Tales from Creekistan: June 2006

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Thursday Thirteen: Excuses, Excuses!

Everyone, once in a while, seems to post a Thursday Thirteen with excuses why they think their list this week is lame. Now it's my turn!

My eyes hurt. Blame it on allergies or that my contacts are getting old. I could also blame it on the pink-eye infected eye juice, but since I don't use it, I can't.
I am not feeling particularly creative this morning. Perhaps some of the other excuses could explain.
My Mother has been visiting from out-of-town.
We've been staying at hotels for the past three days.
I haven't had access to a computer and the Internet for a few days.
I just got back to work and I have a lot of things to catch up on.
I have so many good topic ideas that I can't pick just one!
I need a vacation from the vacation.
I haven't slept very good lately.
I'm supposed to be doing work right now!
My kids have been spoiled so they've been very difficult to deal with.
Did I mention my Mother is in town? This is her first visit to Creekistan. According to her, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be."
Who can top getting to meet C-3PO? It's been a downer ever since last Wednesday.

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Friday, June 23, 2006

My Robot Week

Several people have asked how I happened to meet C-3PO, aka Anthony Daniels. I work for a company that makes robots and robot kits for beginners. I am not an engineer, but I work with them. But I had the opportunity to attend the RoboBusiness conference in Pittsburgh this week. It was really interesting—-the robots, machines, and computer systems that are state-of-the-art.

As part of the RoboBusiness conference, Carnegie Mellon had their induction ceremony for their Robot Hall of Fame Anthony Daniels emceed the event, and was available during the conference to sign autographs.

I did not know that they would have C-3PO there. Imagine my surprise when I came down to the conference after breakfast and saw the actual size C-3PO statue, R2-D2, Gort (from “The Day the Earth Stood Still”) as well as Maria, the art deco robot from the 1927 film “Metropolis”. I was thrilled—I’m a huge Star Wars fan. But I was even more excited when I noticed Anthony Daniels there. So I had him sign a hat for my son.

He was very nice, and his handwriting was excellent. He wrote my son’s name, and “May the force be with you” along with his signature. We will all treasure it and put it in a place of honor, once our home is finished.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Thursday Thirteen (13): My Favorite Robots

In honor of my meeting Anthony Daniels this week (the guy who plays C-3PO in Star Wars), I would like to list my favorite robots:

1. R2D2 from Star Wars – I have a theory that all six movies are actually about him, that he is the catalyst that makes everything happen. I think he knew a lot more than he said.

2. C-3PO from Star Wars – He is the most polite and annoying, but great nonetheless.

3. Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Always interested in what was going on in the 20th century. Frankly, so am I.

4. Data from Star Trek the Next Generation – He was striving to be more human, not knowing that he was more human than human.

5. Terminator – It was scary how he couldn’t be stopped.

6. Bubo - The Owl from Clash of the Titans. I’d love to have him flying around and helping me out. Besides, if money got tight, I could sell him for the gold.

7. HAL2000 from 2001—A Space Odyssey. What are you doing, Dave?

8. NS-5 from iRobot – Where can I get one of those robots? Cook, clean, carry your purse. Perfect! Except for the whole rounding up humans and trying to protect us from ourselves thing that they did.

9. Bender Bending Rodriguez – from Futurama. I’d love to have a few drinks with him.

10. Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover – How cool is it to have a real robot on Mars?

11. The Cylons of Battlestar Galactica – Very cool. Some are even sexy! Some don’t even know they are robots.

12. Bishop from Aliens. He could get chopped in half and still save a human.

13. The giant flying robots in “Sky Caption And The World Of Tomorrow”. They were just cool. I mean, 1940’s Art Deco cool.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Thursday 13: My Favorite Hoaxes

Snopes is one of my favorite websites, and I’m always referring people to the site. Especially after I receive an e-mail with a photo or story that seems too good to be true. I love to debunk hoaxes and let the truth be known.

1. The 9/11 Tourist Guy – This photo made the e-mail rounds right after 9/11 and fooled a lot of people.

2. The Well to Hell - Scientists drilling in Siberia went too far and ended up punching a hole through to Hell, where the screams of the damned drifted up to them.

3. Gas Pump Prick –Gas station customers are getting stuck by HIV-loaded syringes affixed to gas pump handles.

4. Frank Zappa once won a gross-out contest by eating excrement on stage. "For the record, folks: I never took a shit on stage, and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973."

5. The Dihydrogen Monoxide Scare. Dihydrogen Monoxide is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the unstable radical Hydroxide, the components of which are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol. (Note: Dihydrogen Monoxide is H2O, aka Water.) http://www.dhmo.org/

6. Nigerian E-Mail Scam Help a wealthy Nigerian move millions of dollars and you will get a percentage. - A fraud that has actually cost people thousands of dollars.

7. Y2K – We all remember sitting around in our living rooms, with stockpiles of water and food, generators at the ready, waiting for all the lights to go off, the cars to not work, and even our microwaves to stop working. Nothing happened except that I had to buy new checks because the 19__ part of the date was no longer valid.

8. Bert is Evil - Bert, the Sesame Street muppet, appears on posters carried by supporters of Osama bin Laden. Actually, the joke was on someone in Bangladesh who was looking for pictures of Osama and found this one with Bert. He actually USED this image on thousands of posters that were used in demonstrations. Pictures of the demonstrations were carried by credible news agencies. You go Bert!

9. BBC Interview Guy - A guy that was at the BBC for a job interview, was mistaken as an expert and actually got put live, on camera, in an interview about the Apple computers versus Apple music legal case.

10. Celebrity Mediums – Famous psychics such as John Edwards are using an age-old technique called cold reading where they obtain information by asking questions and guessing rather than "talking to the dead".

11. Movie Ghost #1 – I love to pause movies that are supposed to have dead people or ghosts in them. The Wizard of Oz supposedly captured a munchkin hanging himself and his death was captured on-camera.

12. Movie Ghost #2 - The Three Men and a Baby scene in question really does creep me out. A boy is rumored to have committed suicide a room where they filed the movie and his ghost is supposedly captured on film.

13. Music Hoaxs - such as the woman being murdered during the recording of the Ohio Player’s Love Rollercoaster, and the whole Paul is Dead thing in the Beatles recording.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

“Spring” Garden, aka Hillbilly Archeology

I know, I know. It’s a little late to plant a garden. But it’s not TOO late. There are some things that I can get into the ground that may sprout just fine, like beans, and tomato plants. I recently sustained a knee injury that made walking, let alone planting, painful. But that is getting better.

So we selected a spot across from the Bee House that looked like it would be great for a small garden. In fact, there used to be a chicken house in that location. We can only guess this because of the wood pieces that where piled there from a structure that had fallen a long time ago.

While carefully removing the wood—we had to be careful of any exposed nails and potential snakes—we discovered that the former residents used the structure for storage. Presumably after the chickens had left. We had to perform some Hillbilly Archeology. We removed various old planters, long dried out pieces of plastic, and an old tin wall-hanging of a fiddle (this I kept, once it’s cleaned up and painted, it may be pretty cool!). But striking of all of our finds was about 50 springs. The more we excavated, the more we found.

“Why springs?” you may wonder. Well, we asked our neighbors this very question. Seems that years ago, the grandchildren of the people living in the Bee House had a trampoline. Of course, once that trampoline is broken or the kids get too old, the thing you want to do is bury the springs in your front yard where the chicken house used to be. Then, throw the rest under the house along with the old car parts, satellite dish, and sewing machine.

Needless to say, now that the springs are gone, we should have a nice garden. At least I hope so.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Thursday 13: Phrases That I Find Irritating

Okay, you asked for it!

“Have a blessed day.” –Many things that people do are well intentioned, yet assumes that their audience shares their exact belief. That’s where this phrase comes in. It’s sneaking in a Christian blessing! What if I don’t want me or my day to be blessed? What if I’d rather have a Birkat ha-Hammah (a Jewish blessing) (I am not Jewish). What if I’m just hoping for a good day, let alone a blessed day.
“Enclosed, please find . . . .” (as seen in business letters). What, did you hide something? You mean I have to search for your enclosure?
“Can I ask you a question?” - You just did, but you are more than welcome to ask another question.
“Let’s touch base.” – (Business jargon). Sorry, I don’t play baseball.
“Git-r-done.” – Do I even have to explain?
LOL – Caught you! A lot of people use this, but are you really Laughing Out Loud? How many times have we used this when we really didn’t LOL? Come on, admit it!
“Liberal Media” – I hate the fact that the word “liberal” has become, to some people, a derogative term to label people or institutions that are not conservative. Liberal, in my definition, means “free thinking” or “open minded”. The media, on the other hand, is not liberal in that definition. For the most part, they are more entertainment reporters with a little smattering of news.
“Support our Troops” – I preface this by saying that of course I support our troops, even if I hate the fact that they are forced to go into active duty. But I dislike the magnetic yellow ribbons that people stick to the back of their cars, SIDEWAYS. Stephen T. Banko III http://www.counterpunch.org/banko05252004.html said it better then I can: “We now live in a bumper sticker world where the only truths we accept are those simplistic enough to fit on an 18-inch adhesive placard.”
"Breaking news" – The news media use this too much. In recent times, I’ve noticed that they use this everyday to indicate their most exciting stories, whether or not it is actually “breaking news.” Breaking news should be the news that is happening right then—the kind of news that they don’t have all the information yet but can’t wait to tell you!
“Just you wait” – When strangers are talking to me about my children. I guess they are trying to warn me that things will get bad when my children turn double digits.
“Girlfriend” – Especially said to me by someone I don’t even know! Okay, okay, I know they are referring to the solidarity of the female gender.
“At the end of the day” – Just annoys me, I don’t know why. I am not a fan of unnecessary prepositional phrases.
“Note to self.” – What, are you so stupid that you have to write little notes to yourself? What about love notes? What about Dear John letters to yourself? Actually, I think that whoever says this out loud is actually wanting whoever listens to help them remember something. “Note to self: don’t forget to blog about this topic.”

Thursday, June 01, 2006

13 Potential Thursday 13 Topics – Help Me Decide What’s Next!

13 phrases that I find irritating – For example: “Have a blessed day.”
13 of my favorite moments – For example: Having a giggle fit during childbirth class.
13 things that people tell me to do that I ignore.– For example: Make your bed.
13 things that chocolate is not good on. – For example: Tailpipe hitch.
13 things that I do not apologize for. – For example: I will not attend a party hosted by a person who got suckered by a pyramid-type marketing scheme, like Mary Kay or Amway, especially if they are trying to get people to become distributors too.
13 of my favorite hoaxes – For example: The Well to Hell - Scientists drilling in Siberia went too far and ended up punching a hole through to Hell, where the screams of the damned drifted up to them.
13 strange medical conditions or terms – For example: Micropenis.
13 parts of my body that have been broken, fixed, or altered: For example: Ear piercing #1.
13 things about PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome) bad and good: For example: Irregular periods.
13 things that I miss about working for Big Corporation: For example: multiple stalls in the restroom.
13 things on and under my desk at work: For example: Broken gerbil cage.
13 things about the 13-year-old Amy the Black. For example: I tried to die my hair blond with hydrogen peroxide but it turned my hair orange instead.
13 reasons why I should do a Thursday 13 Podcast. For example: I want to do a podcast, and my husband will be teaching about it, so we might as well do one together!