicycle
• Acting and Directing an unusual title from Live Oak Productions.

(written 11/17/2005; back-dated to 11/15/2005)

City Library

Stopped by the city library and picked up my reserve on My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. This is for next book discussion on 12/5/2005. I should get through this book since I've got it in plenty of time.

Rob was talking to a large group of scouts. I wanted to ask him what he thought of My Neighbor Totoro. I suggested that he borrow it back a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't get to talk to him at the last book discussion.

(Written 11/15/2005; back-dated to 11/14/2005)

Natalie Dee handles critics

I've been reading Natalie Dee's cartoon website since the middle of May and been meaning to post about it.

Today's cartoon was particularly good and reminded me of some critical email I received years back regarding my Adventures of Pete and Pete page. I think I fired back with something along the lines of "well, compared to your own page on Pete and Pete, oh wait, you don't have a Pete and Pete page..." It's not nice to be mean, but it would carry more weight if they had something of their own making to compare it against.

Family Movie Night - Snow White

We watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [IMDB] this evening again. Grumpy always reminds me of Mark from back at Randolph AFB. I should get back in touch with him.

(written 11/4/2005; back-dated to 10/29/2005)

Survivor, Apprentice, ER

Survivor Logo (screen capture)

Survivor: Guatemala [official site] is just not captivating me like the previous seasons have done. I'm mostly rooting for Stephenie, Rafe or Lydia.

The Apprentice [official site] was a bit of a shock. The guys over-did it with the batting cage when they had dome so well the last two tasks by remembering branding. And the firing of 4 contestants was unbelievable.

ER [official site] was a rerun from last season. It was one featuring Ray Lolitta [IMDB] who is quite a good actor after all. I was still picturing him from Turbulence [IMDB] back in 1997. I think I saw that on HBO back in my Detroit days with Oracle around 1998. Looking over his IMDB entry, I was amazed to see that he was Shoeless Joe Jackson from Field of Dreams [IMDB].

(Written 11/1/2005; back-dated to 10/27/2005)

Grave of the Fireflies - AZN-TV

Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru No Haka) [IMDB] was on AZN-TV, formerly the International Channel tonight. (Checking the website after the fact, it was on at 8 PM, 11 PM and 2 AM on the 26th. I turned over to it just after it started at 11 PM and as I thought, it was full screen and dubbed. I didn't want to put myself through trying to watch the film that way.

GOTF needs to be watched in widescreen and in Japanese with subtitles. Plus, when I have time to think about it. I have had it on DVD for a couple of years now and I think I've only watched it twice. It's just so sad.

(written 11/6/2005; back-dated to 10/25/2005)

Chinese Class and Dinner

We headed out early to breakfast at Bob Evans and then to the book store to look for a gift for the host family for Director Zhu and for the director himself. We also wanted to get to Chinese class early to meet him and his translator as he was going to have a walk through tour of school. Yesterday he had a brief tour of the COFCC KCAP classes.

We picked up a book on Chinese art for Trevor and Amy, the host family. Then Gail picked out the perfect book for the director. It was A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces [Amazon]. These were gifts for after class at dinner.

We drove over to Amy and Trevor's house and helped her finish getting things ready. It was a different menu with spiral-sliced, honey-baked ham, salad, strawberries and two types of pizza.

The director was very pleased with the book and we also gave him print outs of the Chinese Wikipedia pages on Shenzhou-5 and Shenzhou-6.

At one point Director Zhu expressed his regreat at not being able to speak any English. And I wish I'd remembered to say, was that I too regreated that I did not speak more Chinese.

(Drafted 11/1/2005; back-dated to 10/23/2005; posted on 11/17/2005)

East Meets West Conference

The wife went out very early for the conference and so the daughter and I had a nice relaxing morning. We painted a few watercolors and she practiced her flute.

We went downtown for the conference and finally found a good place to park. The street where the wife suggested parking was having the surface stripped off when we arrived! Lucky, we parked only a short block away.

The conference was good even though the daughter had to use the bathroom four times while we were there. My wife was working, so I took her each time. I got to speak with Director Zhu a few times briefly. I was told he had first gone to New York and then to Hershey, Pennsylvania. He was formerly in the Chinese Army and enjoyed a tour in a Navy museum in New York. I told him through a translator that I wished there was time in his schedule to go to the US Air Force Museum. But there is not time as he has a full schedule tomorrow.

(Drafted 10/29/2005; back-dated to 10/22/2005; posted 11/17/2005)

Dinner with Director Zhu

The wife's East Meets West Conference was this weekend. The guest of honor, as it was, was the director of the Yi Yang orphange in Hunan. The first meeting was at the Chinese restaurant where we had dinner with the wife's Chinese class last year, over near campus. There was a group of more than 40 people as we filled 4 tables that each seated 10 and a couple of booths. I was hoping to sit with the director, but there were a few familes who had adopted children from his orphange and so they were seated at his table. He recognized many of the children.

The dinner was fantastic - 5 or 6 different courses.

(Drafted 10/29/2005; back-dated to 10/21/2005; posted 11/17/2005)

Hurricane Wilma Watch

Wilma & Hurricane Wilma
Animation Art Gallery & NOAA

There are some incredible and ominous photos of Cancun with the approach of Hurricane Wilma out at Yahoo's Most Emailed Photos and Slideshows. These wire photos normally only stay out there about a week, so check soon. Wikipedia has articles on Wilma individually and as part of the larger article on the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also has an individual page on Hurricane Wilma along with other good information. The above image is from 10/21 at 1245 UTC (0745 Eastern time).

Animation cell from the Animation Art Gallery.

I have yet to understand how blogger or hello or picasa is resizing the images. The above image was sized at 691 x 240 but the linked image is 640 x 222. It must be cutting down to either 320 for small or 640 for bigger.

Bueller? Bueller?

Finally got around to watching the Ferris Bueller's Day Off DVD that I received for my birthday. It's amazing that Matthew Broderick was 24 when this came out. Just like Ralph Macchio, 23 when The Karate Kid came out and and Michael J. Fox, 24 with Back to the Future, Broderick seems eternally young.

I still have the button and mini-poster from FBDO. I thought I'd lost the poster for certain, but it was with many other posters of mine that I just don't have wall space for right now. At one point, I'd even found it on EBay and was thinking of bidding on it.

Watched the whole movie and then watched about 15 mintues with the director's commentary. Sadly, this doesn't even have a single trailer for the film on the DVD.

(written 11/4/2005; back-dated to 10/19/2005)

Finished - The Kite Runner

I read to the end of The Kite Runner this evening. Khaled Hosseini will have another book about Afganistan out in 2006 and I want to read it.

(Written 10/21/2005; back-dated to 10/18/2005)

Two chapters left - The Kite Runner

Read last night for a couple of hours. Just two chapters left of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner [Amazon]. The story is moving swiftly and has become somewhat predicable, but I am still enjoying it. This is a good story to learn to write from, I think.

Reading - The Kite Runner

I read about 16 or so chapters of The Kite Runner [Amazon] by Khaled Hosseini. This was for the book discussion I missed back on October 12th. It's quite a good read. It flows well and has kept me interested. I only hope to write something this good.

Shenzhou-6 launches successfully

Shenzhou-6 launch
AP photo from BBC

Fei Junlong, 40 and Nie Haisheng, 41, have become the second and third Chinese nationals in space with today's successful launch of the Shenzhou-6 Chinese spacecraft. The craft, atop a Long March 2F rocket was launched at 0900 Beijing time, 0400 US Eastern time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest Gansu Province in the Northwest of China. This is the same launch facility and pad as the October 2003 flight of Yang Liwei aboard Shenzhou-5.

Welcome back, and best of luck.

• Wikipedia article on Shenzhou-6


• Xinhua News Agency - in English (Chinaview) main Page


• Xinhua News Agency Shenzhou-6 page


• Xinhua News Agency Shenzhou-6 photos


• China Daily main page


• China Daily Shenzhou-6 page


• PLA Daily of the Chinese People's Liberation Army


• PLA Shenzhou-6 page


• People's Daily Home


• People's Daily - Shenzhou VI


• Rabbit and Crow blog with a post on the launch


• Shenzhou-6 FAQ at Mark Wade's magnificent Encylopedia Astronautica


• SPACE.com article


• Space Facts


• Shenzhou-6 page at Spaceflight Now


• BBC Coverage


• CollectSpace message board on SZ-6 patches
• MSNBC stories with streaming video of launch

Gail Force: Eternal Story

I stayed up past midnight watching some anime on AZN Television (formerly the International Channel). Turned out the show was Gail Force: Eternal Story (AZN list, IMDB entry). The story borrowed many ideas from Alien. The design of the corridors was very similar. I was a bit surprised how the female captain of the all female crew was showering so frequently. There was more animated nudity than I was expecting.

(Written 10/12/2005, back-dated to 10/11/2005)

Amazing Race 8 - Huntsville AL

We watched CBS' The Amazing Race tonight. The teams raced to Huntsville, Alabama to the Space and Rocket Center. Phil, the host was at the pitstop with an astonaut. You can see both of them in this photo.

I noticed the Mach 25 patch and he's been on two space shuttle missions, but I can't ID the flights right now. I'll post both patches when I find them and ID the astronaut.

(Written on 10/12/2005; back-dated to 10/11/2005)

Amazing Race 8 - Shuttle Patches

STS-29 & STS-38 emblems
from Wikipedia

The two patches were for STS-29 [wikipedia] and STS-38 [wikipedia]. The astronaut was Robert C. Springer [wikipedia]. He flew on two largely DOD missions in 1989 and 1990.

(Found it on 10/13 and just now posting)
(Written 10/30/2005; back-dated to 10/11/2005)

Yahoo self-corrects

Yahoo's better photo (screen capture)

I dont' think it was because of my post, but the Yahoo story [Yahoo] on news searching that includes blogs has a photo of Yahoo's headquarters now. Perhaps I should search for my blog entry?

More importantly, why did the first image with the google sign below get sized smaller? Maybe there's a setting in in Picasa/Hello that I didn't set correctly.

Welcome Home Soyuz TMA-6

Last night, Soyuz TMA-6 [Wikipedia] departed from the Interational Space Station bringing the Expedition 11 crew of Sergei Krikalev, John Phillips and Gregory Olsen. It was launched April 15, 2005 with Krikalev, Phillips and Robert Vittori. (Vittori returned to earth in Soyuz TMA-5 with the Expedition 10 crew Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov back on April 24, 2005.)

Yahoo adds blogs to news search - and wrong photo

Yahoo: blogs and news side by side
screen capture from Yahoo

There is an interesting story [Yahoo] on Yahoo's Most Popular News. It was number 4 of the Most Recommended News items this morning. It talks about how Yahoo starting today will offer an expanded news search that will yield not only wire news stories and photos, but also list people's blogs, user-contributed photos and links. Cool! Hopefully it will all be related content.

But strangely, the photo accompanying the item shows the sign out front of Google headquarters, not Yahoo and Google is only mentioned once in the article.

I don't think that my blog entry here will show up in this expanded news search. Not until Yahoo changes the photo. Hehehe.

Craving Chocolate Milk

Hmmm.... I want chocolate milk....

Urg! I want chocolate milk....

I had some soy milk this morning and it was wonderful! Why aren't soy products dirt cheap? I can still get milk for $1.79 per gallon and that makes me not want to get soy milk when it's about the same per quart.

(Here's hoping that within minutes, this post is not attacked by "Comment 'Bots" or "C.R.A.P." = "Comment Robotic Automatic Posters". Someone must have a name for those types of posts.)

Andy's Gnome - already "defaced"

Andy's Gnome
Unbelieveable - I posted this at 10:37 and three minutes later, two comments that look like they are from some sort of robotic crawler. There was nothing here except the photo and the caption. I wonder if I can selectively hide or remove comments?

The Lovely Bones (Again)

The library in town is going to have a book discussion on Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones tonight. Funny that my old library had a book discussion in May on the same book. Here's one book that I remember enough of to not have to re-read.

(Written on 9/8/2005; forward-dated to 9/12/2005)
("Future-posted" maybe?)

Operation Lunch: No Go

Looks like Max snuck out on our plans to show up wherever he was going to go to lunch today. He's here for an exit interview tomorrow and that's it. Bummer. I'm sure lunch would have been good wherever it would have been, but it was more about just hanging out that it was getting a full belly.

Have to make plans for the future since he's staying in the area.

Gas - $2.99

Bought $10 in gas this morning before work.

Katrina on my Mind

I woke up this morning at about 5:30 am and could not get back to sleep. The Oprah show was getting to me. I also heard the neighbors alarm clock-radio go off at 6 am.

Oprah Winfrey - Hurricane Katrina

My wife taped Oprah and we watched it in the evening. This is the first of two shows dealing with Hurricane Katrina: "Oprah on Location: Inside the Katrina Catastrophe".

I'd heard some of what she'd reported on last week on NPR. It was difficult watching the Chief of Police talk about not having the police presence to stop what all was going on in the Super Dome.

(Written on 9/7/2005; back-dated to 9/6/2005)
(minor edit 9/11/2007)

Vanity Plate - BLOGGER

On the way back from the dentist, I saw a car with a vanity plate reading "BLOGGER". That inspired me to get back to posting. I have a small feeling of sour grapes when it comes to vanity plates. On one hand, they seem a waste of money. Yet my friend David has them. If the state would let me get the ones I wanted when we first went to 7 characters, I'd probably have them and think differently.

I wanted to get "THX 1138", but because they actually issue the plates as three characters followed by four numbers, this will come up automatically and will not be honored as a vanity plate. The BMV site tells me: "The sequences of characters you are trying to request do not meet the reserve standards."

Funny that when I tried "NCC 1701" I get this different message ("Your request is not available, please try again.") This still makes me think that someone was able to get this plate. But I checked "NCC 1702" and it gives the message about not meeting the reserve standards.

(Written on 9/7/2005; back-dated to 9/6/2005)

Karen's Birthday

Called my sister and talked to her about for a while as it was her birthday.

(Written on 9/8/2005; back-dated to 8/31/2005)

Lunch at Las Margaritas

Most of the group from work went out to lunch at Las Margaritas to meet Darren, who had left some time back. Mexican food is good food.

(Written on 9/8/2005; back-dated to 8/16/2005)

Blog Updates

Make something simple and I'll still find an excuse not to use it. I've gone nearly 6 weeks and not made a post here. Lots of interesting and even more mundane things have happened. So, it's a trip back in time via receipts and photos to see what all has happened that I should share here.

30 Days on FX

Watched most of 30 Days tonight. This was the fifth show this season. Two people from New Jersey went out to the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri. I was juiced by the use of Solar power. It reminded me of the Green Means (html site, text site) program on using solar in Africa to allow children to study at night with electric lights.

Why do I feel that it would be so much easier to have a house in the country with a garden, a composting toilet, solar power and a clothes line if I were a lotto winner?

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 7/13/2005)

Summer Reading Program 2005

Tuesday was the last day for the Summer Reading program this year. The wife and daughter attended this mostly without me, due to work. I was along for a couple of these. Actually, my injury back on 6/28 caused them to miss half of one of the nights. It was good to meet the folks who came along from the Society for Creative Anachronism. I chatted with one fellow who talked about Marcon and his Forbidden Planet costume. Cool!

I'll have to either crash or attend Marcon next year. It's been far too long.

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 7/12/2005)

VHS - A Little Princess

We watched A Little Princess this evening for "Family Movie Night", which is normally on Saturdays. I want, no, I need to get this on DVD.

I wish that I could keep in more regular contact with Errol Sitahal. Perhaps I will have to go back to writing him actual letters. Or, if I get a calling plan that includes Canada, that would be cool as well.

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 7/10/2005)
(Label added 9/10/2007)

Car Maintenance and Injury

While replacing the starter on my car, a bolt came loose (finally) and I gashed my right thumb on metal on the bottom of the engine. One look was enough to tell me that I would have to have stitches. The father-in-law called the bride and she and the daughter came back to find me still working on the car. I wanted to finish putting on the new starter. All was going well, until I bumped my thumb again and it really began to hurt.

We left the daughter with the in-laws and headed out to find an urgent care or an Emergency Room. Keep in mind, I had watched the premiere episode of 30 Days on FX back on 6/15/2005 and I'm thinking that even with insurance, that I'm going to get a bill for $500 for just walking in the ER. As it was, we paid our co-pay and that took care of everything. Yeah insurance! But I still think there should be some form of socialized medicine.

I ended up with 4 and stitches and the nickname "FrankenThumb" from a friend at work. The Novacain hurt more than anything else.

Looking back, I should have put some ice on it to help with the brusing and swelling. Of course, mechanics gloves or just heavy work gloves would have prevented it.

(Written on 7/14/2005; back-dated to 6/28/2005)
(Minor edit on 9/8/2005)

Star Wars - 28 years old today

I'm a true fan, but I've never did keep track of how many times I saw Star Wars. It would be nice to know, but I'd rather just know the date that I first saw it.

Maybe a trip to the microfilm copies of the hometown newspaper is in order? That is, if the library still has them. Of course there are many things to look up.

Book Group - The Lovely Bones

This morning while driving to work, I finished the last tape, the author interview, of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. I had finished the story itself last night while driving home from work. What a marvelous first novel for a person to write.

Interesting that during the author interview she spoke of the movie deal. Here's the IMDB entry on it. Yippee Peter Jackson directing! Whoa, there was a Philippine version of The Lovely Bones in 2003? Amazing - Anghel sa lupa

Book Discussion for this is on Tuesday 5/31 and I'll be there for this one.

Episode III - 4 out of 5

My better half had a workshop for the first part of the day.

We then dropped the daughter off at the in-laws who were taking her to see a soccer game with her cousin. This left the two of us free to go and see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was enjoyable, but I don't think that I expected it to be better than the original Star Wars. The ending was sad enough that I shead single tear. There were so many places where Anakin could have simply stopped and changed things, but his destiny was set.

I saw George's cameo. His daughter's appearence was distracting - her eyes were all over the place. His son's cameo was excellent. The Tantive IV did not look correct - it was too short in the at mid-ships. Bai Ling's appearence was cut, I found out later. The shot of the early "Imperial Shuttle" with three fighter escort, from the second trailer, was not in the film. And the wrist restrains were in an "arms at your sides" instead of "hands up" position like in the teaser trailer - the "Lord Vader, rise." one.

After the show, we went to On the Boarder for dinner. We'd not been there since Matt was back in town years ago. It was one of his brithdays or something and it might have been before he was married. A long time ago indeed.

(Entered 5/25/2005)

Rustlings at Nutt.Org

There's a bit more at NuttDotOrg than just the logo that reminds me of the logo from The Incredibles. Hmm, the 10 minute website. Wish I'd checked in yesterday when it showed up.

(Written on 5/25/2005; back-dated to 5/18/2005)

George Lucas' Episode III cameo

George Lucas as Baron Papanoida, and Papa Smurf.

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, writer - director George Lucas will make a cameo appearence as Baron Papanoida. I think it's great to be in your own movies, but my first impression was that his character bore some resemblence to Papa Smurf, both in color and in name. Am I the first person to make this comparison?

Here's hoping that it goes off well and that Episode III is as enjoyable as I still find the original Star Wars.

Missed Book Discussion

Due to the incredible amount of work with the new ERP at my place of employment, I was not able to make the Book Discussion Group on Thursday. I very much wanted to go to this. I had listened to the book (Girl with a Pearl Earring) completely and had watched just over half of the film. (The film is not a good adaptation of the book.)

I was able to chat with the librarian who runs the group and talk to her about it though, so I don't feel too bad about missing it.

(Written on Saturday 5/14/2005 and back dated to 5/5/2005.)

Welcome Back Soyuz TMA-5

Dr. Leroy Chiao and me - Asian Festival, May 29, 2004, a Saturday.
Photo by Mrs. Chiao.

This is something I was going to post back on April 24, 2005 when Soyuz TMA-5 returned to Earth. I was fortunate to meet and talk with Dr. Chiao nearly a year ago at the Columbus Asian Festival. Dr Chiao arrived much earlier than expected and stay far later than he was supposed to, much to everyone's happiness.

He was the Expedition 10 (official site, photos) commander and NASA ISS science officer. After 6 months on the International Space Station, Chiao, along with cosmonaut Salizhan S. Sharipov, Expedition 10 flight engineer returned to Earth in the company of Roberto Vittori of Italy. It was Vittori's second trip to the station. He went up with the crew of Expedition 11 (official site, photos) in Soyuz TMA-6, returning after a visit of 9 days.

Happy "Star Wars Day"

Yes, It's May the 4th ... May the 4th be with you ... Happy Star Wars Day. (A joke good only once a year.)
---

Darren didn't call me last night. I called him on Monday and hoped that he'd call back. I should just email him. I'm glad to hear he's working for McGraw-Hill. But I kidded him that he works for the same company as Lowell. I need to email him, and several others.
---

Woo Hoo! Book Discussion group tomorrow! I'm all up to speed on the book. I picked up the DVD of Girl with the Pearl Earring and would like to watch it tonight. Hopefully, there will be several people there.
---

I missed the end of The Amazing Race last night. Too bad about Meredith and Gretchen. They lasted much longer than most people thought. I think I'm rooting for Uchenna & Joyce to win. I still haven't seen Joyce's hair since it was shaved in India. I didn't realize this show was in its seven race. I do wish that Teri, of Teri and Ian, from Amazing Race 3 would write a book of some type. She was fascinating and should have some great stories and advise.

It's Tuesday - Remember to Vote

Hopefully, the school levy will pass. But we're moving before the next school year begins.

Here's the results:

2-CITY OF PATASKALA (REPLACEMENT)
5 MILLS FOR 5 YRS. FOR POLICE PROTECTION
...FOR THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . . . 1,792 53.46
...AGAINST THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . 1,560 46.54

9-SOUTHWEST LICKING L.S.D. (ADDITIONAL)
7 MILLS-5 YRS-EMERGENCY REQUIREMENTS
...FOR THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . . . 4,747 63.21
...AGAINST THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . 2,763 36.79

10-WEST LICKING JOINT FIRE DIST. (ADDITIONAL)
1 MILL FOR 5 YRS. FOR FIRE PROTECTION
...FOR THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . . . 5,234 56.18
...AGAINST THE TAX LEVY . . . . . . 4,082 43.82

Everything passed.

Monday's Thoughts

Monday was the cutover for the new ERP system at work. Replacing a multiude of home-grown and older, unsupported commercial systems. As I went out to the car, I saw a blue heron flying in the west. It was heading to the north and I took it as a good sign.

In the evening, I finished Girl with the Pearl Earring. I'm looking forward to book discussion on Thursday. I need to research a few more of Vermeer's paintings. The concert one and the milk maid one are mentioned in the book, and include a couple of the characters.

Book Group - Girl with a Pearl Earring

detail of girl with a pearl earring

Yesterday I started listing to Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring. (Here's the Amazon page on the book.) It is a fictional account of a young maid who is the subject of Dutch painter Jan Vermeer's painting of the same name.

Griet, a 16 year old woman becomes the maid for the Vermeer's some time after her father, a tile-maker, is blinded in a work accident. She has a natural talent for understanding color and composition.

I'm listening to the Recorded Books unabridged version on cassette. I didn't know that this had been made into a film. I'll have to see this after I finish the book.

Above is a detail from the actual work. Here is a link to the Art Archive page where you can see a much larger version of the complete picture.

Star Wars Film - One Season More

AtomFilms - One Season More is the winner of the "Best Song" category in the 2005 Star Wars Fan Film Awards. Yes best song. This almost seems like an open number if there were to be a Star Wars Musical. But I don't see it as hokey or campy.

This film is amazing. The animation is great, even though the character's expression don't match the intensity of the vocal performance. Michael Gott's voice is stunning.

The music is quite close to the Star Wars theme in many places. This is very worth watching in my opinion. My thanks to Timothy Edward Smith and Hunter Nolen for sharing an incredible piece of work. Well done!

Star Wars Celebration III

Just a quick post to let anyone know who comes here if you spoke with me at Celebration III - Yes, you've found the correct blog. I've just not put much here yet. I'm busy back at work, and all the standing in the rain and bad weather has given me a cold. So, I've not felt much like posting.

I was in the 10:35 am talk that George Lucas gave and by that time, I'd completely lost my voice. I should have still gone up even if I'd had to whisper my question. But I'll post it here for now. After thanking him for coming, what I wanted to ask George was:

When will the fans be seeing a DVD release of Star Wars, Empire and Jedi with all of the deleted scenes and alternate takes ... something that would put James Cameron's Aliens director's cut to shame?

More news and thoughts on C3 in the coming days.

Fowl At Work

Friday, Monday and today there has been a pair of mallards under my car each evening that I've left work. I've had to shoo them away. I think there is something wrong with the female's right wing.

Also, on Monday, someone had hit a goose that had died in front of the daycare center right across from work.

I don't want this to turn into a blog of roadkill.

Vehicle and Blog Maintenance

Went over to the in-laws for dinner and changed the oil and filters in the car and van.

Dinner was salad and pizza. I've been craving salad for a while and this was very good.

----------

On Thursday or Friday I changed the template for this blog and my dates and times for my first four posts were moved up a day. I've set them back, but the time is way off. I hope that this doesn't happen all the time. No point in having the time for each entry if this is going to change.

I also don't understand why this will let me set the date from 2006 back to 1990.

9:44 PM on Sat Apr 9, 2005 - Just in case the times get all out of wack.

Books and a Bunny

Worked late and missed Book Discussion Group at the library. We are reading Alexandra Robbins' Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities. I do so much better with books on cassette. I didn't even crack the cover of this one. Last month, I did read some of the book on the Iditarod. I'll put this on my list to read and see.

I think I ran over a rabbit on the way home from work. Ick.

Pope Viewing Line

The line for viewing the Pope is being capped. Need to get all in line through in time for the funeral on Friday.

Wednesday's gas prices

Thanks to ColumbusGasPrices.com I found gas for $2.14 - but it was $2.19 by the time I got there. Not much of a price difference than at home.

first post - hello world

Finally, something I should have done ages ago. Now, some competition for my old, out of date tripod site.

Interesting that I can change the time and date of the post. I wonder what order it will show in if I did that? I did want to recap last week. But, I'll play with this later....

Hmm.... Server time is Pacific Time. Should be some setting for that.