I was playing solitaire ("regular" single-deck solitaire) on my phone the other day and got dealt an unusual hand. All of a sudden I noticed a very weird combination of cards. Then another. Then another. Do you see it?
Click the picture to see a larger one.
At work, we are having a fundraiser for Diabetes Research Institute. To try to get more sponsors, one of my coworkers decided to turn himself into Mr. T, step by step. He’s skinny. He’s white. But so far he’s raised $1400.
Read his story after you take a peek at this video of him getting the haircut. Share this link with your family and friends: MrTDiabetesChallenge.com.
Over the last six weeks or so I have made three trips to California. I grew up in northern CA and most of my family still lives there wondering why I ever left to live in frozen "Wesconson".
The first of these trips was a whirlwind. I flew in on a Thursday night and drove out on Friday afternoon with my new truck. My parents were getting rid of their truck and I needed a new vehicle so it worked out nicely. I had a nice quiet drive across the US from CA to WI, making Twitter updates along the way from my phone.
The second trip, Kelly and I took Charlie (our daughter) to meet Pops and Nana (my parents) at Disneyland in southern CA. It was her first trip to Disney and she was so excited.
She got to meet Minnie, Mickey, Tigger, Pooh, and many more. I think Minnie was her favorite. She also got a fancy Snow White dress from Pops and Nana to wear to the parade on Main Street.
We got to spend about 6 days with my parents and it was the first time they had seen Charlie since last December. It was one of the most relaxing weeks I’ve had in a few years and I’m so glad we got to do it.
About a week and a half after we got back home, I made my third trip out to CA for a reunion trip, meeting up with some old school buddies at Yosemite National Park. Eight of us met, and some of us hadn’t seen each other in almost 15 years.
I would try to describe it, but I guess the trip wouldn’t really make sense to anyone that wasn’t there. Lots of memories. Lots of stories. Lots of catching up. Lots of laughing.
We golfed (I just drove the cart because I suck at golf), took a ride on lazy river rafts, hiked and hung out around the campfire. I took a lot of pics and they are on Flickr. (These are actually my first pics ever on Flickr, even though I’ve had an account for several years now.) All in all, it was a blast and we are planning another trip for next year.
So there you have it — a short version of the ~13,000 miles I’ve logged in the last few weeks. Each trip was a blast, but, for now, I’m glad to be home with Kelly and Charlie. If the Disney trip could have lasted another 6 weeks, I would have been OK with that, but the two trips by myself were rough.
Found on xkcd.com, Geohashing looks fun.
Now I just need to buy a GPS, keep up on the Dow, and right a program to do the hash, split, hex to decimal conversion, and destination calculation.
I’m very excited because in a couple days I will be going with my wife and daughter to Disneyland in California. We are meeting my parents there for Charlie’s first Disney experience, and I can’t wait to see how excited she will be. She’s coming up on 21 months and really shows her excitement — she dances, stomps her feet (like those Irish tap dancers) and waves her arms. It may sound cute, but it’s even cuter to see.
Also, between now and then I have a few phone calls setup. I’m currently on the market for a new job, and so far things have gone well in my search since I started 6 days ago. If you are hiring in the Milwaukee area, feel free to contact me. My resume can be found at www.scottisaacs.com/resume. It is slightly out of date, but 99% complete. If time allows in the next couple days I’ll make it 100%.
I’ve recently found a new online comic strip: Garfield Minus Garfield.
(Source)
From the site:
Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.
I think they’re funny. If you don’t then you’re just wrong.
Today, 3/14, is Pi Day. I hope you were enjoying mathematics at 1:59 in your local time zone.
But it’s not all fun and games: Beware the Ides of March.
Does anyone else celebrate Square Root of 10 Day, or is it just me?
This comic reminds me of a friend who taught his grade school daughter to count in hexadecimal. At that moment, he was my hero.
Saw this today in my feeds. Matt posts about one of the comments his blog has received. Here’s a snip:
hello , my name is Richard and I know you get a lot of spammy comments ,I can help you with this problem . I know a lot of spammers and I will ask them not to post on your site. It will reduce the volume of spam by 30-50% .In return Id like to ask you to put a link to my site on the index page of your site…
That’s a pretty clever business model. I should look into it… [;)]
So I’m starting a new category/tag on this blog. Based on the title of this post you might have guessed that it’s called “Stupid Things I’ve Done”. I’ve done a number of Things (capitalized because in this case it is a proper noun) in my 32 years that were stupid, and looking back it’s a miracle I didn’t get hurt or worse. At the very least I’ve done a number of Things that I just can’t believe I ever thought were good ideas, even if I wasn’t in mortal danger.
Most of these Things are Things I’ve done with a good friend of mine, Jeff. Now Jeff and I are both people of what I would consider to be above-average intelligence. However, somehow, without any scientific explanation, we seem to come up with ideas that are stupid. To my credit, most of these ideas are his, but he’s not here to defend himself, so I shouldn’t really bring that up.
So in this new category, I plan to occasionally add little stories of Things that I’ve done that were stupid. Granted, I’ve done a lot of stupid things (not capitalized here because these things aren’t stupid enough to be Things), but this will just be some of the stupidest Things. I imagine that most of these things will only be funny to me, but there may be some lessons that my dear readers can learn from my decision.
The First “Thing”
Like many of the Things that will fall into the Stupid Things I’ve Done category, this first story is about trying to do Something I don’t know how to do. It’s not that the Thing itself is impossible or stupid — the problem is that I have no idea what I’m doing. In fact, the Thing is typically a very common thing, which can be easily done by those that are qualified and/or informed.
So the first Thing was actually something Jeff and I tried to do just last night: move his Hot Tub from his old house to his new one — by ourselves. To give you an idea of our situation, I’ve illustrated the layout of things here.
Looking To The North
As you can see in this image (click for full size), the Hot Tub is gently nestled into the corner against the back of the house on the west, a fence on the north, and a Large Tree to the east. Not shown in this image, to the south, is a small sidewalk surrounded by more Large Trees, air conditioning condensers, some garbage cans, and a deck.
Note: His Hot Tub is not really blue. I just chose blue for this illustration since water is often indicated by a blue color. See this page for an example. Also, I don’t remember what color the Hot Tub cover was so I decided that it should be orange.
Looking To The West
Now, this image (click for full size) shows what you would see if looking to the west. It’s here to add a little more perspective and dimension of the Hot Tub, house, fence and Large Tree, as well as illustrate the contour of the yard to the north. This contour includes a slope, some shrubs, a steeper slope, and another fence before you finally reach more grass at the street level.
Some History
Apparently, two descendants of Paul Bunyan himself carried (literally carried) this Hot Tub into its current resting place. I haven’t figured out how two people got this Hot Tub into place by themselves without the aide of a crane or chain saw, but that is what I’ve been told.
Flash Forward To Last Night
Flash forward to last night, and Jeff and I find ourselves discovering that our best option* for moving this Hot Tub is as follows.
Step 1: Take down the section of Fence to the north of the Hot Tub, and carefully lay it on the ground for use in Step 7.
Step 2: Pry the edge of the Hot Tub up with a crowbar, floor jack (as would be used to work on your car in your garage), and various scraps of lumber.
Step 3: Slide two long 2x4s all the way under the Hot Tub from the south to the north, such that they are protruding over the beginning of the Grassy Hill. These 2x4s are to be our “skis”.
Step 4: Use various ropes and straps to affix the 2×4 skis to the Hot Tub.
Step 5: Using a hand truck and our brute strength, attempt to move the Hot Tub away from the House, giving us at least several inches of clearance.
Step 6: Tie more ropes/straps around the Hot Tub, connecting the other end of said ropes/straps to a Dodge Ram (not pictured) parked in the street below the Grassy Hill, Shrubs, Steeper Hill, and Another Fence.
Step 7: Using the Dodge Ram, pull the Hot Tub onto the fence taken down in Step 1. This fence is now our “sled”.
Step 8: Carefully slide the Hot Tub on its skis on its sled over some other pieces of lumber carefully laid out over the Shrubs (flattening them) and the Steeper Hill between the Grassy Hill and Another Fence.
Step 9: Magic happens.
Step 10: Securely fasten Hot Tub to a trailer on the other side of Another Fence, connect said trailer to the Dodge Ram, and leave.
Conclusion
After completing steps 1 – 5 and part of 8 (Shrub flattening), after moving the Hot Tub a few feet, and after a few visions of falling into the valley that is the Steeper Hill between the Shrubs and Another fence just waiting for the Hot Tub to crash through Another Fence, crushing my ribs into my lungs and heart killing me nearly instantly although it feels like an eternity, but somewhere before Step 9, we decided this was a bad idea.
Jeff is probably making a call to Paul Bunyan’s grandkids at this very moment.
* This really was the best option we could come up with for the two of us to move this thing by ourselves without the help of other strong people, cranes, or massive amounts of steroids.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
