My ramblings...

cancrine (KANG-krin) adjective

1. Reading the same backwards as forwards, palindromic. For example,
  "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama." (letter cancrine)
  "So patient a doctor to doctor a patient so!" (word cancrine)

2. Crab-like.

[From Latin cancr- (stem of cancer) cancer + -ine.]

J.S. Bach's Crab Canon is an example of cancrine music:
http://www.derek-hasted.co.uk/takeaway/free-guitar-music-gifs/crab.html

I got there shortly after 10 and ended up closing the bar down. I had a great time.. lots of people though. I didn't drink much, as a matter of fact it has been way too long since I was totally drunk.. maybe this next weekend.

School:
My software engineering class is picking up. We have the first iteration of the program due in about 3 weeks. Getting the group to communicate with each other seems to be slightly difficult. I did sign us up for this online project management site. We get our own webpage and have a discussion section and everything. I think it is kinda' cool, I just don't know if we will actually use it.

6 Degrees of Francis Bacon:
So, I worked all day Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately the internet was down all day Saturday. That gave me nothing to do, I couldn't even work on homework that I had planned on doing that day. So, I ended up spending the day watching TV between calls. I am a fan of the
History and Discovery channels and can watch them most all the time. Most of the day was fairly typical Modern Marvels and Mail Call. But there was one show 6 Degrees of Francis Bacon. A little history of Sir Bacon, he is thought of as the father of modern science. He
introduced and was the first to practice and propose science using empirical and inductive principles. So, long ago he was a big wig in the science community credited with our current thought process. Anyway this show uses his principles and theories that all items have
a direct cause and effect. This episode showed how the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope was related to the woolly mammoth. In case you didn't know when the Hubble was launched in 1991 it was screwed up. They was an error in the main mirror of Hubble making all of the
images blurry. This show showed in "6 logical steps" how these two items were related. This might get a little long but I thought I would share.

We start with the wooly mammoth (#1) and the ice age. We all know about the ice age and how the cavemen (and women) were initially gathers and as the ice age developed gathering was not an option so they started hunting. The glory prize of the hunt was the wooly mammoth. This hunting change led to the development of new weapons specially the harpoon. The harpoon (#2) was used by the whaling industry. The whaling industry was interested in harvesting whale oil (#3) used in those days as a fuel source for lights. As the whale population decreased and the harvesting of whales declined and became illegal the need for lights arose. This drove Thomas Edison to the lab and ultimately developed the light bulb (#4). Now, light bulbs have filaments sealed in a vacuum (the absence of air). Edison noticed something (the electron, although he didn't know that since the electron had not been discovered) was collecting on the inside of his light bulb and decreasing the light produced. He found that if he put a small metal plate in the bulb and charged it that the stuff collected on the plate rather that the glass, there by clearing up the glass. What Edison created was the vacuum tube (#5). Vacuum tubes were used extensively until transistors were developed. I actually missed part of this last transition but the vacuum tube led to the understanding and ultimately the development of the space suit (#6). My idea is that the vacuum tube was used as the computing power used by NASA in the early years to develop the suit. With the suit, astronauts were able to exit the shuttle and work on the telescope. Once this occurred they could repair the Hubble.

I thought the show was interesting. It took way to long for them to develop the connections but found it interesting how someone could make the connections. I think it was a stretch and you could probably do it with about anything if you tried hard enough. What killed me was the phrase "6 logical steps" because I didn't think they were that logical. Anyways, I am tired of typing and should probably be paying attention to the teacher anyways.

I do have some Medieval fair pictures to post that I will try and get up this week.

- Larry

anachronism (uh-NAK-ruh-niz-uhm) noun

1. The error of placing a person, object, custom, or event in the wrong
historical period.

2. A person, thing, or practice that does not belong in a time period.

[From French anachronisme, from Latin anachronismus, from Greek anakhronismos,
from ana-, (backwards) + khronos (time).]

I know I missed my update window on Tuesday. I got out of class really early and decided to leave campus. So, while I would have normally been sitting in the lab with nothing to do except update my blog I was driving my roomate around to get some blood work done. She apperently let something sneak up and bite her, and I though James had all of his shots. Anyways, I guess she will find out soon what the hell is wrong with her and perhaps they will fix her. Well below is my post that I should have wrote yesterday.

Stupid people..
We all know and love them right!!!
My story begins like this, it was a bright and sunny morning. The crusties were thick in my eyes since I only had about four hours of sleep. The alarm sounds and I spring from my bed. The day before I had placed a call to the local Dodge dealership where I purchased my truck very recently. I was to have a trailer kit installed as part of my purchase and it had yet to be scheduled. I spoke with the sales manager who called parts and the service departments to make sure that everything would run smoothly when I brought my truck in. I made my way out the door that morning expecting to only be at the dealership for a couple of hours I mean how long could it possibly take. I arrived at about 0845, a full fifteen minutes before my "appointment". I walked in handed the guy (Brian) my keys and told him that I was there to get a trailer hitch installed. Now perhaps this was my fault I will get back to this in a few minutes. I also had a complaint about the way it was detailed... IT WASN'T. So all of this was to be done on my truck. I walk into the waiting room and settle in for my 2-3 hour stay. A little after 11 they come tell me that my truck is done and tell me how much it is going to cost. I look at Brian and tell him I have already paid for it. He gives me a puzzled look and says "you have?". I tell him the story and that it was part of the purchase. He then looks back at me with the same puzzled look and tells me "I don't know anything about that". I tell him that we should go find David (sales manager I talked to). He agrees and off we go. David tells the kid what to do.. Brian looks at me and says that he will go take care of the paperwork and come get me in just a minute. I sit back down after standing for a solid 15 minutes, expecting him to come get me. He finally reappears and hands me the keys, he walks out to the truck to see if the detail was done to my satisfaction. I open the door and promply tell him that it looks the same damn way it was when I gave him the keys this morning and pointed out the trouble spots. He takes the keys again and I retire to the comfort of the waiting room. Brian appears again this time after noon, tells me the truck is done again and I am relieved. I had several things on my agenda to do before I went to work at three. I got in and it looked much better. The probablly only cleaned the spots I pointed out.. but atleast they cleaned them and not me. I get in the truck crank it and am about to pull out when I think about the hitch. How could they screw that up I think to myself. The hitch looks great... but there is no freaking wiring harness to hook trailer lights to!!!! Oh I am livid at this point. I walk back into the office and throw my keys at the guy. He looks back at me with that same puzzled look I had become familiar with already. "What is wrong?" I explain the lack of wires that should be visible from the rear of my vehicle. At this point the service manager chimes in. "I thought it was strange to be getting a hitch and not a harness too." I glare and he tells Brian to get my truck back on the rack. Once again I retire to the lovely waiting room. Almost two hours latter that have finished my truck.. really finished this time. The manager brings me the keys and I ask "You guys are faster with oil changes right.. cause I bought the maintainance". He assures me that they are and he asked Brian if that was correct and to come check with me while the truck was still on the rack. I glare again and get in the truck and drive off. By now it is 2:15 I am going to be late for work, I haven't had lunch and I didn't get any of my errons done. It was not a good day!! I was in a really really crappy mood all day!

That was my rant.. now I have to get ready for my evening. It is ladies night... ladies beware!

- Larry