Kick back, put on some jeans, relax. You deserve it.
Me, I’m going to take a quick nap and then go see a taping of “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Because that’s how I roll. I roll like that.
If you’ve been wondering how my fourth consecutive taping of “Wait Wait” went, well, “Mission Accomplished.” Sadly, my plane just sat there on the tarmac in Chicago for a while this morning. See, I had an exit strategy, it just didn’t work at first. But at least I had one.
Fanny Roborat
32 comments
Emmarie
March 17, 2006 at 9:59 pm
1Relax and roll? That would be nice. Instead, I think I’ll be up all night trying to figure out what I forgot to pack for spring break (don’t get too jealous; I’m doing Habitat all week) and, of course, trying to figure out how I’ll do without FA commenters every day.
Hmmm
cooper
March 18, 2006 at 12:48 am
2Emmarie, oh, one of those Liberal do-gooders, uh? Well, bless you, darling.
siobhan
March 18, 2006 at 1:25 am
3Emmarie, maybe we can figure out a way to use all the hammers and tap it out in morse code?
Where are you doing Habitat?
People Paula
March 18, 2006 at 5:08 am
4I’m loving “Wait, Wait.” Now that I went and bought Sirius, it turns out all I want to listen to is NPR.
ice weasel
March 18, 2006 at 9:30 am
5Casual? Hell! I’m naked.
Oh sorry.
Saturday morning, time to paint the office, take the dog to the vet then go see the greatest bass player on the planet.
A full day indeed.
cooper
March 18, 2006 at 10:35 am
6Paula, do you still get the pledge drives on Sirius?
cooper
March 18, 2006 at 10:46 am
7Anyone with time on their hands may want to check out this site. I love it, just wish they were on more often than every 3 or 4 days.
http://bloggingheads.tv/
ice, painting the office, huh? Bummer. I’m off to fly Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships. If I go sub-orbital, you’ll see it in the papers. I’m kidding, of course. My rockets seldom get up 1/2 mile and it’s windy today. Still, it’s fun.
Murray
March 18, 2006 at 11:10 am
8Coop, how big are these rockets? Sub orbital is like 20 miles, right?
Bonnie
March 18, 2006 at 1:16 pm
9I was at the live taping Thursday night - I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Too bad they had to edit out the majority of the show…
nick
March 18, 2006 at 4:01 pm
108/8 again! Adam you are almost too good at wait wait!
Steve
March 18, 2006 at 4:20 pm
11“Mission Accomplished”, eh?
Did you get a nice flight suit with codpiece, extra-large, 1 each, like Dear Leader did?
waterfowler
March 18, 2006 at 9:37 pm
12Looks like Steve is a “little” jealous.
Naked Frozen Sea Skunk? Isn’t that @ Red Lobster, or is it Joe’s Crab Shack?
cooper
March 18, 2006 at 11:48 pm
13Murray, again I was kidding about sub-orbital, which is normally considered to be 60 miles high. Our local field is 155 acres - a farm. The largest rockets we fly there would be 15 - 20 pounds and usually these would fly to a altitude of 2500 - 3000 ft. Our FAA waiver goes to 4000′, since we’re close to several local airports. Another field where we fly is a 1000 acre sod farm in Orangeburg, SC and they have a 7500′ waiver, sometimes 10,000′. Pretty much anything goes there - at least by East Coast standards. In the western parts of the US, those boys and girls do amazing things out in the desert.
SeattleDan
March 19, 2006 at 12:06 am
14Kick back? Sorry, we couldn’t this weekend.SeattleTammy andI were at the regional trade book show/conventiion,which was great,but made us dog-tired.Concrete floors are hard on our middle-aged legs.
We wanted to mention that the lovely Ann paid us a visit at the store last week, and it was great to meet her. I hope you will all have the chance to meet her sometime. She has as good taste in books that she has in blogs.
Swamp Thing David
March 19, 2006 at 1:27 am
15It just came to me. Our national political malignancy is information deficit belief disorder. Apparently there is no effective cure.
Also, I understand that in an effort to stem the spread of bird flu, the White House is contemplating bombing the Canary Islands and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Go Gators. We be Sweet Sixteen bound.
Pete IVDL
March 19, 2006 at 9:45 am
16Coop, I sure as shit envy you… I got out Homer Hickams’ ‘Rocket Boys’ for a re-read. I wish for two things: 1) to be able to wrap my puny intellect around real maths (sorry, ‘math’
(I’ve just re-fnished George Smoot’s “Wrinkles in Time” and wishing I could do that, too); and 2) to be abe to legally buy amateur rocket parts in Australia. The biggest ‘rocket’ w can legally buy here is about, er, 4 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. It has a stick attached.
Hope you took some photos, I need to see that real people do real cool stuff every now and then.
cooper
March 19, 2006 at 10:38 am
17Pete, no kidding? You can’t build and fly rockets in Oz? What’s the deal there? Anti-terrorism protection? Since 911, we’ve had some rather bureaucratic and arcane permitting hoops to jump through in order to buy the High Power motors, but the average guy with no felonies or overt ties to Islam can generally run the gauntlet successfully. Even I sneaked through. I’ll see what I can come up with for photos. This is a wonderful hook to get kids interested in science, an area where America is beginning to realize that we’re falling behind China and India.
Pete IVDL
March 19, 2006 at 4:38 pm
18Dude - of course you’re going to be behind China. I mean, they’ve only had, what, 2000 years’ head start?
Mate, if I even started to list the things we can’t buy/do here, I’d clog up this internet thingy. In terms of “hobby” (why, oh why, do they always spell hobbyist ‘hobbiest’?) parts, we can get little things like 27MHz remote controllers, Tamiya electric cars, the sort of 8th-grade toys you guys take for granted. But try and get a single-cylinder glowplug marine engine - we’re talking $1000+ from a specialist importer. And don’t even think about toughened aluminium tubing, ablative compounds, chimney heaters, LOX without a full commercial license, metallised mylar, anything at all made from duralumin, perspex or any plastic thicker than about an inch… TIG welding tools…
I recently had to obtain two 1-inch thick tempered glass slabs, about a foot and a half square, for straightening PVC records. I wanted the slabs drilled horizontally with 5 evenly-spaced holes, 1/4 inch diameter, and a couple of perpendicular 1/16 holes near one edge (so I could fix a couple of simple hinges). No-one in the Australian glass industry even knew if the longitudinal holes could be drilled. They all had to contact their parent companies overseas. 3 months later, none of them can do it. It took the only supplier I could find 5 weeks to provide me with 2, milled edge, tempered slabs of 19mm glass. Cost me $450. There are no holes drilled in the glass, no-one could do even the small, perpendicular holes.
This isn’t rocket science. This is glass, for Lobster’s sake.
Like most Australian kids, I got tired reading American “how to” books and magazines 20 years ago, because all the recipes called for simple, easy to get stuff that down here required an import licence at the least. The instructions always said “go down to your local drugstore…” or “…from your local machine shop”. Shit, I still can’t buy powdered sulphur anywhere in metropolitan Melbourne - I have to purchase it from a chemical importer in 3kg lots. (And as you’ll have probably guessed, no sulphur, no black powder. And don’t even think about white powder - sugar’s no problem, but potassium perchlorate? hahahahahaha.)
So we just read about all the incredible things 10-year-old American kids do (or at least could do) with stuff they can get for peanuts from (worst case) interstate.
If any Aussie reading this has had any different experience, I’d love to hear from/meet them. Perhaps they could come back to Australia and show how it’s done over in the US…
Sure, our lack of sophistication and “can-do” attitude has created the stump-jump plough, the black box (yes, that black box) flight recorder, and… some other stuff. Sheep dip springs to mind. And Akubra hats. We even have a rocket testing ground in South Australia. Yep. We sure do. We sent a rocket up just last year. Uni of Queensland, I think it was, testing the scramjet engine. The only reason they were allowed to use the Woomera testing ground (Woomera is an aboriginal word for throwing stick) was because NASA’s scramjet test had crashed horribly. And Woomera is the only high-altitude testing facility in the country. Full stop.
Put it this way: if Homer Hickam had lived in Oz, he’d just be a petrol pumper with a funny name.
(This all sounds so pathetic, but in reality, it’s just frustrating for kids who read about great stuff, but can’t repeat or improve on the ideas themselves).
Ann
March 19, 2006 at 6:19 pm
19Thanks SeattleDan, I’m blushing! I was so happy to finally visit your store and meet you and Tammy.
Adam, I’m eagerly awaiting your book’s release, but I’ll be buying it at my favorite LOCAL store, instead of on Amazon.
Isn’t it amazing how many comments we can leave without Adam’s having really said anything?!
dee
March 19, 2006 at 7:33 pm
20I wanna shoot off rockets at Felberpalooza!!!
Murray
March 19, 2006 at 8:43 pm
21Yea, Coop,
Bring your rockets, Hell, we can aim them anywhere we want and no one will give a damn.
(For those who want to obtain fireworks there is a Phantom Fireworks shop only about 15 miles from here).
A number of years ago one neighbor who lives about a mile from here, liked to use his AK-47 to shoot at the State Forest across the valley from the back of his place. He enjoyed doing this at night using tracer bullets. Unfortunately the tracers are incendiary and he kept lighting the forest on fire, including a time that I had to contact the Fire Department. One night, after 3 separate fires, at 3 separate times, the department was exhausted, bewildered and angry. This section of the State Forest has many square miles and only one road. Getting to fires, a mile or so away from the road, on the side of a mountain, in the dark, is a pain in the ass. This guy saw the direct connection between drinking and shooting more clearly than most, so he wasn’t a favorite of law enforcement, and one of his neighbors eventually turned him in. Happily one of his vices caught up with him and he is no longer a danger.
Linkmeister
March 19, 2006 at 9:48 pm
22Coop, here’s a page with an .AVI file of one of our local rocketeer’s flights. Click, let it load, then hit the right-arrow at the lower left. It’s an on-board camera, and it doesn’t last very long, but it’s interesting.
cooper
March 19, 2006 at 11:52 pm
23Linkmeister, thanks for the video. That was with a D12-5? - amazingly light electronics!
Murray, we’ll need a fair sized field, otherwise we’ll decorate your trees with our rockets and they stay in trees a long time before rotting enough to fall out.
I flew one of my rockets today to 2654 feet. There was no wind at the end of the day, so we loaded up the light, minimum diameter rockets and let them roar.
Before I went to the field today, my wife, Susie, and I took our son to a college fair. There were about 75 colleges represented and talk about a reality check - B.U. and Northeastern come in at $40K - plus; Bennington slightly less. Warren Wilson College in Western NC about half that. We’ll either need large scholarships or I’ll need to get out of rocketry - perish the thought! We’re promoting one of the many UNC campuses, which will be cheaper still.
SeattleDan
March 20, 2006 at 12:43 am
24I thought I’d share this with you all. The actual article has been pulled, but was published this past week in the Kitsap Busines Journal, here in rural Washington. I originally found it a baseball blog I look at and it has exploded into a blogsphere phenomenon.
http://hominidviews.com/myContent/adele.jpg
Check it out.You may have to c and p the link.
hedera
March 20, 2006 at 1:00 am
25That’s quite an article, SeattleDan - I’m not surprised it was pulled, and even less surprised that the blogosphere is all over it. She says things a lot of people don’t want to hear.
dee
March 20, 2006 at 9:48 am
26My SECOND favorite blogger, General JC Christian, had a letter to Adele earlier this week. you’ll need to scroll down to find it, but you might find some amusing diversions along the way.
Harold
March 20, 2006 at 9:50 am
27I’m baaaaack! Now I think I need to take another week off just to catch up on on Fanatical Apathy!
Hot Tub Tommy
March 20, 2006 at 11:29 am
28Harold, good to have you back, boy! You may want to take advantage of the opportunity you missed to make a contribution to my re-election campaign. I know you’re concerned, as I am, on the condition we find facing the American Family these days and will work with me to make much needed changes. I hope you will continue to further our cause as we move forward and make a much appreciated donation to Re-elect Rep. Thomas Delay Campaign. Thank you and may God Bless America!
Rep. Thomas Delay (R,TX)
Maximum Bob
March 20, 2006 at 2:43 pm
29Tommy, the American Family just called; they’re outa milk. Could you pick up some on the way home?
SeattleDan
March 20, 2006 at 5:02 pm
30dee, we just discovered the General’s blog in connection with Adele’s article. Very interesting stuff.It’s good to know there is a fine American out there taking care of us.
cooper
March 20, 2006 at 7:05 pm
31“No one will be fooled by this election result or indeed by the whole election,” Verheugen told Deutschlandradio Kultur after it was announced that Lukashenko had won Sunday’s election with 82.6 percent of the vote.
Oh, yeah, right! Where were our European friends when we really needed help for our election process in 2000 & 2004? Bitch about Bush all you want, Gunter! You could have changed the world, if you just would have gotten up from your Bratwurst and bier and done the right thing! Assholes…
emma
March 23, 2006 at 5:53 am
32Hey what does this casual friday mean? OOOOOOO casual: relaxing at home. mmmmmmmmm i m jealous.
