Year: 2011

Categories Nothing Much

Hurricane

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As of now (almost 6pm) no major damage here or the general Syracuse area that I can find in the news.  Lots of higher than normal winds and rain, but (so far *knock on wood*) we haven’t even lost power, though some of the surrounding areas have.  I can’t find record of even major flooding locally.  I AM glad my husband and a couple of his co-workers took down the half dead pine tree out front before this, though winds are such that it wouldn’t have likely hit the house, but it likely would have taken out wires if it went down. 

My folks, out north of Boston, have reported off and on power outages but otherwise no damage to their house or property, though admittedly they’re on top of a nice hill so flooding isn’t an issue for them personally.  Even Apollo’s breeder down in eastern VA came through intact.  She had no power when I got in touch with her this morning, and she had some tree branches down causing some damage around the place, but nothing major and her and the dogs are all ok.

Categories Links

LInks for the day:

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IN college won’t play the national anthem any more, deemed “to violent”  Ok, its a religious college, so I suppose they get to do what they want, but really?  If you don’t like the fact that we went to war so you could worship as you want then you may want to find another country.

Large eagle does what comes naturally, also attacks human who gets in the way…..human upset at attack on his prized geese?

Yet another reason not to go green.

Where’s the “Made In China” sticker?  Seriously, they couldn’t find someone in the US to do this??

The TSA has plans to become even bigger.  (like you didn’t know that already)

Play an EA game on your computer?  Recently have to install their new software called Origin?  Might wanna go back and re-read the EULA again…..I occasionally play Spore, might have to change my mind on that…..

Categories Books

NPR’s Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy

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As several other bloggers have posted, I might as well follow along, bolded books Ive read (or at least read part of the series mentioned)

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange, Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

45 out of 100 isn’t bad, I’m actually familer with a bunch more and have for what ever reason decided not to read them, and its possible that some of the Asimov’s and Bradbury’s, and Clarke’s I did read and just don’t remember, as my dad is a huge fan and I would randomly pull them off his shelf to read when I was a kid

I will say I don’t know why Bujold’s Vorkosigan series isn’t higher on the list, I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone, even if you don’t normally read scifi. First off she wrote the series TOTALLY out of order, and yet has less “ooops” mistakes in continuity than an awful lot of authors who wrote their books in order, 2nd this is a space opera like no other, Miles certinally isn’t your standard hero! I’ve found that the series generally goes over well with the folks who like Urban Fantasy.

Categories Nothing Much

Earthquake

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It was felt locally to me, including by several of my coworkers, though somehow I missed it despite being in the same room.  A quick check with the folks I personally know who live in VA confirmed everyone ok (including Apollo’s breeder, which is just as well as I pity any emergency personel who would have to enter her property, especially if something brought down any of the internal fences).

Lots of reports of general lack of damage in the Capitol and NYC, I did finally find a report stating what damage happened in VA around the epicenter, all of which sounds reletively minor as such things go considering that 5.9 isn’t a small earthquake.  Cross fingers that the aftershocks don’t cause any more.

Edited to add: THIS is what I was looking.  I still say minor damage all things considered, but I hope for the sake of the folks who live there at they get some help rebuilding since it sounds like the insurance companies don’t intend to pay up!

Categories Nothing Much

Why….

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….can’t they sell just a plain old Ace (type, I don’t care what brand really) bandage?  They’ve got specalty braces and supports and everything else for every joint, but no ace bandages.  I have bought 3 at variious times over the last few years and they all disappear into a black hole, and now I can’t find them in the store either.

edited to add: I didn’t exactly search high and low, two stores was my limit and I ended up with this “Figure 8 Ankle Support” instead, which looks like its going to do the job, I just hate buying a unitasker when the multitasker did the job just fine.

Categories Apollo, Dog

Puppy pictures!!

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Photos taken yesterday.

I’ll put them below the fold so folks who don’t want to see them don’t have to wait for them to stop tying up the connection.

Click to enbiggen

He’s dragging a 30ft leash as his recall isn’t solid yet (and frankly may never be, typical Tibetan Mastiff), and in the first photo he’s carrying a Kong AirDog squeaky tennis ball.  He LOVES them cause they squeak, he does not, however, retrieve very well: in that photo he’s running AWAY from my husband……last photo is a shot of him cooling off in his kiddy pool, he’d just taken a mouth-full of water when I called his name, hence the drool!

(disclaimer, I bought all of the above mentioned items with my own money and am receiving no kickback for mentioning them or anything about them.  For folks looking for the Kong balls, Petco & Petsmart carry them, but I recommend looking elsewhere, as my local Tractor Supply carries them for $0.99 to Petco’s $1.99, considering how quickly Apollo kills the squeakers (and then won’t play with them cause they don’t make noise) this makes a difference)

Categories Links

A couple more links

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Family gets $333,000 after cops raid their house and shoot their dog.  The cops of course hate the judgement.  Personally, if judgements like this is what it takes to make the cops stop bursting into random houses and shooting animals and people who aren’t a threat then so be it.  Seriously, “protecting themselves” from a Lab?  Yes Labs aren’t small dogs, and yes they (on very rare occasions) can bite and be protective of their family, but really?  Its a Lab and, like the case not to long ago where police shot a Newfie, the large majority of the breed haven’t a clue what the word “aggressive” means.  Frankly the large majority of these cases scare the heck out of me, cause it means that if the police ever decided to use such a raid on my house then Apollo would likely be the first victim.

On a lighter note: 6 Reasons why the guy (or girl) who’s fixing your computer hates you.  I love reading Cracked.com.  This is especially pointed for me as I recently had to fix my coworker’s laptop for the 2nd time in the space of a couple months.  I sent him home this time with a 2 page list of instructions.  And you don’t want to know how many tool-bars I removed from his work computer……