Today starts our church carnival, and as usual I was foolish enough to volunteer to work at one of the dirtiest positions (kitchen work—cooking, cleaning, hauling).

Except for Wednesday, I'll be working Tuesday to Sunday. Tuesday to Friday is about 6 hours a night; Saturday and Sunday are going to be about 16 hours each.

I have loaded the iPod to the gills with music. It is going to be interesting to see what "shuffles" it comes up with over this extended period. Look for more Carnival Shuffle postings each day (if I'm not too tired!)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

It's a great time of the year. Not too hot, not too cold. Neither the heat or the air conditioning kicks in. It's getting darker, later, but you still get to see the stars for a good chunk of the night. Heck, last night I saw the (36 hour young) Moon and Mercury twinkling next to it!

The birds are building nests and singing. We found two nests right around the house, both with eggs in them and yesterday we spotted two fuzzy little baby birds in one of the nests!

In fact, it is so nice I'm almost willing to overlook the fact that I've been up since 0300. I cannot, however, overlook that fact that there is no coffee in the house.

Frakking toasters.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 04:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 138 words, total size 1 kb.

Following up on this posting (which has some notes about some artists that show up again this month), here is the "playlist" for the month.

I probably spent about a third of the month listening to stuff in shuffle mode, a third listening to albums or artists end-to-end and a third listening to the radio (gasp!) or podcasts.

Shuffle mode works well for certain kinds of music, but not for others. It works well for albums where there is no theme, no story. It does not work well for most classical albums, as the composer is trying to create a theme or a story (even if he or she is not using words). It also does not work well for a lot of the "electronic" (I have never been happy with any of the terms "electronic", "New Age", "techno", "drone", "trance" or other labels slapped on by marketing types) composers such as Steve Roach or Robert Rich. Again, a lot of their albums are working on a theme or a story...or a mood.

On to the playlist! more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1328 words, total size 10 kb.

Fred's Reading Report (April 200

O.K., it's that time of the month again!

Eighteen books YTD! 187 short works!

Which is to say...there's good news and there's bad news. For short works, if the goal is one short a day, I needed to be at 121 stories by the end of April. So, I've exceeded that goal. For long form, 18 books is better than one book a month for a year, so I'm way ahead of 99.99% of the people I know (many barely manage a book a year, for all love). more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 265 words, total size 2 kb.

You never know what you'll find on the intertubes. A detailed history of Jonathan Quayle Higgins, for all love!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

Fred's Reading Report (March 200

It was the best of times...oh, never mind!

Reading was impacted by a temporary increase in hours worked. So, I feel like I have not done as well as the first two months of the year.

Books read: 7. Bourdain...A Cook's Tour. O'Brian...Master & Commander. Pournelle...The Endless Frontier, Volume 1. Ramsay...Roasting in Hell's Kitchen. Ringo...The Last Centurion. Ringo...Princess of Wands. Whittemore...Quin's Shanghai Circus.

134 short works read. Goal for the year 365; goal for month, to reach 91; goal for next month...121 (so I'm ahead for the year, so far!)

Current reads, on deck, on Mount Toberead...I'm increasingly shuffling the piles, so it is easier just to list what is finished rather than what is being read!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 127 words, total size 1 kb.

Following up on this posting, here's what has been on the playlist to date (future entries will only be for a single month!).

Unless I'm on an extended drive, I've been using the "shuffle" feature more on the iPod. After a couple of weeks of doing this, I changed the contents to remove the classical pieces that I had loaded. Too many of them are linked, at least in my mind, so listening to them as an occasional random bit did not work.

I'm still puzzled by how the iPod chooses songs in shuffle mode. On occasion, two songs by one artist will play back-to-back. One day I heard about a dozen songs on the commute and exactly half of them were all by Sting. Other albums have not been touched at all during three months. Very weird.

(WhatÂ’s amazing to look at the list is not so much as how much music I listened too...but how much music is still in the collection that I have not gotten to!)

(Does not include audiobooks, podcasts and the like.)

On to the selections. In some cases the whole album was heard, in other cases I'll still be hearing bits and pieces in the future. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 2036 words, total size 14 kb.

A mathematician has shown that you can solve a Rubik's cube in as few as twenty-five moves. This is one better than the previous proof.

Addendum: Via BoingBoing, a kit to help you conquer "speed cubing".

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 44 words, total size 1 kb.

NASA posted a somewhat obscure map depicting the landing site of Apollo 11. Thank goodness there are people out there who can show us what all that data means!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:43 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 31 words, total size 1 kb.

There's an old joke (attributed in one instance I've come across to Timothy Krauss) that goes...

A physicist, an engineer, and a psychologist are called in as consultants to a dairy farm whose production has been below par. Each is given time to inspect the details of the operation before making a report.

The first to be called is the engineer, who states: “The size of the stalls for the cattle should be decreased. Efficiency could be improved if the cows were more closely packed, with a net allotment of 275 cubic feet per cow. Also, the diameter of the milking tubes should be increased by 4 percent to allow for a greater average flow rate during the milking periods”.

The next to report is the psychologist, who proposes: “The inside of the barn should be painted green. This is a more mellow color than brown and should help induce greater milk flow. Also, more trees should be planted in the fields to add diversity to the scenery for the cattle during grazing, to reduce boredom”.

Finally, the physicist is called upon. He asks for a blackboard and then draws a circle. He begins: “Assume the cow is a sphere....”.

From the latest issue (online) of Symmetry comes a little more physics humor (yes, physics humor). For example, we can learn about Les Horribles Cernettes at the Hardronic Music Festival, Drug Sniffing Dogs at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and more! Who knew that physicists had a sense of humor?

Well, some at least. In the same issue, Jennifer Ouellette (who blogs at Cocktail Party Physics) talks about how some in the community complain about Big Bang Theory. I've only seen a few episodes, but why complain? How many people before the show was aired even knew what a physicist was? Welcome to the enlightenment of the great unwashed masses!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 318 words, total size 2 kb.

Once upon a time, when I had one of those Real Jobs, I used to attend various conferences around New York City. While wandering outside during the breaks (believe me, you needed to get away from the buzz of the microphone, the overload presentations, the PowerPoint presentations!), I would come across small shops that sold reproductions of netsuke. I was somewhat interested in Japan, especially Japan of Ran or Throne of Blood or Kwaidan (too many movies!) and various novels, so these fascinated me.

I never bought any, but was interested enough to buy a couple of books on the subject. Now I have noticed that BoingBoing links to a site showing representations of this folk art.

Hmmm...are gashapon the modern equivalent?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 124 words, total size 1 kb.

A couple of famous science fiction items rendered in Lego bricks.

(O.K., technically the third is not science fiction. But...build a couple more and stick it on a Lego version of the Valley Forge...) more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 78 words, total size 1 kb.

At BoingBoing, we are pointed towards Lego Mecha! The best of both worlds! And at Altair VI, a plan to help revive the economy.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

Links between St. Elsewhere and a large chunk of television. Some people have too much free time on their hands!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

A member of The Gunroom community shows off her efforts to build or otherwise acquire (capture, sink or destroy?) miniature versions of items used on the H.M.S. Surprise. Still waiting for somebody to the Lego version of The Canon...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 04:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

...that should NEVER BE MADE!!!!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 9 words, total size 1 kb.

I read of the death of Gary Gygax many places, but The Order of the Stick has the best tribute I've seen so far.

I've been transcribing some old journals and writings of mine recently. Just tonight, I ran across this entry from November 1982, and thought it appropriate for the occasion:

I Know...

I know a dwarf. His name is Ixthos. I know a man. His name is Peldar. I know another man. His name is Ralt Gaither. I know yet another man, but he doesnÂ’t have a name. I know a pegasus. His name is Ariel. I know an animated box. His name is Tavtos. I know three horses. They donÂ’t have names.

I met all of them once while strolling through a hilly, rolling countryside. There were towns, people, good ale, and warm beds. But not all things were so good. Aye, there were dangers--dragons, orcs, goblins, and worse still.

There were swords, sorcerers, monsters, friendly yet stupid barkeeps, beautiful wenches, blue skies, and projects which needed doing. Yes, projects which needed doing such as killing hydras, riding dragons, finding treasures, and cleaving orc heads.

I met them all on a Sunday at 12:00PM and left them at 5:00PM, promising to be back at the same place at the same time within the next few weeks. Yes, I know them all. They come from the realms of my imagination.

His creations brought me weeks, nay, months of fun during some critical times of my life. RIP.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 261 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I liked the one from the OoTS, PvP had a decent webcomic on it too. The best blog post I've come across was this one: http://playthisthing.com/e-gary-gygax-fails-his-last-saving-throw

Posted by: owlish at March 07, 2008 01:15 AM (dk0SG)

2 Sorry, I lied. Penny Arcade had the Gary Gygax tribute, not PvP. And the Play This Thing post is next-to-best, compared to anything on TexasBestGrok, of course.

Posted by: owlish at March 07, 2008 01:26 AM (dk0SG)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Fred's Reading Report (February 200

Leap Year! An extra day of reading! Nope, just an increased number of hours at work, alas...

Books? 11, year-to-date.

Short works? 74, year-to-date.

Currently being read:

Poul Anderson: The Earth Book of Stormgate. Trader to the Stars. The Trouble Twisters. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 260 words, total size 2 kb.

A gallery of covers for plastic models that never were...but should have been! Aurora Models provided a lot of building entertainment for me: the Seaview and the Flying Sub (both from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), the UFO from The Invaders, the whole amazing classic creature line!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

Found via Utterly Boring:

Chain Factor.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.