June 10, 2006
Page update
Ive finally made a change that has been bugging me for a while. For some reason, Firefox was aligning the black navbar on the right different from IE. I also got rid of the weather channel and made my own cgi script to parse the temperature. As good as it looks in Firefox, it looks bad in IE - I will try and fix that up tomorrow. It was 117 here today and neither source listed it that hot, so I guess I won't get anything very accurate, but I like the way this looks better.
Posted by TJ at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2006
Update
A new camouflage pattern for the Army so I finally updated the title image. I also added 6 more photos to the random image rotation in the title bar as well - not new photos, they have all been posted here before, just new to that area.
Posted by TJ at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
A bit of a surprise
My home state of New Hampshire ranked exactly in the middle (26 of 51) of US state's performances on a driving test.
I guess these results fairly accurately predict road performance as well since Massachusetts ranks 48. The people that Massachusetts drivers actually complain about (rightly) are Rhode Island drivers, and they are dead last for the second year in a row.
So now I await the emails from my family and friends in Mass :)
UPDATE: Take the test yourself, I got a 90%, and haven't driven in a year.
Posted by TJ at 07:09 PM | Comments (2)
May 27, 2006
If I ever need heart surgery...
I want this guy:
A heart surgeon had to take a break from a mercy-mission operation in El Salvador so he could donate his own rare-type blood for his 8-year-old patient.
...
They were running out of blood to give the boy, Weinstein said. When he asked the boy's blood type, he discovered they were both B-negative. Weinstein, who said he was an occasional blood donor - "but never like this" - said the interruption to donate a pint lasted about 20 minutes. The American Red Cross says 2 percent of the population has B-negative blood. Only AB-negative is rarer.
Dr Samuel Weinstein is the chief of pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
Posted by TJ at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2006
Statistics
You know sports statistics are out of hand when you get stuff like this:
LHP Scott Kazmir, scheduled to start on Friday, was the winning pitcher in the Devil Rays' last three victories over the Red Sox. He's the first lefty to beat Boston in Fenway Park three times before his 23rd birthday since before World War I, according to the Elias Sports Bureau
Heh.
Posted by TJ at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
The Terminal
I just watched Tom Hanks in The Terminal. I don't know why this movie got such bad reviews when it came out. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you compare it with Castaway, it is kind of interesting. How can someone be just as isolated in the middle of one of the world's busiest airports as they would be on a deserted island and have to survive by one's wits. Sure, the whole premise on how he got in that position is a bit of a stretch, but aren't we told time and time again about suspension of disbelief?
Posted by TJ at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2006
This is how educators spend their time?
I ran across this story in the zero-tolerance section at OpinionJournal.com from Basha High school in Arizona:
Alvers and other Basha High students are seeing red over a school policy that charges them 25 cents for two half-ounce packets of ketchup at lunch. The policy was enacted recently to limit waste and messiness in the school's lunch area.
Well, actually, not waste, just messiness:
"If you have unrestricted access to things that explode, things will happen," said Kristine Marchiando, the school's principal. She said students were twisting ketchup packets and stomping on them, requiring an outdoor lunch area to be steam-cleaned regularly.
Can kids bring their own ketchup? Nope.
Students opting to bring their own ketchup bottles to school have had them confiscated by security. They have been told the bottles are considered open food containers and represent a health-code violation. Students have been threatened with suspension if they persist.
Health-code violations? Puh-leeze. What about those students who bring bag lunches to school? Are their lunches examined daily for substances which prompt the CDC to immediately shut down schools and office buildings? You know, substances such as tunafish, peanut butter, or god forbid, eggsalad?
Actually, the article doesn't even mention bag lunches, so they may not even allow them. At the base of all this, I think its more about making the dining facilities at the school more profitable (or at least more able to cover their costs). I know on an average-sized hamburger, I normally use 2 ketchup packets. That 3rd packet will just not cut it for an entire order of french fries. So for my 4 extra packets, I would pay 50 cents. The school's cost? Probably around 2 cents. A 1500% profit.
Ultimately, what this principal is doing is tragic. Blowing up ketchup packets is so easy, these kids would probably become bored with it and stop altogether soon. To call the resultant burst "an explosion" is a fairly generous use of the term. Ultimately, by depriving these kids of their giggles, she is only motivating them to experiment, and they will also likely escalate out of spite. If she thinks it costs alot of money to steam clean a floor outdoors, just wait until they discover the amazing aerodynamic properties of a slice of bologna, or the natural attractive force between sliced pickles and a cafeteria ceiling.
Of course, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek right about now, but the whole situation is stupid. The school wants to charge for ketchup? Fine. But punnishing students who are enterprising enough to bring their own is stupid. If public schools actually taught economics any more, this would be a great topic on how supply and demand lead to fair market prices, and conversely, how price-fixing inevitably leads to smuggling and the rise of black markets.
Posted by TJ at 05:44 PM | Comments (1)
December 06, 2005
Nuclear Option
2 Updates to the site:
1) You now have to register to comment. Im sorry, but the spam was getting out of control on both trackbacks and comments. Ive been registered with TypeKey to comment at a number of sites and it works well and they are trustworthy. This should solve the problem. I hope those of you who have been comment continue to do so.
2) New random rotating image to the right of the page title above. Enjoy!
Posted by TJ at 07:01 PM | Comments (1)
November 01, 2005
Wow
The past few months, this site has really taken off. I don't know if its more just people I know checking up on me or what, but here are the number of monthly visitors since early Summer:
| June | 1470 |
| July | 1582 |
| August | 1918 |
| September | 3031 |
| October | 5036 |
So keep comming back!
Posted by TJ at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Stuff
There won't be many postings like that last one. I simply don't have the energy to write about squabbling that I don't see all the time on TV or read in the papers. Besides, I usually have too many other things to write about - at least right now. Maybe I'll get bored and get back into more political postings.
I've been having problems with SkypeOut. Calls go through but the person receiving the call cannot hear me. I really like the idea and the system so I hope they fix it soon, but from the looks of their forums, its a long-term problem and they aren't very good about their customer service. I'll be looking for another service to use. However, the Skype to Skype connections are good, so if you have broadband and a microphone, let me know.
More photos to come tomorrow or Thursday.
Posted by TJ at 09:16 PM | Comments (1)
September 12, 2005
Skype
My roommate turned me on to this program called Skype. Its kind of like an IM program with a VOIP interphase. 2 users who both have the system can talk for free. I also can call US numbers for about $.02 per minute and you can even call me, and leave a voicemail if Im not there!
Get a headset with a microphone and sign up - its free.
Posted by TJ at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)