Went out to get the newspaper this morning, and discovered why Beta The Wonder Dog was barking last night .. I'd been flamingo'd!! As with all good things in life, the perps (perpetrators) have a website: Pink Flamingo Signs.
As luck would have it, today's the day my yard service guys arrive to mow the lawn, rake the spring leaves (live oaks) and do the yard stuff. As such, they'll have to move My New Pink Friends before doing their work. Oh well, I'll always have my pictures!
Friday, March 19
Wednesday, March 17
fingerprints, retina scans, you name it ...
I spotted an interesting item on SecuritySchneier.com about what good some of the security measures are having. For the specific item, see Identification and Security. Another article about fingerprinting is more about combating welfare fraud: Texas Tests Fingerprinting System For Medicaid Recipients is on SecurityPipeline.com
Finally, I saw the article: Google Rolls Out System To Improve Local Search Results which made me laugh. When I tried this a few weeks ago, it failed to find about 80% of the stuff in my neighborhood. Oh well .. gotta start somewhere.
Finally, I saw the article: Google Rolls Out System To Improve Local Search Results which made me laugh. When I tried this a few weeks ago, it failed to find about 80% of the stuff in my neighborhood. Oh well .. gotta start somewhere.
Tuesday, March 16
you can call me 2003 VB12
I was reading an article about the newly-discovered planetoid, currently named Sedna (easier to pronounce than Quaoar) and thought about a moron with whom I work who also will only accept stuff if it fits his 4-line form (he is apparently too stupid to cut-and-paste). Sedna's official name is 2003 VB12, in case you were wondering. Some people in the Official Naming League objected to "Sedna" because it wasn't submitted on one of their official Planet Naming Form (no doubt officially called a Form 987-stroke-402-stroke-6).
Monday, March 15
Memphis
Q: what do you call someone from Memphis (Tennessee, USA)?
A: Memphians
I spent 3 nights in downtown Memphis last week. So many downtowns are seeing a resurgance of affluent people moving in, to be near the action and minimize the commute; The Bristol on Union is one of those Trendy Apartments Downtown; another web site is Uptown Memphis. One way to get around is via the trolley line operated by MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority).
Like every large city, there is Stuff To See in Memphis, including Beale Street (blues clubs); Center for Southern Folklore; Chucalissa (reconstructed indian village); Graceland; the Memphis Belle (a B-17 Flying Fortress); the Pink Palace Family of Museums; Mud Island River Park (made famous in the 1993 film The Firm, starring Tom Cruise); the National Civil Rights Museum (at the site of the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated); the Stax Museum of American Soul Music; and the Sun Studio.
There is much more to see; these sites and more may be found in the Memphis Downtowner (a tourist magazine).
A: Memphians
I spent 3 nights in downtown Memphis last week. So many downtowns are seeing a resurgance of affluent people moving in, to be near the action and minimize the commute; The Bristol on Union is one of those Trendy Apartments Downtown; another web site is Uptown Memphis. One way to get around is via the trolley line operated by MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority).
Like every large city, there is Stuff To See in Memphis, including Beale Street (blues clubs); Center for Southern Folklore; Chucalissa (reconstructed indian village); Graceland; the Memphis Belle (a B-17 Flying Fortress); the Pink Palace Family of Museums; Mud Island River Park (made famous in the 1993 film The Firm, starring Tom Cruise); the National Civil Rights Museum (at the site of the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated); the Stax Museum of American Soul Music; and the Sun Studio.
There is much more to see; these sites and more may be found in the Memphis Downtowner (a tourist magazine).
Simon and Garfunkel
There are numerous Scarborough Fairs (or should I say Faire) around the country; the local one is south of Dallas and will be held every weekend from April 10 through Memorial Day (Monday, May 31). You can save $4 per ticket by ordering online before March 31. I've attended this before, but didn't like it as much as the ones in Castle Rock, Colorado (this is a great location south of Denver) and in the Los Angeles metro (I've forgotten the city). The one outside L.A. was most amusing because of all the actresses and actors who participate; their presence is sorely needed at the local Faire (near Waxahachie). If you haven't experienced one with good actors, you may not notice how much they add to the experience.
Sunday, March 14
ketchup
I had a lot of time to catch up on my stack-of-magazines in the past few days, and made random notations in my PDA to check out:
medical
Lipitor - a cholesterol-lowering medication; the Healthy School Lunch Campaign (the Dallas Independent School District scored 77 of 100 points, for a C+ [average] grade); the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: the PCRM's Cancer Project; the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network; the International HapMap Project ("help researchers find genes associated with human disease ..."); STARBRIGHT Foundation (for seriously ill children).
travel blogs
i read a list of blog sites in USA Today dealing with travel; some promising ones include Sea of Cortez (retraces the expedition that John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts made to explore the Sea of Cortez in 1940); TerraQuest (virtual expeditions); BootBlog (behind the scenes of boots 'n all); MyTripJournal.com (personal travel websites); Christopher Elliott's travel blog; and TravelPod. There is also away.com .. and don't miss Pamela Lanier's bed and breakfast which lists 40,000 locations.
money
"alternative investments" on Morningstar; Fund Alarm (when it's time to sell a fund);
nerd stuff
Emerging Technologies Conference [ETC] at MIT: 2003 and 2004;
Movable Type - a semi-advanced blog tool; the Eye of Sauron (the all-seeing Red Eye from Lord of the Rings). Bill Joy articles: Why the Future Doesn't Need Us (August 2000) and Hope is a Lousy Defense (December 2003); email client: Ximian's Evolution
miscellany
i love plants (gardening web directory); Virtual Kite Zoo; Cargo magazine (see Instant Replay) targets metrosexuals, apparently. It mentioned Mixed Greens; Absolute Arts; and the Telly MC1000; US Patent Abuse gets a rare Must Read vote from me.
trucks spotted on I-20: ImageMax; Stanley Industrial Tires; silver lady mud flaps were $8 each @ a truck stop (the so-called "naked woman" often seen on a semi-trailer's mud flaps) .. they are probably available at a Rip Griffin Travel Center among other truck stops. Deep Thought #1: some interstate rest areas have an entrance after you pass, at which point you make a sharp right U-turn. I like those places, since you can see what's available before you commit the turn.
Red Lobster restaurants (the one on Park in Plano recently closed)
Deep Thought #27: Purina's logo reminds me of the nautical symbol for danger
medical
Lipitor - a cholesterol-lowering medication; the Healthy School Lunch Campaign (the Dallas Independent School District scored 77 of 100 points, for a C+ [average] grade); the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: the PCRM's Cancer Project; the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network; the International HapMap Project ("help researchers find genes associated with human disease ..."); STARBRIGHT Foundation (for seriously ill children).
travel blogs
i read a list of blog sites in USA Today dealing with travel; some promising ones include Sea of Cortez (retraces the expedition that John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts made to explore the Sea of Cortez in 1940); TerraQuest (virtual expeditions); BootBlog (behind the scenes of boots 'n all); MyTripJournal.com (personal travel websites); Christopher Elliott's travel blog; and TravelPod. There is also away.com .. and don't miss Pamela Lanier's bed and breakfast which lists 40,000 locations.
money
"alternative investments" on Morningstar; Fund Alarm (when it's time to sell a fund);
nerd stuff
Emerging Technologies Conference [ETC] at MIT: 2003 and 2004;
Movable Type - a semi-advanced blog tool; the Eye of Sauron (the all-seeing Red Eye from Lord of the Rings). Bill Joy articles: Why the Future Doesn't Need Us (August 2000) and Hope is a Lousy Defense (December 2003); email client: Ximian's Evolution
miscellany
i love plants (gardening web directory); Virtual Kite Zoo; Cargo magazine (see Instant Replay) targets metrosexuals, apparently. It mentioned Mixed Greens; Absolute Arts; and the Telly MC1000; US Patent Abuse gets a rare Must Read vote from me.
trucks spotted on I-20: ImageMax; Stanley Industrial Tires; silver lady mud flaps were $8 each @ a truck stop (the so-called "naked woman" often seen on a semi-trailer's mud flaps) .. they are probably available at a Rip Griffin Travel Center among other truck stops. Deep Thought #1: some interstate rest areas have an entrance after you pass, at which point you make a sharp right U-turn. I like those places, since you can see what's available before you commit the turn.
Red Lobster restaurants (the one on Park in Plano recently closed)
Deep Thought #27: Purina's logo reminds me of the nautical symbol for danger
Friday, March 12
medical lingo
The web is very useful for learning about how stuff works. It was useful today when the nurse mentioned a "Foley" (it's a kind of catheter, named after Dr. E. B. Foley). The NHS Direct Online Encyclopedia was useful, as well as their specific page which explained the Foley Catheter (among other stuff). There's also info on CT (Computed Tomography) scans (commonly called CAT Scans).
The computer business is full of terms that we take for granted, so I'm not surprised to see that medicine is the same way. When a nurse explained that she was giving a potassium pill, I assumed 100% potassium, but it may have been KI (potassium iodide - used for anti-radiation) instead. I will probably never know.
Aricept is a drug which purports to help people with Alzheimer's keep their memory and thinking longer. Caveat: you must begin taking it when the first symptoms appear. Another thing I read about Alzheimer's Disease (which has an 8-12 year run) is that it is really only verified during an autopsy (I prefer to categorize that tidbit as unverified). Ouch.
There are self-help and support groups for nearly every medical condition. I easily found ones for arthritis; osteoporosis and Alzheimer's Disease.
I also read about meningiomas in "Brain Tumors that are not Gliomas". Another site (mentalhealth.com) had some good information about Dementia of the Alzheimer Type. Another book I read (Virginia Morris' "How to Care for Aging Parents") explained the difference between Multi-Infarct Dementia and Alzheimers. If you're seeking assisted living, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging represents several thousand nursing homes.
Not all stuff in a hospital is technical. For example (in the hospital cafeteria) I was spellbound to see that scrambled eggs were priced by the scoop. I skillfully (by admitting ignorance) negotiated a one-scoop price when I opted for 1.5 scoops. Similarly, sausage patties were priced individually. It made for an entertaining cash-register receipt. When I returned for lunch, I asked for the shrimp stir-fry (rice, shrimp, vegetables) but they ran out of shrimp half-way through my order, so the cook asked if I'd mind if he completed the order with crayfish. "Sure," I said .. so I ended up with a shrimp & crawfish stir-fry. It was yummy.
A pair of curious machines (tucked away in a corner of the cafeteria) were made by Debitek (these allow adding value [cash] to an electronic cash card). This hospital had several full-function ATM machines, in addition to the usual gift shops, etc. While there were no public Internet terminals, there were some in the Nursing Library which I was assured were available to visitors.
In the room, I noticed the 2-person visitor couch expanded into a bed. This one was made by Durfold Sleepchair of Jackson MS (specifically, a model DL-27). Finally, I noticed the patient beds were made by Hill-Rom but I found their website cumbersome. A better explanation of Hill-Rom products is on hospital-technology.com (among others).
The computer business is full of terms that we take for granted, so I'm not surprised to see that medicine is the same way. When a nurse explained that she was giving a potassium pill, I assumed 100% potassium, but it may have been KI (potassium iodide - used for anti-radiation) instead. I will probably never know.
Aricept is a drug which purports to help people with Alzheimer's keep their memory and thinking longer. Caveat: you must begin taking it when the first symptoms appear. Another thing I read about Alzheimer's Disease (which has an 8-12 year run) is that it is really only verified during an autopsy (I prefer to categorize that tidbit as unverified). Ouch.
There are self-help and support groups for nearly every medical condition. I easily found ones for arthritis; osteoporosis and Alzheimer's Disease.
I also read about meningiomas in "Brain Tumors that are not Gliomas". Another site (mentalhealth.com) had some good information about Dementia of the Alzheimer Type. Another book I read (Virginia Morris' "How to Care for Aging Parents") explained the difference between Multi-Infarct Dementia and Alzheimers. If you're seeking assisted living, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging represents several thousand nursing homes.
Not all stuff in a hospital is technical. For example (in the hospital cafeteria) I was spellbound to see that scrambled eggs were priced by the scoop. I skillfully (by admitting ignorance) negotiated a one-scoop price when I opted for 1.5 scoops. Similarly, sausage patties were priced individually. It made for an entertaining cash-register receipt. When I returned for lunch, I asked for the shrimp stir-fry (rice, shrimp, vegetables) but they ran out of shrimp half-way through my order, so the cook asked if I'd mind if he completed the order with crayfish. "Sure," I said .. so I ended up with a shrimp & crawfish stir-fry. It was yummy.
A pair of curious machines (tucked away in a corner of the cafeteria) were made by Debitek (these allow adding value [cash] to an electronic cash card). This hospital had several full-function ATM machines, in addition to the usual gift shops, etc. While there were no public Internet terminals, there were some in the Nursing Library which I was assured were available to visitors.
In the room, I noticed the 2-person visitor couch expanded into a bed. This one was made by Durfold Sleepchair of Jackson MS (specifically, a model DL-27). Finally, I noticed the patient beds were made by Hill-Rom but I found their website cumbersome. A better explanation of Hill-Rom products is on hospital-technology.com (among others).
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