The Evil Eyebrow

  • The Magic of Flickr

    In case anyone cares, all of my Dragon*Con images are posted to flickr now. There are two sets, one containing all of the images I felt worthy of upload, and one containing my “favorites”. I quotate “favorites” because there wasn’t much selection going on. I’ll probably make a third set during the next several weeks that will contain my real favorites, after cropping and color levelling. For now, they are what they are. There are also a number images that I’ve posted as Friends Only, so if you’re my friend and want to see them, get a flickr account and ask me to make you a contact. Nothing horribly risque, but I felt that a lot of them were not to be for public consumption.

    Flickr is great because I can watch the view count of my images climb during lunch time on the east coast. I also have been watching the image count with keywords “dragoncon 2007” rise from 6,000 yesterday to 20,000 today at noon.

  • Sacrifice Goats to Fly!

    Boeing should add this practice to its standard maintenance manual.

  • Dragon*Con 2007

    We just got home from Dragon*Con. It was, as always, a total blast. This is our third annual, and I’ve already made my hotel reservations for next year.

    There will be lots of posts coming, but here’s a taste of the fun.

    Crowdsurfing Stormtrooper!

    Crowdsurfing Stormtrooper

  • Harry Potter Dethroned!

    At least from his place at the top of the blogosphere. Apparently, Alberto Gonzales is much more gab worthy right now.

  • Making my Wife Blow Up…

    …by citing blogs that cite studies that decry modern feminism.

    “Women are better at finding doughnuts than men.”

  • Track and Field Units of Measure

    I was watching Track and Field last night when a seemingly obvious question came to mind. I say “seemingly” because it has never crossed my mind before.

    Why do we measure running distances (except the marathon) in meters but throwing and jumping distances in feet-inches?

    Of course, this might be a foible of American TV. I was watching NBC after all, and they might assume that while the average American probably knows what a meter is, he or she will be extremely unlikely to know what a centimeter looks like (I may be being cynical, but I doubt it).

    A quick check of Wikipedia, the repository of all human knowledge in its most precise form, shows a listing of world records in feet. Okay, maybe this is a wikipedia thing, measuring things in feet, while the rest of the world sensibly goes with meters.

    Nope. According to the official results from the Sidney Olympics, we measure the Long Jump in feet, to the nearest hundreth. This is screwy. Entirely screwy. Why are we measuring in feet, still? And which foot are we using? I hope it’s the international foot, rather than the American Survey Foot, although the difference between those two is only found in the seventh decimal place (0.3048 meters for an international foot and 0.30480061 meters for a survey foot) so it wouldn’t really matter.

    Ack!

  • Dragon*Con 2007

    Dragon*Con is this weekend! I’m psyched.

    If you live in the Atlanta area and have any interested whatsoever in Scifi, Fantasy, Comics, Gaming, Movies, Anime, Costuming, Podcasting, Writing, Books, Buffy, Angel, Star Trek, Star Wars, or just seeing Klingons walk around on Peachtree Street, you should drop by.

    The Parade down Peachtree is at 10:00 AM on Saturday, and it is a blast.

  • Favorite Photo of the Week

    It’s not the best photo, but I still like it.

    Splash

    We were whitewater rafting in Tennessee on the Middle Ocoee river. I highly recommend this trip.

    A close second was this image:

    Atlanta Region Traffic Management Center

    This was taken in one of the conference rooms of the Traffic Management Center in Atlanta. These rooms overlook the operations room for the Atlanta Metro area.

  • Why We Don't Trust Mechanics

    My vehicle was making some distressing new noises this week. They seemed to originate from the front end (front wheel drive) during acceleration and cornerning, which is not a good combination. I was thinking CV joint or axle. It turns out to be the right half axle, which is being replaced.

    However, when I called yesterday to make an appointment, the lady who took it asked me to summarize the symptoms, and I said, “Funny sounding vibration, in front.” She asked, “at highway speeds?” to which I responded, “Yes.”

    Fast forward to the call from the mechanic. They recommended a replacement axle, and a few other things which I know are problems (but am ignoring), plus they strongly recommended I rotate and balance the tires, to remove the “vibration at highway speeds.” The kicker here is that there is no vibration at highway speeds that is attributable to my tires. Furthermore, my tires were newly bought and balanced less than two months ago. I know they tacked this on as a silly way to milk my wallet with unecessary work. This does not make me happy, and I plan to tell them about it when I get there.

    Grr.

  • Atlanta City Council wants to Ban Saggy Pants

    According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the city council is contemplating an amendment of the city code which is targeted to ban saggy pants (reg. required).

    To summarize: Someone on the council considers the style of droopy drawers with boxer shorts showing to be indecent and inappropriate. Therefore, an ordinace with fines attached. The ACLU is stepping up to combat this stereotypically stupid measure by demonstrating that it could not be enforced in a non-discriminatory way. Despite its wording, which would eliminate jog bras, bra straps, thong straps, and running shorts from public view, it is intended to be a blow against a primarily african-american clothing style.

    Usually, I’m happy to live in the Atlanta Metro area. It’s a cosmopolitan place, with very little “deep south” vibe, excepting some blue laws and the traditional southern hospitality and friendliness. This sort of thing, though, makes me wonder what goes on at council meetings. I can just hear some old geezer during the meeting shouting, “Dang whipper snappers! Don’t they know how to dress!”

    Very very silly.

The Evil Eyebrow

There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow

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