I maintain a large abbreviation/acronym list at work, so it shouldn't surprise me when there are duplications in The Real World. An example is AIP, which can be either the American Institute of Philanthropy ("Charity Watchdog Helping Donors Make Informed Giving Decisions") or the American Institute of Physics
I have 3 pets @ home, each of which could be considered a charity! I try not to overfeed them, so I was amused at all the recent hoopla concerning Nutrient Requirements of Cats and Dogs. Somewhat related was my recent discovery of a new Purina cat food: Indoor Cat Formula (I suppose it contains cricket parts, grass clippings and other weird stuff upon which outdoor cats feed).
Is the Valentine One really the best RADAR detector? Some people get really bent out of shape over the voracity of RadarTest.com .. and what about LIDAR (basically lightwave [laser] RADAR)?
Just when you thought Texans couldn't git no stupider, there's The Chronicles of George which documents a (former) helpdesk moron in Houston. He's probably now employed as a greeter at Wal-Mart™.
Sunday, September 7
Cheap Identity Theft Deterrent?
picked up one of these today: Sight & Sound Wireless Alert Mail Guard System partly because it was very cheap ($7 versus catalog price of $30). It uses two watch-style batteries and a photocell on the mailbox side. Early tests show why it was cheap: it doesn't work (requires line of sight between mailbox and receiver).
Friday, September 5
got guanabana?
Each time I go the grocery, I like to try at least one new thing. This week, when I was buying Jumex juices, I spotted an unfamiliar one: Guanabana Nectar. It's a tropical fruit with a hard-to-describe flavor .. kinda like pineapple, kinda like apples. Yum.
Just for grins, I bought pear nectar from both Jumex and Kerns. The Nutrition Facts label provides an interesting comparison:
Just for grins, I bought pear nectar from both Jumex and Kerns. The Nutrition Facts label provides an interesting comparison:
Jumex - Kernsspotted in the Sep 2003 [Nutrition Action] newsletter from the CSPI: Calorie Restriction Society
serving size: 355 mL 340 mL
calories: 190 220
calories from fat: 10 0
total fat: 1g 0g
sodium: 75mg 20mg
total carbs: 45g 54g
dietary fiber: 2g 4g
sugars: 49g 35g
vitamin C: 25% 100%
calcium: 2% 15%
Thursday, September 4
Alzheimer's Battery
The Nickel Cadmium (NiCd, NiCad) battery on one of my cordless phones gives me about 20 minutes of talk time lately, so I'll waddle over to Batteries Plus® in Addison tomorrow to get a replacement. NiCads are the batteries where you must fully drain them before recharging (the so-called "memory effect"). There are equivalent Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries; they don't recharge as quickly as a NiCad but otherwise are much friendlier. I checked the battery on the other cordless extension and (surprise! surprise!) it uses an NiMH battery. Hmmm.
A friend in Germany returned from holiday (why do so many Europeans take off the entire month of August?) and mentioned South Tyrol .. sounds like a relaxing place. Which reminds me of a question I asked of a friend who lived in Hawaii .. where do Hawaiians go for vacation? (Answer: Lake Tahoe)
With all the talk about identity theft, one of my neighbors pointed me to a gadget sold by Radio Shack™ which remotely alerts you when someone opens your mailbox. You could then peek out the window to confirm that's it's the postman (hopefully). In the case of this neighbor, it was not the postman; he got the license plate of the thief, who now has a new address at the Dallas City Jail. Seems it would've been easier to go to the website for Police Auctions - Repossessed and Confiscated Items - StealItBack.com
My second job after college was as a radio news reporter (long before the Internet) .. I was amused to find this website for journalists: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Radio Shack sells telephone taping gadgets (perfectly legal in Texas and many other states). See
Catalog Home-> Phones & Radio Communications-> Phone Accessories-> Recorders & Ringers-> Recorders. I started down this path after reading Can We Tape? (mentioned in Ben Dover's DMN column)
note to self: Ben's parents were cruel. I can only hope his parents didn't name his sister Eileen (Dover).
Cable or satellite? Ben [finally] cut the cable: Here's why you will, too! was amusing. I subscribe to basic cable (mostly for the local weather radar and the frequently guffawful local access channel 27 (Dallas Community Television)) but my primary connection to the televised world is via DirecTV satellite (except during a thunderstorm).
A friend in Germany returned from holiday (why do so many Europeans take off the entire month of August?) and mentioned South Tyrol .. sounds like a relaxing place. Which reminds me of a question I asked of a friend who lived in Hawaii .. where do Hawaiians go for vacation? (Answer: Lake Tahoe)
With all the talk about identity theft, one of my neighbors pointed me to a gadget sold by Radio Shack™ which remotely alerts you when someone opens your mailbox. You could then peek out the window to confirm that's it's the postman (hopefully). In the case of this neighbor, it was not the postman; he got the license plate of the thief, who now has a new address at the Dallas City Jail. Seems it would've been easier to go to the website for Police Auctions - Repossessed and Confiscated Items - StealItBack.com
My second job after college was as a radio news reporter (long before the Internet) .. I was amused to find this website for journalists: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Radio Shack sells telephone taping gadgets (perfectly legal in Texas and many other states). See
Catalog Home-> Phones & Radio Communications-> Phone Accessories-> Recorders & Ringers-> Recorders. I started down this path after reading Can We Tape? (mentioned in Ben Dover's DMN column)
note to self: Ben's parents were cruel. I can only hope his parents didn't name his sister Eileen (Dover).
Cable or satellite? Ben [finally] cut the cable: Here's why you will, too! was amusing. I subscribe to basic cable (mostly for the local weather radar and the frequently guffawful local access channel 27 (Dallas Community Television)) but my primary connection to the televised world is via DirecTV satellite (except during a thunderstorm).
Wednesday, September 3
los perros grande
Something you will not find at Gloria's (Salvadoran restaurant, in Village on the Parkway) are Jumex Juices & Nectars, but they are available in such ethnic groceries as Kroger y Tom Thumb! I was shocked to find that (via the hierarchies.org website) Kern's Nectars (my favorite from California, and a competitor to Jumex) is owned by Libby's which is owned by Nestle.
I'd hate to be in the grocery business in Dallas, trying to make money. Within two miles of my home, there are 3 Albertsons; Danals; Fiesta Mart; Kroger; Neighborhood Market (owned by Wal-Mart); 2 Tom Thumb (owned by Safeway); and Whole Foods groceries. Just a bit further up the road is Central Market (owned by H.E.B.). They all cannot survive.
Several months ago, I saw that fresh tortillas (plain, wheat or salsa) are made at the local Kroger (signature) store. I asked about corn tortillas and was told they're harder to make in that environment, so don't expect them anytime soon. The Big Dog (locally) of Mexican groceries is Fiesta Mart which moved into the old Tom Thumb location (SE corner of Spring Valley & Coit). The parking lot of the Danal's Super Mercado (a few hundred yards east, and once a hotbed of activity) is now almost vacant.
I Google'd for Danal's but came up empty. I did find GoodExperience.com (a sad competitor to the Big Dog in that space: epinions.com)
I'd hate to be in the grocery business in Dallas, trying to make money. Within two miles of my home, there are 3 Albertsons; Danals; Fiesta Mart; Kroger; Neighborhood Market (owned by Wal-Mart); 2 Tom Thumb (owned by Safeway); and Whole Foods groceries. Just a bit further up the road is Central Market (owned by H.E.B.). They all cannot survive.
Several months ago, I saw that fresh tortillas (plain, wheat or salsa) are made at the local Kroger (signature) store. I asked about corn tortillas and was told they're harder to make in that environment, so don't expect them anytime soon. The Big Dog (locally) of Mexican groceries is Fiesta Mart which moved into the old Tom Thumb location (SE corner of Spring Valley & Coit). The parking lot of the Danal's Super Mercado (a few hundred yards east, and once a hotbed of activity) is now almost vacant.
I Google'd for Danal's but came up empty. I did find GoodExperience.com (a sad competitor to the Big Dog in that space: epinions.com)
Monday, September 1
Animal House
I watched a 90-minute (minus commercials) show on the History Channel called "Frat Boys" tonight, and it brought back a lot of memories. I could probably start a separate blog just on my high school and college years, just to amuse myself (as to what I remember). Such an epistle would be better than my memoirs, which would only sell 4 copies.
My father was a member of the Freemasons, but I don't recall him attending any meetings. He was a craftsman, and I dimly remember that he received one of their newsletters, and I remember the Masonic logo, but I never associated it with college fraternities. The History Channel show says that frats evolved out of Freemasonry and secret societies such as the Flat Hat Society (named after the mortarboard?). The show didn't say it, but the FHS evolved into Phi Beta Kappa (the first American frat). The early frats mostly had 2 letters; my distant ancestors usually had only two names (ala George Washington). It wasn't until later until it became common to have a middle name (ala Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and I suspect frats evolved the same way. I wonder if future frats will have 4 Greek symbols, now that George Herbert Walker Bush (a member of Skull and Bones, by the way) has been President? Hmmm ...
I didn't join (or even pledge) a frat in college; the university where I went was caustically referred to as a suitcase college, where most everyone went back to their hometown after Friday afternoon classes, and returned late Sunday. The only exception to this rule was (curiously) on Homecoming Weekend when a few alumni allegedly came to town.
I have no idea how many were in my university graduation (there were 330 in my high school class); I remember college graduation was held at the football stadium on a Saturday afternoon. My father died the year before, so one of my uncles drove down with my mother to watch the event. I stood with a few of my friends as the ceremony happened, and we threw our mortorboards into the air afterward (although I may still have mine tucked away somewhere). After the ceremony, I met my relatives at a prearranged spot on campus, and we went somewhere to eat lunch. I was starting a new job soon, and I suspect we parted ways after eating .. those are details I do not remember.
When I went to college, the fraternities and sororities were commonly thought of (by those of us who were independents) as little more than an excuse to hold parties and get drunk, under university pseudo-approval. I graduated before I turned 21, and I don't recall if the drinking age was 18 or 21 back in those days. I made friends quickly at the dorm(itory), but doubt I would've pledged a frat at that time of my life. My first roommate (an accounting major from Vermont) attended some of the parties and came "home" drunk a few times, but he wasn't much of a social butterfly .. he was just cheap and probably went for the free booze.
Even though the Independents didn't have a formal structure likes the Greeks, we occasionally referred to ourselves as members of Gamma Delta Iota (GDI : Gol Darn Independents). The student government was heavily Greek, and the few of us Independents quietly referred to it as Alpha Sigma Gamma (ASG was the Associated Student Government). Turns out that most colleges' student governments were Student Government Association (Sigma Gamma Alpha ?) but we had to be different (actually, we never thought about it until we formed a statewide Student Government Association, but that's another story).
In hindsight, if I'd known more about frats in those days (this was 25 years ago, before the History Channel), I probably would have pledged. Then again, this was a few months before National Lampoon's Animal House was released, but that's a subject for another blog entry, later ...
My father was a member of the Freemasons, but I don't recall him attending any meetings. He was a craftsman, and I dimly remember that he received one of their newsletters, and I remember the Masonic logo, but I never associated it with college fraternities. The History Channel show says that frats evolved out of Freemasonry and secret societies such as the Flat Hat Society (named after the mortarboard?). The show didn't say it, but the FHS evolved into Phi Beta Kappa (the first American frat). The early frats mostly had 2 letters; my distant ancestors usually had only two names (ala George Washington). It wasn't until later until it became common to have a middle name (ala Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and I suspect frats evolved the same way. I wonder if future frats will have 4 Greek symbols, now that George Herbert Walker Bush (a member of Skull and Bones, by the way) has been President? Hmmm ...
I didn't join (or even pledge) a frat in college; the university where I went was caustically referred to as a suitcase college, where most everyone went back to their hometown after Friday afternoon classes, and returned late Sunday. The only exception to this rule was (curiously) on Homecoming Weekend when a few alumni allegedly came to town.
I have no idea how many were in my university graduation (there were 330 in my high school class); I remember college graduation was held at the football stadium on a Saturday afternoon. My father died the year before, so one of my uncles drove down with my mother to watch the event. I stood with a few of my friends as the ceremony happened, and we threw our mortorboards into the air afterward (although I may still have mine tucked away somewhere). After the ceremony, I met my relatives at a prearranged spot on campus, and we went somewhere to eat lunch. I was starting a new job soon, and I suspect we parted ways after eating .. those are details I do not remember.
When I went to college, the fraternities and sororities were commonly thought of (by those of us who were independents) as little more than an excuse to hold parties and get drunk, under university pseudo-approval. I graduated before I turned 21, and I don't recall if the drinking age was 18 or 21 back in those days. I made friends quickly at the dorm(itory), but doubt I would've pledged a frat at that time of my life. My first roommate (an accounting major from Vermont) attended some of the parties and came "home" drunk a few times, but he wasn't much of a social butterfly .. he was just cheap and probably went for the free booze.
Even though the Independents didn't have a formal structure likes the Greeks, we occasionally referred to ourselves as members of Gamma Delta Iota (GDI : Gol Darn Independents). The student government was heavily Greek, and the few of us Independents quietly referred to it as Alpha Sigma Gamma (ASG was the Associated Student Government). Turns out that most colleges' student governments were Student Government Association (Sigma Gamma Alpha ?) but we had to be different (actually, we never thought about it until we formed a statewide Student Government Association, but that's another story).
In hindsight, if I'd known more about frats in those days (this was 25 years ago, before the History Channel), I probably would have pledged. Then again, this was a few months before National Lampoon's Animal House was released, but that's a subject for another blog entry, later ...
Depressing Grace
After a dry and hot (typical) August, where we got about 1.8" of rain, what's left of Tropical Depression Grace roamed through town, dumping a buncha (note the technical term) rain. Grace thoughtfully dumped 0.75" of rain at DFW (the official site) but my rain gauge says 3.5"!
A pseudo-wrong number (during the moring deluge) led me to check out the Pacific Domes site (Geodesic Dome Homes and Shelters) which led me to search for [tornado shelters]. As expected, there were numerous hits including:
FEMA: Safe Rooms
Storm Shelters of Texas
Storm and Tornado Shelters of Texas
The Tornado Project Online!
A pseudo-wrong number (during the moring deluge) led me to check out the Pacific Domes site (Geodesic Dome Homes and Shelters) which led me to search for [tornado shelters]. As expected, there were numerous hits including:
FEMA: Safe Rooms
Storm Shelters of Texas
Storm and Tornado Shelters of Texas
The Tornado Project Online!
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