NASAdude

I took some free time today to do some gardening. That puts me up by three flower planters and some re-potted houseplants.

In some ways this is a "keeping up with the Jones'" scenario. One of my neighbors did work on her landscaping, adding some new flowers. That inspired me to do some work for my own home. I don't normally do much beyond taking care of the lawn. I'm lagging behind all of my neighbors.

Even with what I did today, I'm still behind the curve, but at least I put forth some minimal effort to be socially acceptable.

I don't want them all to think I'm a unabomber in training.

Posted by NASAdude at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

three weeks in Hawaii.
what a wonderful way to avoid a frigid Pennsylvania winter. 
that much time yields lots of photos. 
follows is a small assortment.

Continue reading "Hawaii 2007" »

Posted by NASAdude at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the advent of this item, I find that I have so much more free time. To think that I used to use the slow, tedious, old-fashioned models! Hooray for technology.

Click the image on this page for a demonstration.
(Warning: Linked web page may not be work-safe.)

Posted by NASAdude at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I didn't realize that Ted Voigt had a twin brother, let alone a famous twin brother.

I recently watched Americano, and was surprised to see the star is someone I know. Actually, it just turned out to be Joshua Jackson.

Maybe I'm just nuts thinking they look alike.

You decide:

Continue reading "Ted's twin brother" »

Posted by NASAdude at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The world has gone spoony.
Yes, they're Spoony with a capital S and that rhymes with... oh, nevermind.

I don't want to hear about how wonderfully romantic your Valentine's Day date was, Spoony McSpoon-Spoon!

Main Entry: spoony
1 : SILLY, FOOLISH; especially : unduly sentimental
2 : being sentimentally in love.

Posted by NASAdude at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other day I heard an unexpected clunk from the back of my car as I was parking. The next time I drove it, the clunk reappeared when cornering. It's never a good feeling when you know something is wrong, but don't know what it is or how much it will cost to repair.

Today I pulled the tire and found the stabilizer/sway bar linkage was broken on the driver's side. It took an hour to get the remaining nut off; in the end I sheared it with brute force. At least it came off without the use of a torch or hacksaw.

The part was $12. The total project time was three hours. The casualties: one broken socket and a few scraped knuckles.

Continue reading "Adventures in car repair" »

Posted by NASAdude at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's Monopoly, of course. It's fun the first few times, but as you get older and wiser, you'd rather chew off your own leg than play it.

One way I have played it to make it faster is to simply deal out all the property at the game start, and give everyone a chance to auction properties. This makes life a little easier.

I came across a site that lists lots of modifications to the usual rule set. I picked out a few of the most interesting to share.

Continue reading "Monopoly mash-up" »

Posted by NASAdude at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What makes unique so valuable? A $20 bill with a Del Monte sticker under the serial number turned up. It's valued at more than 1000 times its face value.

How did it get there? The famed "Del Monte note," a $20 bill with a Del Monte sticker on it that sold on eBay for $10,100 in 2003, was sold again Friday for $25,300 at an auction in Orlando, Fla. The seal and serial number are printed on top of the sticker. -- Source

So what exactly does unique mean?

yu-'nEk

• 1 : being the only one
• 2 a : being without a like or equal b : distinctively characteristic
• 3 : unusual

What makes something unique; what makes it valuable? Every $20 bill is unique, with its own serial number, its own subtle variations in the inking, paper, fibers, and more. So is this Del Monte $20 bill more unique than the others?

Continue reading "yu-'nEk" »

Posted by NASAdude at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Does size matter?

It's not like I go around looking at everyone else's wondering if they have one that's bigger than mine. It's not an obsession.

Mine is 40.5 inches long, quite thick at the base, and a little bent near the tip. It's likely not a record, but comparatively it's huge. I'll take some measurements over the next few days/weeks to see if there is any change in its size.

With all the email I've been getting, it seems like size matters. The spam tells me that I might be judged inferior, and with supplements it can get bigger. Or maybe if I fasten some weights to it it will get longer. I thought about trying some supplements to improve the length and thickness of mine, but I'm concerned that it might break off. That's a severe side effect, but I see it as a possibility. I've decided it's probably best to not mess with nature.

I thought I'd post a photo of mine and share it with the world.

Continue reading "Does size matter?" »

Posted by NASAdude at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, my hovel is a bit run down. It's old. Something always needs to be fixed. Come heating season, I usually end up working on the furnace a few times to keep it running reliably... which basically means it's not so reliable. This year it turned into a bigger project.

Winter (ok, technically late Fall) has been pretty mild this year. When I first fired up the furnace, I measured the oil in the tank and estimated the run-out date. For me, that involves application of trigonometry to determine volume and forecasting based on prior rate data. At least I don't factor in degree-days! Why wait to buy fuel oil? I factor in the historic cost of fuel oil over past years to predict the optimal purchase time within the window of need. Usually this means buying in mid-summer, or mid-December. Usually I procrastinate. For other folks it might be too much effort to save $0.50 per gallon, but in some sad way I find it entertaining. Scary. Of course this year it didn't work out so well with oil prices nearly doubling during hurricane season and never coming down much. If you look at the price graph, I caught that dip early in December. Keep in mind in my area, oil distributors charge over $1 more than the price on the graph.

Now to the fun part. Recently I got my fuel tank filled after nearly running out. The next time I turned on the furnace, it worked. The time after that, it wouldn't light. I pulled the gun, changed the filter and changed the nozzle, even though both checked out fine. I figured that when the tank was filled some sediment was stirred up and got in the line. The furnace worked when I put it back together. Once. I pulled it apart again and checked the nozzle. It seemed ok. I put it all back together, and no-go. I could hear the spark, so fuel was the problem. It was late, so I put it to bed. An electric space heater would have to do, even though the night's low was 3F (-16C) and it was the season's first major snowstorm that delivered 8" of powder.

Continue reading "Misadventures in home repair" »

Posted by NASAdude at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The power was out for six hours earlier this week. It blinked off shortly after 3p. At the time I was running the washer and dryer, a computer, entertainment system, a space heater, etc. so I thought I might have blown a fuse. Yeah, a fuse. My home is so old it has fuses instead of breakers. As such, it's not easy to determine if the power is out entirely or a main fuse blew.

I peeked out the window and saw my neighbor setting up some Christmas decorations on his porch. I put on shoes and walked over to ask if their power was out as well. They were both on the porch working on some lights. I probably saved them some time, because they were trying to figure out why the lights wouldn't turn on. She went inside and confirmed their power was out as well. It's not just me, about six homes were without power.

Back at my place, I gave in and shut down the computer since my UPS wouldn't do much for a prolonged outage. I'm without a computer, without internet, without radio, TV, DVDs, or anything else that's so convenient to fill time... let alone getting any work done. Perhaps more importantly, I'm without heat and without refrigeration. Why is that power always goes out the day after you buy ice cream?

Continue reading "Electricity: good vs. evil" »

Posted by NASAdude at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was going to get a $997 plasma TV for someone at Walmart this morning.

Don't bother going to the store. Mine had 7 in stock. Woo!!! This whole super-deal door-buster limited-stock thing is all a big scam that abuses the consumers.

While the print ad claimed the item was also available online, it was out of stock last night and this morning. For a short time it showed as "In Stock" but there was no button to add it to your cart. Then it was out of stock again.

I don't have a problem with limiting sales to available stock. In a market economy, that's going to happen. (Although most stores give rain checks for normal sale items, which is logical and appropriate.) What I have a problem with is the intentional act of limiting the quantity of stock that is made available.

If you only get in 7 of an item (or 25 or 50 or 100, etc, depending on store size and customer base) then clearly you have no intent of making the sale item available to your customers.
I don't think this applies to stores that do this on a daily basis, ie: thrift stores or any store with a "discount" rack/shelf. The store is getting rid of stock already on hand that is either being discontinued, is near-expiry, or just won't sell at regular prices. That's an appropriate and real function of economics.

Continue reading "Black Friday abuses consumers" »

Posted by NASAdude at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I keep news items and web pages open of anything I think is interesting and might have potential for sharing and/or commentary on the blog. As of late (and it's not the first time) I have a fairly large list of pages open, but no real motivation to single out one for this site. So I present to you... random items that were interesting, but not quite inspiring.

Flash animation of the drawing process of the human form
PA Game Commission may allow use of the atlatl as a hunting weapon
Caffeine levels in coffee varies widely
Evil ionic air filters (support of a similar story I reported exactly one year ago)
appetite-suppressing hormone for treating obesity
The science of Jello shots (not appropriate for the elementary school science fair)
The [bad] math of cow tipping. (the math is wrong... it's not a statics problem, and a cow is not a rigid body... lots of comments agreeing with this view on Slashdot's article on this topic)

A theme of articles that relate to the whole Intelligent Design topic I've previously discussed:
Intelligent design's place at the table
An ID commentary
Kansas state school board adopts teaching of ID (and they redefine "science" too!) Be glad you don't have kids in the Kansas school system.
In a comment, a user points out:

> The issue here is that they redefine science. Truly a sad day.
Behe redefined science at the Dover trial, and had to admit under crossexamination that astrology meets his definition of science.

Backlog abated! Thank you for your patience. I hope you found some of them to be interesting. Rather, I hope they weren't so bad that they made you vomit a little in your mouth.

Posted by NASAdude at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This year's homecoming was really fun. It's the first year I ran into alumni I knew, instead of the downtown events only seeming like a reason for undergrads to get drunk and party.

Over the weekend I was at a picnic, parade, hayride and bonfire, and banquet.

We had a small picnic during the parade. The burgers were huge. The parade was really great. Afterwards I read that it was considerably shorter than previous years, just under two hours, but it seemed about the same to me.

Circumstances were such that I ended up holding the pastor's three year old daughter on my shoulders during the entire parade, with only a few short breaks. Early on, she came up to me while I was sitting finishing up my supper. She couldn't find her father. I reassured her that he was nearby, only about 20 feet away taking pictures of the passing floats. She was still quite concerned, and I offered to pick her up so she could see over the crowd. I was a bit surprised that she agreed. While I'm not a stranger to her, I've only talked to her in passing, never really conversing with her. I thought she might get fidgety and want down within a few minutes, but she seemed quite happy with her perch for watching the parade. About half way through the parade, she wanted to visit someone else, so I put her down, only to find her return to me within two minutes. She couldn't see the parade, and wanted back up on my shoulders. Ah, the curse of being tall. In many respects, interacting with her really made my night. Maybe one day I'll have kids of my own. Or maybe I'll just decide it's easier to have friends with kids... I can always send them back to their parents when the need arises. I suppose that's why people say it's easier to be a grandparent than a parent.

Continue reading "Homecoming 2005" »

Posted by NASAdude at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This past Friday was an open mic night at the Wesley Student Center. It was an awesome time! There were instrumentals, vocals, poetry, and some really great bands. The turnout was amazing; at some points there were a lot of people standing around because there weren't enough seats.

If interest continues, there should be an open mic night once a month next (Spring) semester. Keep an eye on the WSF calendar for more details.

Posted by NASAdude at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I posted these as a reply to a friend's question in her blog: What rules should be followed for a crush? (paraphrased)

Rules of a crush, by NASAdude:
1) Think about him every free moment you get. Actually, think about him even when you're supposed to be doing other things.
2) Dream about him. You know you want to.
3) Write your name and append his surname. Try a variety of fonts. If you write it *just so*, it will come true.
4) Really OBSESS on your crush. It's the most important rule.

If it is a "silent crush" where you don't even hint to him about the crush, you may want to avoid these rules:
5) You have to tell at least one friend the name of the person you have a crush on, and expect that friend to keep the secret.
6) Have lunch with the person and talk about absolutely nothing important. Try to read his mind and find out if he likes you.
7) Arrange to show up at his home so you can borrow/lend a book (and find out how much of a slob he really is)
8) Conspire to have your friends stalk the guy and report back everything they learn. It's not a true crush unless you compell your friends (via guilt or blackmail) to do things they'd rather not.

And the "silent crush" stipulation completely eliminates the possibility of these rules:
9) Send the person anonymous messages saying you think he's the cutest guy... to frustrate him to the point of insanity
10) Send him flowers anonymously (yeah, guys can enjoy flowers, too!)
11) Slip a love letter into his backpack on campus (It brings out the inner stalker in you.)

In any case, don't forget rule #4. It's the most important, and it applies to all types of crushes... even the silent/secret ones.

If you haven't figured it out, these are all tongue-in-cheek. If you really like a guy, just tell him. Life is far too short for these types of games.

What rules do you recommend?

Posted by NASAdude at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yeah, it's a slow news week. I bought the domain nasadude.com.

If you haven't noticed, the blog you're reading is now found at blog.nasadude.com. I set up Apache to serve the blog through a virtual host. It took a few iterations until everything was working properly. I forgot to update the blog's .ini file. I had to redirect queries to the /blog/ directory so images in old posts would still load. My anti-spam settings had to be tweaked so they wouldn't block all comments. Everything seems to be working. I think. Maybe.

What else should I do with the domain of nasadude.com? Do you want a subdomain to point to an IP/hostname that you run? Those are easiest. If you have a really good bribe, I can even set up web-forwarding. If it's a *super* good bribe, it can even be recursive file/directory web forwarding and not just a single URL. So what do you want, and what's it worth to you? I.love.NASAdude.com; hacked.a.computer.at.NASAdude.com. You get the picture.

Posted by NASAdude at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I first encountered them, I was hopeful that they might be edible, but was disappointed to find they are poisonous. I guess I'll have to keep to my usual mushroom sources.

UPDATE (Sept. 8, 2005): I took some more pictures this morning. Check out the hot mushroom on mushroom action! These two new shots show the bare undersides of the naughty shrooms! The first new shot shows one shroom giving you a peek underneath. mushrooms3 The next new shot gives you an inside glimpse of naked mushroom piled upon naked mushroom. mushrooms4

Jack-O'-Lantern (Omphalotus olearius)

The bright-orange is well named. Not only is it pumpkin-colored and found in the fall- it also glows in the dark. Fresh specimens sometimes give off a faint greenish glow at night or in a darkened room.

These common mushrooms have caused many poisonings because they look, smell and even taste good. They cause mild to severe stomach upset but are not life-threatening to healthy adults.

Jack-O'-lanterns have a pleasant, fruity fragrance. They are sometimes mistaken for the edible chanterelle (see page 6), which is the same color and also has pleasant smell. Chanterelles, however, have flat-edged, interconnecting ridges or wrinkles instead of knifelike gills, and grow on the ground. Size 3" to 10" tall, cap 3" to 8" diameter.

These mushrooms are found in summer and fall, in large clusters at the base of trees, on stumps or on buried wood.

The jack-o'-lantern and green-spored lepiota are only two of a large number of mushrooms that can cause mild to severe (though not life-threatening) illness if eaten.

Also: Wikipedia, wisc.edu

Posted by NASAdude at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight I played Trivial Pursuit. It's a lot of fun... except for those sports questions.

My team had to indicate which organ produces "liver bile." Suggested answers were the: spleen, gallbladder, and pancreas.

Here's some help from Wikipedia. :)

The pancreas is a retroperitoneal organ located posterior to the stomach on the posterior abdominal wall.

In humans the pancreas is a small elongated organ in the abdomen. It is described as having a head, body and tail. The pancreatic head abuts the second part of the duodenum while the tail extends towards the spleen. The pancreatic duct runs the length of the pancreas and empties into the second part of the duodenum at the ampulla of Vater. The common bile duct commonly joins the pancreatic duct at or near this point.

...

The pancreas produces enzymes that break down all categories of digestible foods

The gallbladder (or cholecyst) is a pear-shaped organ that stores bile (or "gall") until the body needs it for digestion. It is connected to the liver and the duodenum by the biliary tract.

...

The gallbladder stores bile, which is released when food containing fat enters the digestive tract, stimulating the secretion of cholecystokinin (CCK).

The spleen is a ductless, vertebrate gland that is not necessary for life but is closely associated with the circulatory system, where it functions in the destruction of old red blood cells and removal of other debris from the bloodstream, and also in holding a reservoir of blood. It is regarded as one of the centres of activity of the reticuloendothelial system. Until recently, the purpose of the spleen was not known. It is increasingly recognised that its absence predisposes to certain infections.

So now you know... in case you were like my team, who had our anatomy all a jumble.

Posted by NASAdude at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you haven't noticed, I added a blogroll to the sidebar of my blog. If you want to be added to it, let me know; if you don't know me, don't bother asking. It is limited primarily to WSF members and alumni.

The tricky part was adding the most recent postings from the blogroll as content under the main blogroll list. Right now it isn't sorting properly. That may remedy itself as new entries are downloaded. We'll see.

I'd like to see it so it will be a one-stop location for seeing the most recent entries by people I know. That makes it useful for me, but maybe not so much for you, unless you are friends with them too.

What triggered all this? I just upgraded to Movable Type 3.2. It changed a lot of settings. The style sheets are completely different. So I had to spend a lot of time editing the code to make it do what I like. That brought me to the idea of a blogroll, an idea I've been mulling over for many months. So here we are.

Posted by NASAdude at 03:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'd like to kick Microsoft in the head. Over 90GB of data was lost on a drive due to the bugginess of the new "dynamic disk" partition method.

A new partitioning system is available in Windows. Instead of using a normal partition table (what is now called a "basic disk") uses a new partition system that is semi-integrated into the registry (called a "dynamic disk"). Normally I wouldn't bother trying out such a system, except I wanted to play around with software RAID on XP. Software RAID is possible in Win XP Pro after hacking some of the diskpart.exe and related code. I wanted to set up a mirrored boot partition (~7GB) between two physical drives.

After getting the settings changed, playing around with an add-on IDE controller card, removing that card, etc, I got the RAID working. It forced me to convert drives 1 and 2 both to be "dynamic disks". The end result was a working RAID (cool!), but I found it decreased system performance unacceptably, so I broke the RAID and removed the mirrored partition.

Continue reading "Dynamic disks" »

Posted by NASAdude at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matt Lawrence, a grad student for Penn State Agricultural and Biological Engineering, talks to Mike Todd, of Montgomery Pa., about the new heater that runs on used plastic and burns cleaner then natural gas on Wednesday afternoon at the Ag Progress Days.

It's fun to be mysterious.  Or maybe it's just easier being very private.  I don't talk much about my work.  Well, here's your chance.  This article is about a project in which I am involved.  I debug electronic problems and keep it running.  In the near future, (funding permitting) I'll add in a datalogger on top of the existing controller installed by the manufacturer.  This should allow information about how the unit runs to be collected and monitored without directly impacting any of the operation.  It's like adding hardware onto an existing network or security system without being detected to transparently monitor activity.  But I'm not allowed to talk about that.

Plastic waste a burning problem

By Anne Danahy, CDT

Plastics.

That was the word uttered to the Dustin Hoffman character in the 1967 film "The Graduate" by a party guest who promised there was "a great future in plastics."

Farmers have found plastics, too -- for plant pots, greenhouses and mulches. But "plasticulture" has produced a problem of its own: what to do with all the plastic once farmers are finished with it.

Continue reading "Plastic burner" »

Posted by NASAdude at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I went to the Natatorium for the first time. Sam and Craig were there as well. We had a swell time, and got to catch up on each other's summer activities (or lack thereof).

Craig is a man of his word. In the IM notification of the pool plans, he said he'd dive off one of the high platforms. With only a little hesitation, he jumped off the 5-meter platform. Go Craig!

I got a lot of sun! SPF 30 makes a difference, but for someone as fair-skinned as me, four hours from 1p-5p at the end of July sure packs in the UV. It's been a long time since I've gotten this much sun. It should turn into a pretty nice tan, or at least an amusing shade of red. I sure do have a lot of freckles now. Usually when I get sun I mainly see them on my arms, but they've migrated to my chest, legs, and face. Aren't they cute? Look at all the constellations! My body is a diagram of the wonders of the universe; behold and be awed and amazed!

And of course I impressed all the women with my rippling muscles and tight abs, along with my swimming prowess. I couldn't keep them from flirting with me the whole time; it's a burden being me. Or maybe that was the onset of sunstroke. We may never know.

Thanks to Craig and Sam for a fun afternoon. You're the best.

Posted by NASAdude at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Long story short, I just spent the last 24 hours rebuilding my computer's OS. The warnings you hear about being careful when editing Windows registry? Absolutely true.

It finally bit me. I've edited the registry hundreds of times (literally). Finally I made an error that I couldn't fix without extreme measures. Sure, I had a backup of the registry keys, but that didn't help me since 1) I couldn't get windows to load, even in safe mode, and 2) the problem wasn't with the key information, but the permissions associated with the keys.

A "repair" using the install CD didn't work. The system wouldn't reboot into the second stage of the install... blue screen.
I did a reinstall overtop the existing Windows directory. That worked, but a lot of the programs behaved badly, even after installing overtop their previous directories. Specifically, I was running into some network problems.
At least the last step got me into the hard drive. I made a backup of everything important (the previous data backup was more than 24 hours old). Then the partition got formatted and a clean installation put on it.

Of course, that means every program had to be reinstalled, configurations restored, scheduled tasks recreated, repaired damaged blogs (how did that happen?), reinstall engines for Tcl/perl/PHP, etc.

So be careful in the registry.

Continue reading "Be careful what you click" »

Posted by NASAdude at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my list of favorite movies. I'll move it to the top of the blog list whenever I make any changes.

Continue reading "Movies" »

Posted by NASAdude at 01:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I saw part of a nature documentary the other day. What caught my eye was a line of caterpillars.

The caterpillars were walking in one long column, head to tail, like a freeway across the bare soil. The line was at least four meters in length. Surely they had somewhere to go, and they were trusting that the one in front of them knew where to go. Presumably there is also safety in numbers.

Another scene showed two columns of caterpillars merging into one. Each caterpillar came to a sudden disgruntled halt when one from the other column took its place. Not to be stopped, it was sure to carefully feel as that caterpillar passed to it could inject itself into the flow. The motion consistently alternated as the leaders in each column worked into the single stream.

Yet another scene showed another large single column. They were trucking along like they didn't have a care in the world. They trusted that this system assured that they would get to where they needed to go and would help protect them. Then the camera panned back, and as more of the column came into view, it was evident that the line wasn't perfectly straight. The camera continued to pan back, revealing that three meters of caterpillars moving in formation had formed a circle.

So who are you following? Perhaps it's time that thought for yourself. Instead of blindly following what you've been told, break out and make your own path.

You know what they say about being a follower...

An entire community of moles decides to move tunnels across town. So they pack up all their mole-ish possessions, sling their little bundles over their shoulders and set off across town in single file. In front walks Daddy Mole, followed by Mamma Mole, Grandpa Mole, Grandma Mole, Big Brother Mole, and finally Baby Mole. After a while, Baby Mole shouts ahead and says "Brother Mole, I smell sugar!". Big Brother mole replies "No, Baby Mole, I'm sure you don't." A while later, Baby mole calls to Grandma Mole and says "Grandma Mole, I smell sugar!". Grandma Mole smiles kindly and tells him, "No Baby Mole, you ain't smelling sugar." Not ten minutes later he hollers to Grandpa saying "Grandpa Mole, I smell sugar!". Grandpa Mole replies, "No, Baby Mole, I don't believe you do." It's not long before Baby Mole calls to his mother, in an increasingly whiney voice, "Mamma, I'm sure I smell sugar!". But Mamma Mole replies, "Oh no, son, you don't." Finally he can't take it any more and yells to the front of the line. In exasperation he exclaims "Daddy Mole, I smell sugar! I've been smelling it ever since we started walking and it's driving me crazy!". And Daddy Mole tells him, "Son, that ain't sugar you're smelling, it's molasses!".

Posted by NASAdude at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I read a story recently that really disturbed me. When in public, is it illegal to attempt to enhance your privacy and protect your identity?

If I am agoraphobic and choose a hood and mask as a means to go out in public, I can be arrested? It just seems wrong.
Even if the case isn't that extreme, if you simply want to go about your day without being stared at all the time, there seems to be no alternative.

I'll give personal bonus points for anyone who can cite the state/federal code and subsection (with a URL if possible) that specifically outlaws wearing masks and hoods in public. This article is about WV, but I'm interested in hearing about other states as well (esp. PA).
--
NASAdude

May 26, 10:05 PM EDT
Man Arrested for Wearing Grinch Mask

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) -- City and county attorneys are defending Wheeling police who arrested a man for wearing a Grinch mask while walking along a city street.

Norman Eugene Gray, 42, was arrested Tuesday. He was arraigned and released on a personal recognizance bond.

Officers saw Gray about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, told him to take the mask off and not put it on again. Gray removed it and asked why he could not wear it, according to Wheeling police reports. Officers told him wearing masks in public is illegal.

Gray said he felt he had a right to wear it and said it was not illegal. He put the mask back on and was arrested. The mask was confiscated.

Wheeling City Solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth and Ohio County Prosecutor Scott Smith said masks as well as dark window tinting in vehicles can pose a safety hazard to law enforcement officers and hinder efforts to identify criminal suspects.

"When we think about masks, we don't always think of Halloween," Humway-Warmuth said.

Smith said wearing a mask or hood in public is a misdemeanor under state law, punishable by a fine of up to $500 or up to a year in jail, or both. Children up to 16 years old can wear masks. Traditional Halloween masks, safety gear used in occupations, theatrical productions, civil defense or protection from bad weather also are legal.

Posted by NASAdude at 08:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This text was written in response to an article that Craig wrote.

In a true race,

• how hard you run affects the outcome of the race.
• how hard you run affects how quickly you reach the finish line
• quitting means that you haven't finished

In life, assuming death is the finish line,

• how hard you live life doesn't affect the outcome, since life isn't a race or competition
• how hard you live life doesn't affect how quickly you reach the finish line (assuming healthy living for both cases)
• quitting means that you have finished; suicide is a quick shortcut to the finish line

Life is not a race.

I used to be concerned a lot about "wasted time."  It doesn't slow you down on your way to death, but it affects how quickly you get to the waypoints on that road.

The real question is, what are your goals in life, your waypoints on the road  to death?  Those are what you need to race to achieve.  If you hurry from waypoint to waypoint, you can do so much in your life.  While the economics of our society might want you to believe that idea, that mode of thinking deprives you of a lot. 

It isn't a race to death.  It isn't a race to waypoints.  It comes down to the simple idea of doing what makes you happy.  I'm not condoning psychotropic drugs or living a life of leisure.  Or am I?  As long as your increased happiness doesn't significantly decrease the happiness of those around you, what harm is there? 

In a societal model, we would only need to optimize the summed happiness to find an ideal solution.  Arguably there are some people who will be put out and end up doing things that could make them unhappy.  But the net affect is that more people are able to increase their happiness due to the efforts of the unhappy person.  What's to keep the unhappy person from quitting, from seeking out a different role in society to increase their personal happiness?  The obvious solution is that society needs to endear the individual into seeing their sacrifice as something that makes them happy only because their efforts are benefiting others.  Simply foist self-sacrifice as a means to happiness.

Sure, it may seem like a catch-22, but it works.

Posted by NASAdude at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are some general thoughts and comments on this year's spring break trip to Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Seventeen people from PSU's Wesley Student Fellowship traveled a long distance to provide service on the Choctaw Indian reservation.

Topics:

• Getting to know you -- the traveling/working companions
• Fun with GPS
• Tales from the road
• Photos galore... erm... gallery
• Working on-site
• Overnights on the road
• Bedtime stories gone awry
• Life as a tourist
• Choctaw
• Links

Continue reading "Spring break 2005" »

Posted by NASAdude at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Now I know why I don't have a girlfriend. I'm not funny.

Eric Bressler, a graduate student at McMaster University who is studying the role of humour in personal attraction, discovered in a survey of 150 students that to a woman, "sense of humour" means someone who makes her laugh; to a man, a sense of humour means someone who appreciates his jokes.

Continue reading "Love Me; Love My Jokes" »

Posted by NASAdude at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought I'd be cute on Valentine's day and post a free gift for all my friends. I set it as my away message around noon on the 14th. It's now 1p on the 15th, and only 6 people followed the link to find out what the gift was.

I have 63 people on my buddy list, about 25 of which are people with whom I interact on a fairly regular basis.

In the past I have commented about people not messaging me on IM. I'm told it's because I usually don't have an away message up. (Isn't that the opposite of the expected response?) So now I have an away message up, and only 6 people have read it.

It's an odd world. I need to get out more and contribute my oddity to the recipe.

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day. Mine was busy, but overall pretty good. It was a fun evening, and even held a surprise or two. (For a friend, not for me.)

Posted by NASAdude at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, that sure was a blast!

A bunch of us went to Slab Cabin Run to wreak a little havoc on ourselves. Within 10 minutes one person took on a tree; the tree won. We got her patched up and back on a sled in no time.

Continue reading "Sledding" »

Posted by NASAdude at 01:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, it's a new year. But so far I have nothing exciting or interesting to say... at least in a public forum.

Ultimately it's just another day. I don't see why we need to get excited about a new year.

Maybe I'll add more later. Leave a comment. Inspire me.

Posted by NASAdude at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let's see what Santa put under my Christmas tree.
1) I didn't put up a tree.
2) Santa doesn't exist.
3) I live alone, so no one can give a gift pretending to be a fat slob in a red suit with an affinity for keeping caribou and enslaving short folk.

Ergo... Santa didn't put any presents under my Christmas tree.

So bugger off!

Continue reading "Who put the X in X-mas?" »

Posted by NASAdude at 03:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I played a four-person game of Scrabble with some friends. I played a bingo word for the second time in my life. The word was zoologic. One 'o' was a blank, and the word played on a 'c' from another player. In retrospect, I made an error by placing the blank on a double letter score, which could have been a real 'o'. Since the word hit a double-word space, this change could have made the word worth an extra 2 points. Oh well. I still kicked butt with a final score of about 237 with the next best score at around 150. (I don't recall the details.)

Admittedly, I did cheat a little. (And I confessed afterwards!) It was near the end of the game, and no 'c' tiles on the board were useable. The player prior to me wanted help choosing a word since all he had were consonants. I helped him make 'clod' and 'id', which I thought was actually the best possible play for his tiles and the board configuration. Coincidentally (or maybe not so much), it also gave me a 'c' for 'zoologic'.

Sorry Craig for abusing your trust! I did give you a great play for what you had, though.

Posted by NASAdude at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night when I returned from bible study, I saw a rabbit in the grass.

Today I was treated to a view of a cardinal, a bluejay, and a plethora of nuthatches. There are easily fifty of them. They are outside my office window in a brushy fencerow only about three feet away.

Beyond the fencerow is a new bank under construction. The building is nearly finished, and the property perimeter was landscaped last week. The nuthatches are having a field day hopping through the straw and eating the grass seed.

My cat also enjoys it; he chatters at the birds when they get close to the window. In fact, I might be happier with his entertainment than my own with the wild things.

It's a good day.

Posted by NASAdude at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I thought my incoming email was bad. Seventy-five percent of the mail I get is spam, about 75 per day.

Bill Gates get 4 million per day. He has an entire department to handle his email filtering.

Continue reading "Too much spam" »

Posted by NASAdude at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sam brought up the idea of the purpose of dating. He proposed that dating is for when "you have aspirations to marry, and want to test if you and that other person compliment each other in a relationship."

I think that is a fine functional definition.

Continue reading "Purpose of Dating" »

Posted by NASAdude at 05:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did the sun come out today?

I got up at 6a when it still dark, got ready, went to the pancake breakfast, then band practice, then a little pool, watch some of the football game, followed by a movie. The next thing I new I was going home at 8p and it was dark!

I'm not sure about having such a busy day and not actually being productive in my work or anything that will generate income. Oh well.

Posted by NASAdude at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)