Music in stores

I should say at the outset that I don't normally mind music in stores. It is not like the old days when they piped-in that execrable Muzak. The problem today was that at Linens-N-Things there was an issue with the sound system: The songs were interrupted with moments of static and silence. It was roughly as distracting as candle stores which assault your nose with gag-reflex inducing levels of scent.

From there we went to Market Basket where the quality of the sound was first rate, song choice--not so much.

Cavalier King Charles and a ball..

RoK Days Chez Pecchia

Friday while jogging I found a growth of coral mushrooms. I decided to pick one and carry it with me in case I didn't have the chance to come back later.

Once I got home from work I looked-up a recipe for this kind of mushroom and the first one I found was for Coral Mushroom Namul (Ban Chan) It looks as if it is one of multiple side courses in some kind of special Korean meal. They say it can be part of a Ban Chan array. I don't have full understanding of what this might be, but it sounds good!

I made the dish (with modifications) and it was good. I added a hot pepper (minced) and used soy sauce rather than sesame oil since there was already plenty of oil in the dish and I didn't want to add more.

This morning while mowing the lawn I noticed that our Rose of Sharon has begun blooming. This is the national flower of South Korea.

I think I figured out the odd thing from this March post

I think I figured out this mystery: There is no land at 0.0, 0.0 so it is unlikely that there is a server there. What I would bet on is that when a new server is set-up, it defaults to 0.0,0.0. So that is the explanation: (I hypothesize) We are seeing servers which are new or are being reset and they go to the default setting. What is odd is that it is so rare. Maybe GeoID normally filters them out of their view, but sometimes one slips through.

This has happened before, not to this extent though. I normally might get 2-3 hits per day but sometimes, for reasons I don't understand yet, I get a huge deluge of hits. Just in case one might think that it is just GeoID not working right, I don't think that is the case: The site counter jumps too.

Here is another odd thing: I see a hit from location zero longitude and zero latitude. So, on the equator and due South of London. It is odd, because there doesn't seem to be any land there.

Drill Here, Drill Now

Critics of drilling here in the United States can often be heard to say, "It will take 10 years to get the oil and therefore won't decrease the price of oil".

A couple of points:

--They made the same claims 13 years ago when drilling in ANWR was being considered--we would have that oil now if it wasn't for them.

--The price of oil is somewhat based on expectations of what the future price will be. If you are holding oil and you expect the price to go down then you will sell as much as you can now. If you expect the price to rise, you may hold onto you stocks until the price has risen.

--Any production within the United States will decrease our trade deficit and thus strengthen the dollar. Hence, the price of all imported items will decrease, including oil.

--Finally, if the price of oil is expected to remain strong even if we drill for more; isn't that an argument for drilling? Doesn't that assure profitability? The biggest threat to a project is that after the money has been sunk into it the price will fall and prevent investors from recouping their expenses. Do critics of increasing our oil supply think that the future price will be so low that these projects won't pay for themselves? I don't think so, they are the ones saying the price will stay high no matter what. They unknowingly give the best argument for drilling here now. Just an added thought: Couldn't a prospective producer of oil (say a company building a shale-oil plant) sell the oil to be produced on a futures market? This would take away the risk of oil prices falling in the couple of years it would take to build the plant. Of course it limits the up-side as well.

Surenna gets a good start

This was an un-posed picture; she saw the cover and took an interest in the story.

I always thought this guy looked like Sen. Batson D. Belfry

The clean shaven version of this war criminal--just caught, always reminded me of Sen. Batson D. Belfry from the great SHOE comic strip.

Success = Ambition

The exhaust work I did on my car has held-up for more than a week, so I am becoming confident that it will last a while.

There is actually an interesting paradox which was brought up by this "repair". The repair was done via improvisation and so there was some doubt if it would hold up for even a few seconds. The longer it holds up the more confident I get that it will continue to hold-up. But, everything wears out at some point, so as time goes on we get closer to the point when my repair will fail.

I purchased new spark plugs a couple of years ago, with the full intent to install them at some point. Well, the day came and I couldn't find where they go! All my life spark plugs just screw into the side of the block--they are easy to find since they have wires going to them. Not on this particular car. I did a quick search on the web and found the answer: They are under a cover!

I can't wait to look under the hood to see if I have a cover like the one in the picture.

Update: The whole job took 15 minutes and all the tools I needed were in the toolkit which came with the car.

A simple rule:

It is really irritating when you want to have white wine with dinner but you discover, right at the last moment, all your bottles are at room temperature!

One solution would be to plan ahead. This would work, if you remember to, which you won't sometimes.

Here is a solution which always works: Never take a bottle of white wine out of the fridge unless you put a replacement in at the same time. This totally works and has the added benefit of letting you know when it is time to visit your local wine shop

Suicide Flies

This was an irritating problem in Vermont when I used to go jogging there: The deer flies just would not leave me alone. I have never been bitten by one, but they would land on my head and entangle themselves in my hair. I suspected that they landed on my head because it was the only easy to land on place which was uncovered. My arms and legs are swinging and constantly changing direction while the trunk of my body was covered with shorts and a t-shirt.

I found that if I swatted at them right when they landed--they would fly away for a second and then come back. If I waited for about one second after being landed-on, then I could easily just snatch the fly out of my hair and crush it. This helped only slightly. I would count my kills and would regularly kill a few dozen per 4-5 mile run.

These insects are not close to as common here in Massachusetts, but there have been a few lately and it reminded me of my Vermont days. Back then I used to wonder why they were landing on me: They were never successful at getting a bite out of me and yet they faced most probable death in the attempt. Maybe they have better success with other animals and just cannot tell the difference between me and them. Or, maybe I am really good at detecting them and killing them. After all, I knew they were biting insects because of the all the people who got bit telling me about it.

The words behind that infamous cover picture

The New Yorker cover has stirred much comment, but what about the content of the story?

Yesterday's commentary in the Wall Street Journal by By JAMES TARANTO had the following quote:

". . . My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's Army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow-troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. . . ."

I immediately thought, "that is odd, I thought those places were in Poland, which was "liberated" by the Soviets" So, either Obama is incredibly ignorant of WWII history or maybe his grandpa had "fellow-troops" who fought for the Soviets.

I will be very surprised if this gaff sees the light of day. It just doesn't fit the narrative. Now if Dan Quayle had said it, the late night comics would be yucking it up for weeks.

As an added note, Taranto makes note of the same thing in today's edition.

The dog has improved my appearance

I never used to have to iron my shirts. My wife, who does the laundry, used to always plan dryer loads such that she was able to empty the machine while the clothes were still warm. My shirts didn't look as good as ironed, but they were sufficiently presentable for work.

Now that we got a dog, or rather now that she got a dog--her time has been stretched and she is less diligent with side-tasks like laundry. So now I do ironing.

I don't know if I am the only one who does this, but whenever possible I have always sat while ironing. It makes it seem more like a hobby than drudge work. A new thing I have found is that a chair with casters on it, like an office chair, really helps. I can quickly wheel myself into position rather than straining and reaching.

It is actually semi-fun.

I am not going to get all extreme about it though...

Sometimes it is worth looking for a needle in a haystack

I was out jogging today and was in a woodsy area. I knocked my my left ear bud out while swatting at a dear fly and the foam thing was gone. I ran a few more steps, then stopped and decided to at least look for the thing.

I found it almost instantly--though it took quite a while to re-attach it. It is very easy to tear the foam when installing it.

It is often really worthwhile to spend a few seconds even on very low probability ventures. I only risked a minute at most and I gained the remaining 4-5 miles being with music.

A demonstration of good memory, by being bad...

Just the other day I was trying to keep Meenah with me in our study, but she just wouldn't settle down. So, I figured she needed to go outside. I followed her first to the kitchen where she made a bee-line for a stool in the corner and picked-up a pencil to chew on. I took it away from her and she seemed nonplussed by this: She proceeded directly to the living room and picked-up a travel size bottle of hand lotion which was in the middle of the floor. I took this away too.

She must have had these things in mind when she wouldn't stay with me because she went directly to them.

Seven levels of blog-fame

Level 1: You post a comment in a prominent blog and it remains there, but is ignored by everybody.

Level 2: Another commenter, takes note of (either to attack or agree with) your comment.

Level 3: The host makes note of your comment with a response in the comments section.

Level 4: The host quotes you in the main body of the blog post.

Level 5: Instapundit links to the post you are quoted in.

Level 6: Professor Reynolds quotes you and links to the main post.

Level 7: The good professor links to your blog.

BMW repair update--air hammer

I have had an air compressor for some time, but hadn't purchased any tools for it. I figured that auto shops must have some way of pounding-out pressed-in bolts and they use lots of air tools--a quick search turned up air hammers. They are kind of like hand held jack hammers.

For less than $100 and having at least two other uses I can already think of, it seemed like a safe bet.

I haven't used it under the car yet, but I did fire it up to see how it works and managed to pulverize a brick in about 5 seconds.

Update: I pounded one stud for 30 minutes and it didn't budge. About the only thing I haven't tried is putting a torch on it while running the air hammer.

I ended up using the stainless steel tie straps and they have been holding so far. The car is quiet--for now.

Three levels of understanding, maybe more.

I'm sure we all know someone who regularly forwards you the latest urban legend, Internet hoax etc. I have thought of three ways of understanding this, in ascending levels of complexity. As an added note, the senders all are college-educated professionals.

Level 1: They send these messages along because they honestly believe in the truth of what they are sending. This is possible because people seem to constantly over-estimate how much they know in areas in which they are not experts. For example, I have frequently worked with PhD life scientists who espoused economic ideas which would be laughed at as primitive in business school--in much the same way creationism would be treated by those scientists.

Level 2: They are well aware that what they are sending is unsound, but they are testing you. What they really want to know is whether you are smart enough to see through it too. So, in this scenario; when you send the snopes link debunking what they sent, you passed their "intelligence test".

Level 3: They know that what they are sending is a hoax AND they know that you will easily see that it is a hoax too. So, why send it? Maybe it will amuse you. Maybe they wonder how you will respond--will you think they believe in it and then act blunt or will you be diplomatic about it?

What is going on in her cute little head?

This morning, like I have been doing a couple of times per week, I took Meenah for a four mile jog. I sometimes look over at her as she trots along and wonder what she is thinking.

At home she has a pretty good sized back yard to run-around in and she does dash about, but she never just runs without stopping for any extended length of time. I never have to cajole her to come with me or to keep going non-stop for the whole 30 minute run. She seems to enjoy running with me. Sometimes I let her get ahead of me and other times behind me, but most of the time she runs along side of me.

Does she ever wonder why we are doing this? I don't think she does, a human would wonder and probably decide to be uncooperative. Meenah just goes with the flow, takes things as she finds them and enjoys life.

Tips for the aspiring DIY automechanics...

When removing an a part of your car which is essential to its function--it is risky to take a part out if you have reason to believe you will not be able to get it back in.

Case in point: I was removing 4 bolts which connect the exhaust manifold with the exhaust pipe. The first bolt sheared-off, but no problem, I could just hammer the other end of it out the hole. Except, I couldn't get it to hammer out. I figured it was rusted on and I would have better access for hammering when the rest were off. At this point it would have been a good idea to stop and take it to a shop.

It turns out that the bolt are pressed in, like the bolts which hold your wheels on. I have had these shear-off before and was able to sledge hammer them out. It is just very difficult to get a good swing going from under the car. Maybe I can figure out some way of jury-rigging it with stainless steel tie-straps.

At the movies...

I mentioned before that we all went to see WALL-E. Lileks has a great review here, but I have a few observations of my own.

Anybody of a certain age, who also has a memory, must have noticed that people (especially kids) are much fatter than they used to be. Even now, there are places which have a higher concentration of fat than others--for instance, movies have a lot of fat people.

So when the movie showed all the Humans as practically crippled by their fat and sloth, it was a little uncomfortable. Kind of like watching a "racy" movie with your parents. What made it even worse is that even the fit enjoy snacking at the movies, and WALL-E showed the people constantly snacking.