Oh Hell Yes, Falcon 1 Made it into Orbit!

Falcon 1 is the first privately funded launch vehicle that got shot off earlier this week, and successfully reached orbit. Truly fantastic. I am optimistic about our future in space.

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Vivid Dream

I had a very memorable dream last night.

It started off nicely enough, I was building and installing some of my new scarecrow stuff in the backyard of some folks that I went to elementary school with (it is a dream, don't question it). I got the new 'crow up, and for good measure, set up my scarecrow from last year for ambiance. I thought that it looked good. I went to bed happy. When I got there the next day, however, my stuff was in tatters.

Evidently, somebody from the neighborhood planning committee thought that my work was too scary and decided to take it down. I went ballistic. I remember being so angry in my dream that I could barely contain myself. The lady who made the decision to take it down was the stereotypical fear-driven book-banning suburbanite elder, and I remember that the desire to punch her in the face was very strong.

Not only did they destroy me new 'crow when they took it down, they SAWED MY OLD ONE IN HALF. For no apparent reason. Then they buried it in the woods. I was pissed. I was yelling. I might have even been murmuring in my sleep I was so angry. I made them tell me where it was so that I could go dig it up and repair it.

I woke up this morning contemplating how to put my scarecrows back together again. It took until the end of my shower for me to realize that it was a dream. I guess the moral of the story is not to wreck my Halloween stuff, because I evidently have some strong unconscious attachment to it.

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Shit yes! Dodge EV Sport

Dodge follows in Tesla's footsteps with a sexy Sports EV. This is absolutely fantastic. It is happening even faster than I had hoped.



The Tesla has shown without question that an electric car can be just as crazy as any high-end internal combustion sports car. Perhaps more so, for some of us. I have been hoping to see other car companies follow suit, and have been silently rooting for American car companies to jump on this train before Europe and Asia get a firm hold of it. Detroit is feeling the squeeze, and more stuff like this and the Volt could lift them up out of the gutter.

Stats for the Dodge EV Sports Car:

• 200kw (268 HP) electric motor
• 0-60mph in less than 5 seconds
• Top speed of more than 120mph
• Driving range of 150 to 200 miles

It looks like Daimler Chrysler is really going gung-ho with the full electrics, as they put out a press release for a Jeep Wrangler EV at the same time as this Sporty Dodge model.

Excitement.

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The Daily Rhyme

I am completely entranced. Completely. The Daily Rhyme is a poetry blog with a sense of humor so fine-tuned that regardless of the content, the poem makes me laugh out loud, in the literal non-web way.

It wasn’t all that long ago
  that manly bods were hairy.
A guy without some fur was thought
  a creampuff, wimp, or fairy.

But now the virile types, I’m told,
  are shaving by the billions.
They pluck, they wax, they depilate,
  they undergo Brazilians!

Perhaps it sounds unhip, but still
  if that’s the price of mating,
Then I’m one grateful married dude.
  I couldn’t handle dating!

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SNL Palin Clinton

Faaaaaaantastic.

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Scarecrow Alley

Hoooo-wee, Halloween is just around the corner. Many of you have probably already heard me muttering about my plans for Halloween this year, I am, as the Taiwanese say; 'Excited.'

To that end, I just signed up for entry in the MN Zoo's Scarecrow Alley contest.



Not only does this mean that I get to make another scarecrow this year, it means that I might actually win something for it if I can pull together something classy! The entries are group based, so if you want to join up with group Crow-Scare, send me an email, we'll see what you could do to help the team.

I better go start sketching right now, I have a pretty neat idea, but it might be somewhat difficult to create, I better think about what media I'm gonna use...

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New Old Car Time.

It's getting close to time to trade in the old Grand Prix for something significantly smaller and sportier. I must say that the Grand Prix has been one of the nicer cruising cars I have driven, and if it were smaller or less than 1.5 tons I might hold on to it for longer. Sadly this is not the case, and I must go off in search of pastures that accelerate and handle a bit more responsively.

I have three criteria for the new used car, all of which need to be fulfilled, plus a bonus:

1. The car must be small, sporty, and moderately efficient.
   
2. The car must have a manual transmission.
3. The car must have a good deal of character.
4. (Bonus - not required) Convertible top.
   

Here's what I have been looking at thus far, ordered approximately from most desirable to least:

• Volkswagen Corrado
  
• BMW 325is (1992-95)
• Saab 9000 (preferably turbo)
• Volkswagen Scirocco
• Mazda RX-7 (1982-85 Wankel version only)
• Pontiac Fiero
  
• Audi A4 (1994-95)
  

I've checked out a bunch of other stuff too, a Miata is just barely on the edge of the 'character' category, but for the right price might be an option. The Escort was a great car, but I really did not feel happy about owning it, as it was about as boring as you can get in regard to style. Larger BMWs and Mercedes Benz cars would be nice, but would break out of the efficiency criteria.

Anybody have any suggestions? Any weird little sporty cars that you owned that you don't see very often on the road?

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Barack Obama on the O'Reilly Factor

There are a couple of spots where Bill gets kind of nasty in his inflection, and you can tell that there is a kind of uneasy truce going on, but what we have here is a fantastic interview:



The questions are pretty precise (though slightly leading), and Obama gives pretty precise answers. They butt heads briefly on a couple of issues, but really, this clip makes it clear that even two people that disagree on almost every single issue can find pretty significant common ground. One impressive thing about Barack is that he's able to go into a situation like this and keep his cool (for the most part), trying to find areas that they can agree on, as opposed to going on the defensive immediately. I'd be interested to see McCain on Olbermann's show, I bet that would be a pretty good counterpart to this.

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The conventions are over.

So let's get over the self serving BS.

Both conventions definitely lived up to their expectations; they were huge rounds of people patting themselves on the back for being amazingly great. Awesome. So maybe now we can move on and actually have an election.

The candidates have an almost identical message:

"I am a person of change coming to Washington to shake up the status quo and cross party lines. Also I will save you money."

Yeah, I think we get that much. Since both of them are saying essentially the same thing it actually makes it much easier to choose between them. The main thing that we have learned from the past two weeks of self congratulation from both parties is that these candidates really should make the decision process very straightforward for any of the undecideds. All one has to do is look at a issue comparison chart, and there is your answer.

Obviously, I lean heavily to the Left. I disagree to a lesser or greater extent with almost every single one of John McCain's stances on any given issue. For me, there was never really a big question as to who I would vote for. At worst, Obama might lose my vote to the Green Party candidate, but even that seems unlikely as they don't have a strong platform this year.

Still, I'm very interested to see the debates this year. I thought that the debates between Gore and Bush were just boring, and the debates between Kerry and Bush were painful to watch. These debates should be very interesting. Both candidates are expressing their respect for one another pretty early, so I have hope that they will be civil discussions of the issues, without a lot of mudslinging. I guess that is not very likely, but it would be nice to see them act like a couple of adults who realize that they both want to do good for the country, and simply have different ways of going about that.

(keep dreamin')

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A tale of two fairs.

State Fair:

• The Cow barn made me sneeze uncontrollably.
• Always get a small. It doesn't matter how good a deal the next size up is.
• Deep fried green beans = Delicious.
• Deep fried Snickers bar = Mediocre.
• Cheese curds are getting way too salty and expensive.
• The French Fries are fantastic as always.
• Same with the Corn Dogs.
• Same with Pronto Pups.
• I'll bring my own water bottle next year, the only drinking fountain I could find was in the grandstand exhibition area.
• As usual, the roasted corn was the best thing there.
  

Valleyfair:

• 90 degrees is right on the verge of TOO WARM.
• The High roller is getting a bit too bumpy to be comfortable.
• Evidently Wild Thing is now a second tier ride, the lines were almost non-existent for it.
• Renegade is the best coaster in the state. Probably in the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Iowa as well.
• They are rebuilding the bumper cars, I wonder what they are planning...
• Valleyfair corn is a major letdown after state fair corn.
• Renegade is my currect favorite roller coaster of all time. Did I mention that it is fantastic?
  

RenFest shall be cataloged in the coming weeks.

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