How To - - Build the best paper airplane

I remember this offbeat seventh grade assignment, build a paper airplane; throw it, and the farthest flying plane wins. It never crossed my mind there were multiple ways to make paper airplanes. I put more time into decorating than the science of building the plane.

Obviously, I lost. Mine went about ten feet and dive-bombed into a nearby puddle, making it water logged and rendering it useless for my second flight attempt.

I still make these at work when I'm board, folding them the usual way every time...until I came across this link.

F.Y.I. Longest Paper Airplane Flight:

The level flight duration record for a hand-launched paper airplane is 27.6 sec., by Ken Blackburn of the USA, at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on October 8, 1998.
Guiness WR | His Book

Step by step detailed instructions on building the best paper airplane in the world:

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Bought a Monitor

NEC 19" MultiSync FE950 Natural Flat Screen monitor. This is my first "refurb" purchase, I just hope it works. My original Dell Trinitron pooped the bed months ago (notice the lack of posts). It still works, but imagine staring through a fogged up, broken window. A new monitor should motivate me to post more...

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Dilbert

I usually don't read Dilbert, but since I'm such a huge baseball fan...I decided to post this (click for lager pic)

And now a brief intermission.

Sorry for the delay between posts guys, I've been very busy. More to come shortly...

Thanks for your patience everyone!

Music Band Fonts

When I was younger and in school, I would have to cover my text books with brown paper bag to keep them clean. I would fill every inch of blank space with notes, phone numbers, sketches, test cheats, and most importantly, with rock band logos and names.

Yes, I was the epitome of cool because of this. No one could draw "Metallica" like I could. The arduous part was the lightning bolt type letter style shooting from the bottom of the "M" and the "A". AC-DC, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith...You name it, I was the kid to go to if you wanted to be this cool.

You can download all of these fonts now at RockRage, and install them into your font folder for use in Word, Photoshop, etc.

Directions:
1. Download WinZip or other Zip program if you don't have it
2. Click your font to download
3. Unzip it and install it somewhere easy to find
4. Open your font folder (Start Menu: Settings: Control Panel: Fonts)
5. Click drop down box in your font folder and select "install new fonts"
6. Find your new font and click install

Now your as cool as I was. ;)

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Question? - What was the best job you ever had?

My "best job" was in Upstate New York as Usher at Saratoga Springs Horse Race Track controlling the clubhouse section, the "upper class" of race seating. The job description was checking for clubhouse stamps on patrons hands, that's it!

I spent most of my time watching and learning about the races, viewing the eye candy, working on my tan, and making extra money on side placing bets. Some of the hard core race fans would even give me tips, and the occasional race ticket to get in the clubhouse. Too bad it was only a summer job, but I did learn the ins and outs of horse racing.

So what was the best job (employment) you ever had?

Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About

Yes, the actual link to this hilariously clever webpage is "www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com" The link speaks for itself:

Margret doesn't like to watch films on the TV. No, hold on - let me make sure you've got the inflection here: Margret doesn't like to watch films on the TV. She says she does, but years of bitter experience have proven that what she actually wants is to sit by me while I narrate the entire bleeding film to her. 'Who's she?', 'Why did he get shot?', 'I thought that one was on their side?', 'Is that a bomb' - 'JUST WATCH IT! IN THE NAME OF GOD, JUST WATCH IT!' The hellish mirror-image of this is when she furnishes me, deaf to my pleading, with her commentary. Chair-clawing suspense being assaulted mercilessly from behind by such interjections as, 'Hey! Look! They're the cushions we've got.', 'Isn't she the one who does that tampon advert?' and, on one famous occasion, 'Oh, I've seen this - he gets killed at the end.'

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Reasons for Longevity

CNN recently posted an article pertaining to possible reasons for longevity. "Centenarians reveal longevity secrets", is a brief write up on the Cuban 120 year club, and thier possible reasons for living longer than most.

Fidel Castro's physician explains:

"The whole world could satisfactorily live 120 years," said Dr. Eugenio Selman, the club's director and Castro's personal physician.

But to do so, he said, six basic elements must be fulfilled: motivation to live, appropriate diet, medical attention, intense physical activity, cultural activities and a healthy environment.

• motivation to live
• diet
• medical attention
• exercise
• cultural activities
• healthy environment

What other or similar reasons would you consider possible factors to longevity. Sex is the first thing that pops into my head (which, like most males, usually pops into my head multiple times daily) and could fall under motivations to live, exercise, and as a cultural activity; sex has multiple benefits.

Don't be shy people, feel free to post your ideas.

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Jose Canseco's new book

The folks at all-baseball.com points out some notable sections from an "advanced copy" of Jose Canseco's new book, "Juiced : Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big" If you live in a cave and have not heard about the book, it contains allegations of specific MLB players using drugs, specifically steroids, during Canseco's tenure as a player.

Page 47 tells the tale of his date with Madonna. She told him that she really had an intellectual connection with him and felt feelings of love for him. Because of this he would be the only guy in the past 6 years that she would not have sex with. Jose responds by shrugging his shoulders and saying no big deal, then has a threesome with Rosie O'Donnell and Sandra Bernhard, who were staying with Madonna at the time.

Link warning -- Satire

The Future of Music Promotion

A recent wired news article shows us a great example of the future of music promotion. Wilco was dropped by their record label (Warner) which forced the band to use the web as a main source of promotion. They were successful.

Income is barely existent for new musicians, most of which is generated from touring and merchandise sales. Initially, they are in need of publicity -- a process of touring, in-store promotions, merchandise, CD sales at gigs, radio, etc. Name recognition usually comes slowly, but it's a different story when they use the internet as a promotional tool.

A band website allows fans to listen or download music with ease, spreading their songs like wildfire, and eventually creating more revenue from ticket, merchandise and album sales. After a boost in fan base, options are to create a small label, use a distribution company without the labels help or in Wilco's situation, wait for a call from the big labels.

"Music is different" from other intellectual property. Not Karl Marx different - this isn't latent communism. But neither is it just "a piece of plastic or a loaf of bread." The artist controls just part of the music-making process; the audience adds the rest. Fans' imagination makes it real. Their participation makes it live. "We are just troubadours," Tweedy told me. "The audience is our collaborator. We should be encouraging their collaboration, not treating them like thieves."

It seems inevitable that a compromise will have to be established between big labels and musicians. The labels continue to refuse the new media tools, and the musicians have always resented the amount of control in the hands of big labels. Wilco has been successful promoting themselves on the web, expect to notice more bands taking the same route.

Link | Wilcoweb

How pitchers put movement on a baseball.

I'm a huge baseball fan, so I found this link very interesting. The St. Petersburg Times put together a flash diagram of how pitchers throw the 5 most used pitches; curve, fastball, slider, screwball, and the split-fingered fastball. Basically, the rotation of the ball, along with wind resistance over the seams, make the baseball move. The change-up and the knuckle-ball aren't listed, but are just as important to a pitchers arsenal.

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Where has your dollar bill been?

Waste a few minutes and find the past whereabouts of your dollar bills. Just enter the serial number and see past history including where it was printed, locations of previous owners, conditions, dates, and you can also leave comments for the next person. Best used with older bills.

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2005 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Lineup

The 2005 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival schedule and lineup has just been released and runs from April 22nd to May 1st this year (Friday - Sunday the first weekend and Thursday - Sunday the second weekend). Here are the big names you would recognize:

Friday, April 22; CowboyMouth, Steve Winwood, Wilco
Saturday, April 23; The Original Meters Reunion, James Taylor, The Roots, Buddy Guy, Luciano, Susan, Tedeschi, Fishbone
Sunday, April 24; Dr. John, Nelly, G. Love & Special Sauce, Rebirth Brass Band, James Cotton, Cyril Neville
Thursday, April 28; B.B. King, Jack Johnson
Friday, April 29; Better Than Ezra, Widespread Panic, Randy Newman, Marcia Ball
Saturday, April 30; Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dave Matthews Band, Elvis Costello, Galactic, Toots & the Maytals, Ike Turner
Sunday, May 1; The Neville Brothers, Trey Anastasio, Isaac Hayes, Steel Pulse, Los Lonely Boys, The Radiators, Karl Denson?s Tiny Universe, Marcia Ball

This is the best time of year in the Big Easy, smaller crowds than Mardi-Gras, barely any drunken college kids, and has a ton of local talent that mainly consists of Jazz, Blues, Zydeco, Cajun, and Soul. Make sure you bring enough money for the food...Gumbo, Jambalaya, Crawfish, local beers. It's a great time, has a very chill atmosphere, and starts before the "hot season"...I can't wait to get back there. E-mail me if you have any questions or need directions, were to stay, etc...

Schedule | Tickets

Sporting quotes archive (ESPN Page 2)

If you want a few laughs, check out the ESPN Page2 quote archive. I'm upset that Minnesota didn't make the Super bowl because I looked forward to the daily dose of useless garbage Randy Moss spewed, he’s such an easy media target. Weeded through and posted a few of my picks:

"When you're rich, you don't write checks. Straight cash, homey."
-- Randy Moss

"Batting first, seventh, eighth or ninth, Tony Womack just wants to play. I don't have an ego problem."
-- Tony Womack, the Yankees' new second baseman.

"This team is one execution away from being a very good basketball team."
-- Doc Rivers on the Celtics.

"It happened in my lifetime! It happened in my lifetime!"
-- My Dad after last night's clinching World Series win

"You can't just go out and buy a championship ring ... well, unless Dwight Gooden runs out of coke."
-- Adam Carolla, when the Yankees acquired Alex Rodriguez.

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Face morph

The University of St. Andrews School of computer science has this image transformation program that allows you to alter pictures of peoples faces to show different ages, ethnicities, and artistic renderings. You can upload, resize and save the final outcomes (although, I did have trouble saving on their sever due to traffic). I decided to morph my cat tonight as an experiment to see if animals could be morphed and still hold some resemblance to the original picture.

Here are the labels given for each cat:

1. ApeCat
2. CartoonCat
3. DrunkCat
4. Kitten
5. ModCat

Click pics for larger image.

It's amazing the amount of free time I have. Try it out, this experiment is definitely entertaining.

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There are some things money can't buy...

...but for everything else, there's Master Card.

Hilarious spoof on Master Card's "priceless" commercial featuring Denis Leary about what Red Sox fans would do or give if they win the World Series. It aired locally a few times but not sure if it was a national commercial, so check it out if you haven't seen it.

Denis Leary: I don't think I said that.
MasterCard Rep: Yes you did Mr. Leary.
Denis Leary: No
MasterCard Rep: Yes
Denis Leary: No
MasterCard Rep: Yes. You said, and I quote: 'I'd give my left nut to have the Sox win the Series.'
Denis Leary: Yeah, that does kind of sound like me. Ah sh**.

Seeing the Red Sox Win the World Series: Priceless!

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Wicked huge blizzard outside.

P1230007

I took a few shots this morning of the blizzard of '05. The snow totals are 20 inches, locally, at the time of the pics...we could barely open the doors, and the windows are frozen over with Ice.

The temperature is a brisk 11 degrees (perfect fro BBQ), the wind is still howlin' (gust to 75mph), and we are forecasted for another foot of snow...this sucks. Reports on Boston radio are snow totals from this storm beat the "Blizzard of '78". I’m staying inside until the wind dies.

Does anyone know if the playoff games are cancelled? Besides shoveling snow, watching the Pats win this afternoon is the only thing I have lined up...unless we loose power.

Click on the thumbnail pic to see the slideshow. More pics to come, enjoy.

Good Eats!

Measuring Your Procrastination (Part 1)

"Work is the greatest thing in the world, so we should always save some of it for tomorrow." Don Herold

What would life be like without procrastination? Obviously, more productive; but when would we make time for fark.com, or the paper in the basket game?

Admit it; we all take part in this phenomenon every day. Realizing the cause is the only way to lesson our amounts of procrastination. University of Calgary conducted a study and offers these four theories as causes:

• Anxiety - Fear of Failure, Perfectionism, etc.
• Self-Handicapping - when people place obstacles that hinder their own good performance.
• Rebelliousness
• Discounted Utility Theory - suggests, unsurprisingly, that we are more likely to pursue goals or tasks that are pleasurable and that we are likely to attain.

Perfectionism is one of my reasons to procrastinate; if I can't get something done, perfectly, in one sitting, I will usually hold off...and I'm too old for rebelliousness to be a reason. Univ. of Calgary’s site has a few tests to measure your procrastination level, I'm classified as a "moderate procrastinator":

You rank in the middle 50% in terms of procrastination. That is, when it comes to putting things off, you do so at times even though you know you shouldn’t. Likely, you are about average in conscientiousness and self-discipline. Probably, your work doesn’t consistently engage you or perhaps you are surrounded by a few easily available and more pleasant temptations.
more...

The test is around 7 minutes long, much of which includes staring at a blinking black screen. Take the test anyways and post your results...don’t procrastinate. *Coming soon -- Treating your procrastination.

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Brief intermission

They say you should post to blogs as many times as you eat............I must be loosing a lot of weight. Focus has been on layout the past few days, posting will resume shortly.

Thanks for visiting!

Standin' at the Crossroad...

Mmmmm, standin' at the crossroad,
I tried to flag a ride.
Standin' at the crossroad,
I tried to flag a ride.
Didn't nobody seem to know me,
everybody pass me by.

Cross Road Blues by Robert Johnson, the original howler. The blues is comin' back, I tell you (not that it really went anywhere). The web has a boatload of guitar tutorials with tablature (guitar cheats for reading music), including this site specifically for the blues, by Olav Torvund, a Norwegian Law Professor of all people. The site is extensive and includes MP3's for your listening pleasure...enjoy!

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Bad Trip

Psychedelic pattern screensaver by Synthesoft that I could watch for hours...the picture is and actual screenshot, but imagine a very fast wormhole effect. Tons of generator options, clever description:

The Psychedelic Screen Saver is a light synthesizer that generates an astounding variety of mesmerizing patterns. As the patterns materialize on your screen, the colors will shift, undulate, and blow your mind. Whether you're into abstract art, mathematics, or just have a history of mental illness, you'll love this screen saver.

The screensaver is not being updated anymore, but they still offer support...they also have a few other downloadable screensavers.

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Smoke

There is a ton of info on the web about cigarettes and how to quit. So instead of being another statistic, you and I should know what we’re inhaling. Check out the list of the 599 additives approved by the US Government for use in the manufacture of cigarettes…this should make you want to quit, or barf. Come to find out, burning these additives is a whole different story:

Over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. Forty-three known carcinogens are in mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, or both.

Arsenic - Poison
Ammonia - Floor/Toilet Cleaner
Hydrogen Cyanide - Gas Chamber Poison
Acetone - Nail Polish Remover
more...

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tsunami relief

This has been posted countless times on the web since the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit, but here it is again.

Information and donation links via Google.

SEA-EAT Blog (The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog)

100 ways to feel better

Article from the Independent News- "100 ways to feel better." It has some good points but it resembles a list of failed New Years resolutions. I agree with Roger on "Don't count sheep" - I was told a long time ago the trick to falling asleep fast is to try and not fall asleep...I used this method when I was a kid, and it never failed. A few of these could make you feel worse though:

"Take baths, not showers" - you could drown
"Have more sex" - possible heart-attack
"Take small bites" - sure Roger...
"Eat Oysters" - possible food poisoning
"Eat Carbs" - no longer the fad
"Take a Swim" - *see first

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Because I like people

Question - "Why do you want to work for us?" Answer - "Because I like people." --- "What else would you like-animals?"

Here is a good article for any job hunters lacking weapons...from Focus magazine, 1983; still very applicable. I didn't realize interviewers have so many prepared questions in their arsenal. Get on the ball and study this list before you become the laughing stock of some office.

Here is a relevant joke...

Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources Person asked a young Engineer fresh out of MIT, "And what starting salary were you looking for?"

The Engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package."

The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 5 weeks vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, a company matching retirement fund for 50% of your salary, and a company car leased every 2 years-say, a red Corvette?"

The Engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?"

And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it"

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Back me up!

My zip drive busted this morning, right in the middle of consolidating all of my important files, password lists, and backups. Come to find out, Iomega produced a bad batch of zip drives that have something called the "Click of Death". My drive decided to wait until the warranty expired to bust...figures.

So I needed other options, but the outlook was grim. Thanks to my superior web-searching skills, I stumbled upon this page. It's a list of free online file storage locations (I chose Yahoo! Briefcase because of an existing account for their email). 30MB of free storage space...it's a start until I buy a new Zip Drive. I might even use Briefcase as a permanent alternative, so I don't have to deal with drives and disks, and access my files through the internet.

Problem Solved...for now.

Getting warmer

O.K. - researched blogging and seems like it’s mostly used for posting web-sites and news. Since I don't have much of anything else to offer as of yet...I'm going to use this for just that...not that anyone else is reading this blog.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. ~Shakespeare

UPDATE -- 2.24.05: People are reading blog, lack of writing talent not going to waste.

gribble

(grib'-ul) n. a small marine isopod crustacean that destroys submerged timber.