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Mom sent me an e-mail today, alerting me to the fact that the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile crashed into a home in Wisconsin, and suggesting I should write a post about it. She's right, it is deserving of mention all on its own, but I found it particularly funny because I just read this story the other day: Oscar Mayer's Funeral Wish - No WienermobileOscar Mayer, the grandson of the original Oscar Mayer, died just last week, and apparently requested that the Wienermobile not make an appearance because "it would be too much of a spectacle." It looks like he was right - maybe the Wienermobile was despondent over not being welcome at the funeral? And this is almost totally unrelated, but it falls under the same category of strange news, and I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I heard about this on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me today: Bride's bouquet brings down planeYes, you read that correctly, in Italy this week a bridal bouquet caused a plane crash. The bride and groom had arranged for an ultralight plane to fly over the wedding and drop the bouquet. On board the plane was a passenger, whose job it was to throw the bouquet onto the crowd below - and he did, but the bouquet was promptly sucked into the engine, not unlike Canada Geese being sucked into the engines of US Airways Flight 1549, at which point the plane crashed into a youth hostel. The pilot and all the people in the youth hostel were uninjured, but the passenger was pretty badly hurt, with broken legs and a head injury. Ouch. Let that be a lesson for your own personal wedding plans! This also presents a great opportunity to use my new "double facepalm" avatar. current weather: Partly Cloudy, 65, Wind: NW 3; doesn't really feel like July - but that's fine with me Tags: weird news
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: none
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There was a story on All Things Considered this evening about an observation made by a Carnegie Mellon grad student in Pittsburgh: The Grant Building (no relation to myself), which has been continuously blinking out "PITTSBURGH" in Morse code from a red beacon on its roof since 1929, was apparently spelling "PITETSBKRRH" instead! He noticed it while waiting for July 4th fireworks to begin. NPR asked him to go out and check on it again yesterday, and here was the result; whatever the problem is, it's gotten worse: On a not-entirely-related note (but I have a lot of random links to post), I came across this map which gives an idea what Earth radio and television signals are currently arriving at nearby stars. Regulus and Mizar are still pretty much in the dark, and Capella is getting ready to watch the final season of Star Trek and the moon landing. At Wolf 359, a Federation fleet is attempting to defend Earth from a Borg invasion, I mean, getting ready to watch Janet Jackson's boob slip out at the Super Bowl. It's a neat diagram but I have to admit the idea of aliens really being able to watch Earth broadcasts seems a little dubious to me. I can't even pick up Channel 19 from Cleveland, and it's only 19 miles away. Does that signal really reach that far into space? By the way, that first story really makes me wish I knew Morse code. It just seems like one of those useful things. current weather: Partly Cloudy, 65, Wind: calm; This has been a very oddly temperate summer... Tags: astronomy, maps, npr, pittsburgh, space, video
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Caprica - Bear McCreary - A Tauron Sacrifice
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I mentioned previously that I've been watching the documentary The World at War over the last week, and I have just one episode left to watch. The series aired in Britain in 1974. There are 26 episodes, an hour long each. It took over four years of research to produce. When I was looking around for good documentaries/non-fiction miniseries to watch earlier this year, it was consistently appearing in the top 5 of any lists. It's very good. I think the two things that really stand out for me is the breadth of material that's covered, and the personal interviews. The interviews are pretty amazing, many of them with people who died before I was even born, some of whom were major players in the Axis and Allies, like Curtis LeMay or Albert Speer, but some of them are much more ordinary people that experienced incredible things - like Hitler's personal secretary, Traudl Junge, and Nazi concentration camp survivors. I particularly like the format of the episodes. Although they move in a general chronological order, each episode focuses in on a particular topic, for example, the Occupation of the Netherlands, the rise of militarism in Japan, or the Holocaust. What the series has really done for me is made everything much more emotional, and much more real. It also just drives home the level of respect that should be reserved for the people that actually lived through it. To me, World War II seems to be both the beginning of the world we live in today, and the end of the world that came before. There's not really a point at which you can draw a line between the two, but the world was a very different place between 1938 and 1946. Multiple episodes have brought me to tears - but in particular episode 20, Genocide, which deals specifically with Nazi policies towards Jews and the "final solution," is extremely painful to watch. I think the series brings a very open-ended view to the war and all of the events that surrounded it. I spent a lot of time pausing and reading Wikipedia articles while watching it, which was made even easier because the article for The World at War lists many of the interviewees and links to their own respective pages. I highly recommend the series. It's easy to find, too, it looks like all of the series is actually up on YouTube, in chunks. Here's the beginning of episode 18, Occupation: The one comfort I take, in watching this, is that it's really somewhat surprising how many lessons humanity as a whole seems to have actually learned from the Second World War. I think I'm probably going to watch Cosmos next. After that I'm considering The Ascent of Man, Civilisation, and The Civil War. Tags: documentaries, miniseries, the world at war, wwii
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Current Music: none
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There's some question that this first video is somehow faked, but it seems reasonably convincing to me. I guess the key is that you need to just use the plastic protector part of a CD, it can't have any of the middle stuff left in it: This second video is one that I mentioned to Gregg last week and meant to share. Apparently Adam Savage and Jamie Jamie Hyneman were part of a trade show presentation for NVIDIA, in which they were trying to give a visual representation of serial (CPU) or parallel (GPU) graphics processing. Long story short, it involves 1100 paintball guns firing all at once to paint a simplified version of the Mona Lisa. It's pretty awesome, and as always with the Mythbusters people, the slow-motion shot is amazing: I've got all sorts of plans to make lots of fruit smoothies. I put grapes in the freezer earlier, and I just had a sudden thought that maybe that wasn't the best idea. I hope they don't explode or anything. current weather: Partly Cloudy, 67, Wind: SW 1 Tags: science, videos
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: none
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Oops. I didn't mean to take a week's hiatus from LiveJournal. I was dogsitting Jake in Brecksville. It was the same basic routine as usual, check on my apartment and mail and lunch, and then after work drive up there, feed Jake, let him out, maybe take a walk. Then I'd watch episodes of The World at War, go to bed, and repeat. I actually have plenty to write about, but I'm really tired, and also dealing with a (normal) headache. Fortunately the migraines haven't recurred except for those two initial ones I had. My friends list is completely empty. I don't think any actual people have posted in over a month and a half :(. I guess everyone's transitioned over to Facebook at this point. I plan to keep writing here though, despite the impression I may have given over the last week! current weather: Mostly Clear, 69, Wind: NW 2 Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: none
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Vision One, another Röyksopp song: There was a time when all the shadows of these tall buildings
Would throw their cape around each corner of the grassy fields
And one by one, each huge shade, would color the green with black;
Allowing changes that we could not have foreseen
Everybody let us gaze upon the world we've created
Let us rest our eyes up by the great machine, as we wave goodbye
Feel the evening breeze caress us while, the cities are dying
As we watch it fall into a modern state, a modern time
Remember when we'd hear the distant sound of human life
A zillion noises whimper as they traveled through the sky
And one by one, each new sound, has faded away with time
Allowing changes that we could not have foreseen
Everybody let us say goodbye to all our notions
'Cause it's not enough to say that we're humane, when we're left behind
It's too late to think that we can worship human emotions
'Cause we've already evolved into machines, in our mindsTags: Röyksopp, music
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Röyksopp - Vision One
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Entropy dictates that anytime a person moves, things inevitably get broken or just disappear. Fortunately this move went pretty smoothly, but there were some casualties: - The black CD/DVD stand that I had next to my TV at the old apartment exploded into five pieces when I pulled it out of my car. I blame this on shoddy construction (by me). - A set of cheap shelves I had in my bedroom had apparently been rotting away for the last two years without my knowing. I didn't really realize this, but water was seeping in one corner of my bedroom, and soaking up into the shelves, which got covered with a particularly disgusting layer of mold. I really wish I had noticed this before I went to the trouble of moving it. Anyway, it was really disgusting. - I dropped (and by dropped, I mean, "kind of tripped and threw") my blender while trying to load it into my car this morning. I have to admit, it was actually kind of cool to see it explode on the concrete. - I kicked one of my speakers down the steps last night in the dark. It survived, but sure was loud. - I bought a new fan small enough to fit into my bedroom window on Sunday, but ended its life prematurely, by cutting straight through the power cord while trying to cut it out of its packaging. Awesome. All in all not too bad I suppose. But maybe I shouldn't even be writing about this yet, there's still plenty of time for me to ruin some more personal effects before I get totally moved in. I really don't want to even attempt to frame the new poster of Architect's Dream that Mom got for me at the Toledo Museum of Art. Back to work tomorrow, at Employer B. current weather: Cloudy, 65, Wind: SW 2 Tags: fail, moving
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  calm
Current Music: Final Fantasy Tactics - Antipyretic
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Well, except for one more carload of cleaning equipment and dishes, I have everything over at the new apartment. All the utilities are set up and running, my car is in the garage, and I spent the night here last night. I really, really love the new apartment. I also really, really hate moving in general. I'm really glad to be done with that for now. There's still a lot to do here, and it looks like a war zone at the moment, but it's mostly functional, except for the kitchen, which I haven't focused on much. I need to come up with a grand strategy in there, decide where food and dishes will go and what I'm going to do with my small appliances (like the rice cooker or hot water dispenser) because my microwave takes up the entirety of my available counter space. The shower is also pretty anemic. But that's ok, I anticipated that. One downside of living right next to a water tower is that you have the worst water pressure in the system. But the cell tower right next to it means I have a full cell signal even with the phone in my pocket, in the basement. One thing I'm glad I didn't do is sign up for cable TV. I nearly backed down on that, because on the day of the digital switch-over, I could no longer pick up Channel 8 (which moved its digital signal from 17 to 8, UHF to VHF). That sucked, because Channel 8 is one of the few channels I actually watched. But over here, I do pick it up. I didn't gain any other channels, but quite a few (23, 25, 43, and 55) come in a bit stronger now. Channel 19 is still nonexistent. But apparently that's true for almost everybody. I'm about the same distance from the towers as before, but now my antenna isn't in the basement of a three floor building. I ordered a converter box to use on an old TV upstairs, I'm curious to see if the reception is much better on the second floor. But that won't be here for a few days. Maybe the biggest change, and one that I like, is that for the first time since leaving Foresthill in Stow in 10 years ago, I actually feel like I'm living in a normal neighborhood. Not student dorms, not student housing, not an apartment complex, but just a regular residential street. That's kind of cool. One other surprise is that I can (just barely) make out church bells on the hour. I'm not entirely sure where it's coming from, maybe IHM, but I like it. It's also cool to know that people from each of the places I work, but especially Mark and Chrissie, are pretty much just down the street. I'm also not used to Chapel Hill Mall being so close! current weather: Cloudy, 71, Wind: SW 6; Apparently a summer time version of a polar low is about to roll into Ohio tomorrow, and bring highs in the 60s Tags: cuyahoga falls, moving, new apartment
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: none
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I stopped by the apartment lease office today to ask some questions about my move, and while I was there asked them what exactly was going on last night. They explained it, but apparently Liz's coworker knew something about it today, and the version Liz heard is more detailed and interesting (as she related in the comments from yesterday): So my co-worker came in today, and told me about how her step-son's apartment got flooded by a sprinkler system yesterday. I said, "Does he live in Stow?" She said yes. I asked if she lived in your apartment complex, she said yes.
Turns out he's on the bottom floor next door to you. The guy on the 3rd floor got drunk, put a pan of bacon on the stove, and fell asleep, so the place caught fire.
Just FYI. :)*** Nice. That explains my weird interactions with drunken hillbillies last night. Man, if I was renting one of the apartments below that guy I would be pissed. One more reason why I'm excited to no longer have an upstairs neighbor (or two). My water's back on this evening, I can't wait to take a shower (after I make another moving trip to the new place). current weather: Mostly Clear, 86, Wind: NW 3; Hot! Tags: fire, mystery solved, small world, weird
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: none
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Apparently NPR's All Things Considered ran a story yesterday on the 40th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River catching fire. The story prompted a huge reaction - although not because of the story itself, but because throughout the story, Cuyahoga was pronounced "kai-uh-hog-a" ('hog' sounding like the name for a pig). I didn't hear the story myself, but if I had, I very likely would have been one of the people writing in, because as far as I've ever known, I've pronounced it "kai-uh-hoe-ga" ('hoe' as in the garden instrument). I've also been told that I reduce it to two syllables, but that's a different issue entirely. Anyway, NPR received so much feedback about the pronunciation that they ran a story today dealing specifically with that, which you can hear at WKSU's page. They contacted all sorts of organizations in the Cleveland area, and I have to admit, I'm somewhat surprised to learn that they found nearly an even split on the pronunciation. Ultimately, they brought in Connie Schultz from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who theorized that the issue may be more of an East Side/West Side issue. She claimed that east-siders tend to pronounce it like "hoe" while west-siders tend to pronounce it "hog." As far as I know virtually everyone in Cuyahoga Falls pronounces it like "hoe." That would seem to mess up that theory, since Cuyahoga Falls is technically on the west bank of the river, but Cuyahoga Falls is probably more of an "east side" city in the cultural sense. After all, it is actually east of the Cuyahoga as well, since it makes a U-turn in Akron. Chrissie Hynde pronounces it as "hoe" in My City Was Gone, for what it's worth. **** I liked this comment on the NPR story's page, which I think sums up the way I say it pretty well: possibly the final word on cuyahoga. i lived in cuyahoga falls (and now in charlotte, nc...) but here might be the solution to the entire problem. the accent on the word is thus: CUYahoga. do not put a minor accent on the 'hoga'. you rush through the word after emphasizing the CUY so the rest of the sound is blurred. the effect is: 'CUYaguh'. the little syllables CUY-a-hog-a would never be enunciated. (one does not say en-cy-lo-ped-i-a at a snail's pace....)Tags: cuyahoga, english, npr, ohio
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: none
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I just got back home from moving some more stuff over to my new apartment. For some reason there were a lot of cars in the parking lot. There were also a few people pacing around outside talking on cell phones. I started noticing some other odd things. There's a City of Stow Fire Department pickup truck parked here, with a firefighter who looked like he was taking off rubber boots and putting on regular ones. Then a bunch of hillbillies drove out of the grass behind my apartment in a pickup truck, with a trailer attached, which had a bunch of random apartment crap in it, like a futon, and some endtables. Then some other hillbilly walked by, holding a beer, and just said "hey, how's it going?" to me. Then another pickup truck came out of the back, this time with four people inside. Whatever. It's been a long day, and I didn't really care. I came in, sat down at the computer, and then went to the bathroom. But when I flushed, no more water came in. I turned the sink faucet. No water. This is really weird. current weather: Clear, 79, Wind: NE 7 Tags: weird
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: confused
Current Music: none
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I'm nearly out of time to write something for Monday, so this seems appropriate. There are plenty of Star Trek timelines available out there. Heck, there's even a book, although it's pretty out of date now, I got my copy early in high school. But the makers of Star Trek Online put together a little graphical timeline of the Star Trek universe to show where their game fits in with the existing shows and the new movie, and it's kind of cool. Someone else put together a cool chart showing when certain science fiction stories take place. Freejack, for example, takes place this year, while Snake Plissken Escaped from New York 12 years ago, and Dune is just plain off the chart! I just hope 2015 and 2019 live up to Back to the Future 2 and Blade Runner, respectively. Well, maybe not Blade Runner so much. current weather: Partly Cloudy, 70, Wind: N 5; Hot all of a sudden, summer's here now for sure Tags: future, history, sci-fi, star trek
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: none
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I drove down to Columbus today to see Dad and Grandpa Wilson for Father's Day. On the way down, I was surprised to see that there are new highway signs on I-77 south of the Central Interchange in Akron - and they're all in Clearview. I know, who cares, but I figure I've written so much about that it was worth mentioning. I thought it looked great. Of course, they replaced all the Route 8 signs this winter, with the old font, so it probably won't show up there until 2025 or something. On the way back, NPR had a great story on All Things Considered about the Battlestar Galactica concert that was held in Los Angeles last week, and about the music of Battlestar Galactica in general. I love the BSG soundtrack so much - in fact, it's one of my favorite things about the show. It was a great story, clearly Guy Ross (or whoever wrote for him) is a BSG fan. I actually got goosebumps when they started playing the 12-note piano piece from the last few episodes. I guess Katee Sackhoff actually performs that part on stage with Bear McCreary at the concerts. I'm starting to feel the moving crunch. I've been moving things over steadily but it seems like it's taking forever. I have a truck reserved for Sunday the 28th, so that will be the "big items" move day. I need to do a lot of address updating this week, probably time for a mass e-mail too. Everyone loves mass e-mails, right? current weather: Partly Cloudy, 68, Wind: N 6; It was hot today in Columbus but apparently it never got so hot here (78) Tags: bsg, clearview, columbus, dad, father's day, grandpa wilson, moving, music, npr
Current Location: 41.197N 81.433W
Current Mood:  busy
Current Music: none
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