Why Being a Geek Can be Expensive

Isn't it just glorious?! I love money from the government that I don't have to pay back until later!

xPlanet

One of the niftier bits of software I have been toying with on my laptop is Xplanet which is a bit of software that can render the solar system and other information at different vantage points. Currently I have it set up to place the camera at the Moon pointed at Earth and display the cities (which I think I will disable) as well as the locations of the International Space Station and the Hubble from NORAD telemetry. Also I have a script which downloads the cloud map daily, so what is seen is approximately what is seen from space.

Bye George Carlin!

George Carlin has died.

Our Tree

To everyone else in the world it was just a tree.  Granddad, who lives just down the street, brought over a maple sapling for Dad to plant in our front yard.  I was three or four and my brother probably had yet to figure out the whole walking thing.  He suggested to my father that at the same time of year take an annual picture of my baby brother and myself by the tree to compare and contrast our and its growth. 

To my brother and me it was a special tree, a constant of sorts.  Something we grew up with.  I remember Granddad telling me that when I would be his age our maple tree would be as tall as the other old trees that surround my home.  Being such a young child it blew my mind being someone so ancient and a tree being so tall in my lifetime.  My brother and I were young; we never saw such a small skinny tree grow into a big one.  It blew our minds.  I also remember asking Dad how long it would be until we could make maple surup from the sap.  He said it was the wrong kind of tree.  It was sad news to a kid's ears!

Two years ago I moved out on my own.  Our tree lost leaves unusually early.  Last year leaves grew for a few weeks and then the tree died.  Our tree died.  Dad raised my brother and myself to be gentle.  He didn't want us to be the way he was as a child.  I taught my brother the same as we grew up.  One day my middle school aged brother was a half hour late walking home from the school bus stop.  Dad walked out and found my brother picking every Woolly Bear Caterpillar off the road and putting them on the side so they wouldn't get run over.  Back then they were everywhere so it was quite a chore.  When our tree died last year it really got to the both of us.

Last week the bottom of the trunk began to crack and it no longer was safe for the tree to remain.  Today my brother and I took our very last picture with our tree.   Then Dad and I cut it down.  For any other tree it would be a small sad moment and chopped into firewood as was done with the five that were cut to make room for our new house, but not this time.

For something that was important to us we felt that there should be a little something more and having our tree be a nursing log in the woods behind our home so little trees can grow would be the best.  The bottom half of the trunk was discolored red with whatever fungus and bacteria killed it and I did not want that spreading.  We cut off the bottom half of the trunk and will use it for firewood.  Then we cut wood cookies of the trunk for my brother and myself to keep.   The rest of the tree we dragged back into the woods and placed it near our tree house.  There it will join the massive stumps of old growth giants that fell before my Great Grandparents acquired the land.  Even the cider the treehouse is in grew from a nusring log and the cavity made a great place to hide or an imaginary jail or fireplace. 

I lingered for a few minutes after Dad and my brother left.  I took a giant leaf from a vine maple and placed it on the trunk.  For some reason it seemed like a fitting gesture.  There will never be any more pictures with my brother and I with that tree.  For a minute I allowed myself to be that sensitive child that cared about every living thing, no matter how big or small or fictitious. It was a moment that every bully int he world would jump upon.  Just for that one minute I cried for a fallen tree.  To the rest of the world it is just a tree.  For us it was our tree.

Keyboard Win!

My new laptop keyboard finally came in. Me is happy. Laptop is happy. Time to update to Wine 1.0!

Day of the Nerd

I do not know what makes June 17th a significant day to release software. But today, in 2008, it is the Day of the Nerd. The following software is being, has been, or will be released today:

• Firefox 3.0: The award winning (dunno what awards) free, open source web browser that is better in oh so many ways than Internet Explorer.
• Wine 1.0: 15 years in development this program enables Windows programs and games to run in the Linux operating system.
• Spore Creature Creator: Spore, by the dudes who did Sim City and the Sims (the working title for Spore was Sim Everything), comes out in september, but the creature editor comes out now! Come and make cute creatures to populate our worlds when the game comes out!

Goobstopper Says Hello

Hell Week

Dead week was a bitch this year. I had a 35 minute presentation and a 20 page paper on the effectiveness of astrobiology's education outreach materials in relation to national science standards. I'll post my paper and presentation sometime this weekend.

I attempted to do a non power point presentation. What I found in my prototype is that I was still making content appropriate for slides. As a result I moved back to power point just so I can get the bloody thing done on time. Which didn't happen

They keyboard on my laptop (named Cosm in the tradition I name my machines after science fiction novels) and a small little fight with a can of Coke. The can had been drinking as I smelt some rum mixed in with it. Only the left shift key was slightly sticky so it wasn't a problem. However it rained when I was walking to campus and the moisture got in and spread around causing the control and capslock to be permanently engaged. I disassembled the keyboard and washed it off in rubbing alcohol, but the problem persists. This morning I ordered a new one off of ebay for $30 (<3 to Logicsequence for the links). Thankfully the rest of the machine is fine.

Rising Sunsets

My friend Jamey, co-visual tech with me at a marching band this fall, appears to have been promoted to Visual Caption Head. He wants me back as a tech for next year. I'll be teaching the Sunset marching band next year!