super excitement, including contest results and technoscience.

I said I was excited about Tintin, well that's nothing compared to my excitement regarding this. Yes, as you may have seen in the news last Friday, they've developed a device that hides objects from microwaves, and this is expandable to the whole EM spectrum, including visible light. In other words, within a couple of decades we may have true 'cloaking' devices. Remember all those pranks you wanted to pull as a kid, if you were invisible? The time has come. As Shaggz said, even if we're old men by the time it's commercially available, we'll go to school invisible and empty trash cans over teachers' heads.

In other exciting news, they're getting closer to a viable space tether every year. There's an "X-prize" for tether technology. At present the biggest obstacles are the high tensile strength required of tether material, and in how you power an elevator (since hundreds of thousands of km of electrical wires are going to add prohibitive weight to the system). It is the cheapest conceivable way to get things into orbit.

Another neat scientific advancement is this nano-gel they've developed that stops bleeding near-instantly. Could cut surgery times in half. It's neat to see this sort of advancement taking place, and to think we might one day tell our grandchildren that we grew up in a world without cloaking devices, space tethers, or nano-gel. And whatever else gets invented between now and then.

Anyway, here's what you really read this for. Photo contest results!! We had Harper musing about something that makes him smile, and good ol' Stockwell being an idiot, as usual. Like that time he arrived at a press conference in a wetsuit, on a jetski. How can you vote for such a man?!

I personally would have suggested:
harper: "I bet I could save a lot of cash by switching to Geico."
day: "Day's touchdown victory dance led him to runway 36L, where he was finally taken out by flight 354 from Edmonton."

However, I'm inelegible.

For the Harper one, I like how he's kinda having a "Stephen" moment up there. To me it looks like he's gazing into space absent mindedly. You may disagree, but it's my contest. And with that in mind, Shannon wins, Sarah second. I prefer to think he's not mentally capable of orchestrating the demise of the premier of NL, even if it's as simple as "Hello, my personal elite guard? Go eliminate Mr. Williams". Shannon's comment for "Klein pic 1" a few contests ago would work equally well, I think.

For the Day one, Shaggz wins. Although I like Jenn's and Sarah's, which are on the same theme, so you two tie for second. While it is funny to think of him as a whiny little boy, him being ejected for showboating is even better.

Okay a post full of links, with no photos and few jokes. So we'll end with:
Q: Why don't blind people skydive?
A: It scares the heck out of the dog.

what's new in my world

Not much is new, really. Except that I am currently more excited about a download than I have ever been, except maybe for the Top Gear episode in which they reviewed the Mazdaspeed 6... I am downloading the complete Tintin TV series!!! It was on CTV (or sthg) like ten years ago, produced by Nelvana. I loved Tintin as a kid... I hope this series lives up to my memory!

Don't forget to do the caption thing for the photos from the previous post!

end of no-internet hiatus

It's amazing how having no internet at home for a week, combined with being sick and not getting in to the office much, and a lack of cable tv, put me straight back to the dark ages. Except for having light, thanks to electricity. And of course video games, which I don't believe the young knaves of yore grew up with. Anyway on with the photo caption contest thingy.I know I said I'd get away from political ones but it's just so easy to find photos of politicians looking like douchebags.

Submit to either photo and as often as you like. The Harper one in particular has huge potential, I think. Click for ever-so-slightly bigger.

I'm known (or if not, I'm about to be) for having vivid and often disturbing dreams, in colour, which I sometimes remember with great detail. They sometimes have very complete and even somewhat logical plots. Since moving to Calgary, however, there have been few to none of these memorable ones; even in the field this summer, which is when I had the most bizarre and shocking dream of my life four years ago. Anyway, for the last four nights or so I've had crazy vivid dreams every night, breaking the drought. In one, a picnic with my family (nuclear and extended) was interrupted by bandits wielding machetes, evoking violently strong emotions of fear and rage which I had never felt. When they kidnapped my cousin Hannah, I went on a rather horrendously gruesome rampage through bazaars and rooftops, from Italy through the middle-east and to sub-Himalayan jungles to rescue her. Another one was simply a fantastic continuous mad nighttime drive through empty Calgary streets in a Mazdaspeed 6.

Historically I get such dreams when sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, but now I really don't know anymore. They seem to come in waves.

Warning: car rant imminent. To avoid skip this next paragraph.

On that car... it's perfect. Sometime I'll get around to writing the bloody auto blog and it'll be the first entry. All the reviews I read, even negative ones, make me want it more. My subconscious memory of the feel of it during the test drive back in August was damn near perfect in that dream. For the price, there's really none to match it. It's got my needs covered: power, braking, handling, all wheel drive, manual transmission, and subtlety (extremely important). It's even practical, as comfortable 5-seater with lots of trunk space. It hugely outperforms similarly priced "badge" cars (BMWs, Mercs), but if you're the kind of person who wants to own a "BMW," rather than a necessarily good vehicle, go nuts and get a 325xi for the same money. You'll get 26% less power (218 bhp instead of 274) and only rear wheel drive (arguably the better setup on a track, but we live in Canada). Drilled aluminium pedals, terrific short-throw 6-speed manual 'box, an in-dash 6-cd changer with 6.1 Bose sound system, and fully Japanese build quality (i.e. no Ford meddling with this car). Only gripes: must use premium fuel, and interior noise is fairly high at highway speeds, especially in the back seats. The onramp from the overpass just south of the co-op northbound onto the vanier was particularly memorable... entered it in 2nd at about 20, and rowed through the gears. At merge time we were doing 160 in 5th, and acceleration was still impressive. I'm gonna take another test drive of it here in Calgary. At some point.

I am now extremely hungry, and must go home. Good day, loyal minions.

good times

Saw the Trailer Park Boys movie on Friday night. It was, as expected, hilarious. I haven't decided yet if it was more like one long episode or one short season, but either way it was terrific. I recommend you see it, if you are even remotely a TPB fan.

Then Saturday. Saturday night is usually seen as a night to go to bars/clubs, worry about your appearance, and try to pick up by dancing badly to intolerably loud pounding beats. Despite the possibility, however slim, of successfully picking up, this is not my favourite scene, since I don't like to be in the same place as all the insecure posers who are attempting to woo the ditzy 17 year olds populating the premises. Last night, however, was a different sort of Saturday night. A true "man's night". There were only four of us, but there was also, in no particular order:
1) Beer, and other "drinks of a refreshing nature"
2) Cigars
3) Poker
4) Hockey
5) $60 worth of KFC Chicken

You cannot go wrong with that much chicken.

I'm in facebook now, with a nice display of photos from the Monashees over two summers of digital photography there. Funny how people here and there from my past and present found me within one day of signing up, on a Saturday.

Today I went golfing for the first time ever. I'd been to a driving range once before, when I was about 12, and was probably worse today. I had a couple of decent shots towards the end, when I started to understand that swinging harder generally causes crappy shots, and also that I was lifting back when I swung. Also I only lost 4 balls over 9 holes, so that was good (my excuse: leaves are everywhere and it was easy to lose 'em).

I can totally see how it's addictive, and even feel a little tempted to head to a driving range to practice the swing. The other guys weren't too much better than me, so it wasn't terrible. Will, ostensibly the best of us, hit a house. I hit four trees, chopping branches off three of them. Andrew lost more balls than me. Rich had a pretty good day, with few major catastrophes, but Will still won in the end. I didn't keep score, being around 7 or 8 hits a hole.

In other news, down in the States they're in mid-term elections and things are getting a bit, errr, heated. This TV ad is for Republican candidate Vernon Robinson, and is not intended as a joke. Frankly it's disturbing.

Photo contest returns next time, I promise.

what tune is this?

Results of last Caption Contest:

Anonymous wins, as the only entry. He/she may pick up his/her prize of $678,000 at my office anytime within the next two hours, so long as they have two valid pieces of identification.

I'm not doing a contest this time, as I don't have the time to go looking for a good picture. But I have a question for all: who is this by (click for bigger)?
I guess you need some musical background to play it. I suspect it's smashing pumpkins. It's that kind of style anyway. That part is for E guitar and bass together, bass an octave lower. Don't forget the Bb. I wrote it in D because that's the key I can do perfect pitch in without thinking about it. To do other keys, I write based in D and then transpose, although I can generally do any key so long as the chords aren't too complicated.

If you know it let me know. If you can tell me, and if the song is the one I am thinking of, you'll get a prize. Much like the one anonymous now has 1hr 50 minutes left to pick up, only the negative reciprocal of it.

In auto blog news, I'm still gradually building the glossary. It's turned into a mammoth task. I've also found that much of what I want to say is already in Wikipedia, although often missing some stuff or outright incorrect. I might just write up the first couple of posts anyway, although I don't think I'll have much of a readership. If you want to review a car, any car, I can put your review up on the blog.

Cheers.