Orbital Spider

This article is the most awesome thing I have read since the LHC was turned on:

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION -- Astronauts aboard the ISS can add one more mission to their list: locate a spider that has disappeared.

When Space Shuttle Endeavour took off from Kennedy Space Center this month, the crew carried two spiders with them.

The spiders were sent in an enclosed box for a school science program. Students want to know if spiders can survive and makes webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container.

NASA isn't sure where the spider could have gone.

I know where the spider went. It crawled into someone's EMU suit, nesting comfortably in the torso section, so it can drop right down in between the outer suit and under the LCVG during some critical EVA repair.

SPIDERS! THERE ARE SPIDERS IN MY SUIT! ARRRRGH!

Kid brother #3

It seems I have been remiss in mentioning my kid brother #3. Evidently he wants to be mentioned for some reason, and have himself subjected to scrutiny by the vast Internet Hate Machine.

Fine.

HI WINKY BOY! HI! HI THERE!

This should restore his faith in me.

Altruistic Labor

I used to taunt and tease Kid Sister #2 with threats that I would vote for anyone that promised to extend the school year, because I thought it would be good for her to attend school all year round. There would be a flurry of indignation tossed my way, and I would only laugh and carry on because I had the franchise and she didn't. This was described as "entirely unfair" and perhaps it was, but I didn't make the rules, I could vote her into submission and there's nothing she could do about it.

Heinlein was right, voting is force, political force, and there's nothing like a little force to resolve issues one way or the other.

I'm sure my kid sister will be pleased with the idea of 50 hours of community service tacked on to everything else to graduate from high school or whatever. And it's not even my fault!

Pain

I managed to rub Scotch Bonnet into my eye.

I do not recommend this.

Improvisation for the coming zombie hordes

There's still construction and reconstruction in downtown Houston. This hallway was created to shield the walking public from potential falling glass. There's quite a few of these temporary structures, no doubt in place to prevent litigation, and they spring up overnight. I imagine they are pretty simple to construct, and look pretty solid for metal scaffolding and plywood.

Naturally this would have to go in my mental toolbag for the coming zombie apocalypse. These structures can stand up to constant Romero zombie pounding, but would probably be useless in the long term against fast zombies, Infected, or those wearing headcrabs. But in a Romero style outbreak, these could be built inside any building and pushed out of a door. Some scaffolds have wheels, so this would be relatively easy. A long enough tunnel could then reach across the street, so you could then go secure the other building. Two tunnels could block off the street itself, and you could then clear it and open up, build an internal permanent defense, break down the tunnels and repeat elsewhere on your block. Eventually over time (and what else do you have during the zombie outbreak?) you could clear a significant portion of any city with these, if you have enough of it.

Oh yes mrrrrrow

The little beast continues to grow.

Fortunately the upsides continue to dominate the downsides. We've come to quite an accommodation now...I bring in food and she eats it. There's no more of this pooping on clean clothes anymore, in return I clean the litterbox regularly and allow her to inspect every bag of groceries that comes in, along with the right to interrupt any movie and game I might be playing with a brief flurry of attention. A fair trade.

It's over

President Elect Barack Obama. They really pulled it off.

About what I expected, but not what I wanted. Actually, I didn't want either one, but I didn't exactly have a lot of choices.

To make things worse, a grateful employee of mine brought chili for everyone. (He had to take a quick leave of absence...family emergency) His fiance made the stuff, but it has BEANS in it. Why in God's five billion names do people insist on putting beans in chili? Now I have to pick them out.

I had a lot to say recently about the election, politics in general, life, blah blah blah. Not that anyone will read it, but nobody ever read any of it before and that didn't stop me. Maybe its time again.

November 2008 Archives