Greg's navel gazing

09:29 am - modern life

No names mentioned to protect the not so very guilty.

"So, you're calling to confirm an e-mail I didn't get about a dinner date I don't remember?"

10:30 am - what a way to start the day

I love it when suspicious packages shut down Mass Ave.

03:46 pm - DC area ISS viewing

Tonight, between 22:43 and 22:49 EDT the ISS will pass from southwest to northeast, culminating 50 degrees above the northwest horizon at 22:46. It should be at least magnitude -2.5, and may "flare" even brighter if there's a good specular reflection from one of the solar arrays.

Tomorrow night, 7/7, between 21:32 and 21:38 EDT it will pass from southwest to northeast, culminating 44 degrees up in the southeast at 21:35. Since it will be viewed at a greater phase angle it should be brighter than tonight's pass, perhaps by a full magnitude. As an added bonus, there will be a bright "flare" of Iridium 32 at 21:31:37 near the bright star Vega. If you are ± a quarter mile of the USNO's longitude this flare could top out at magnitude -8. Farther east/west it will be less bright, but anywhere within ± 15 miles east/west of the USNO longitude it should still appear brighter than Venus.

On Wednesday, 7/8, between 21:57 and 22:02, we will once again have a southwest to northeast pass of the ISS, culminating 47 degrees up in the northwest just before 22:00.

10:09 pm - meme from prism_pet

Her words for me were:

ComputerYea, that's how I spend my life, fixing them or getting them to do what I want them to do.

Ice CreamWhat I was buying last time I saw her. Ok, it was a smoothie, but the points the same.

Viking Damnifiknow

Smart I guess that's her opinion of me.

Green Got me again. Sympathy for the protests in Iran?


Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

07:26 pm - Is there a term for?

What do you call it when you leave the grill on when you are done cooking, so the next time you want to grill you find you are out of propane? Other than "moronic", I mean.

10:41 pm

New family room

03:18 pm - lunch

Lunch today with lionessindc and reedrover. Potbelly's and sunshine, although we
sat in the shade to make reedrover happy. Picked up a smoothie afterwards at Ben and Jerries. prism_pet was wearing a shirt that looked a lot like her usericon.

08:29 pm - my day

Spent half my morning problem solving for a duckling, went to Huntington Library from noon till it closed. Majorly impresssed. Saw a Gutenburg Bible, a copy of Chaucer, a copy of Virgil, multiple works by Newton, Einstein, Faraday, and more. Lots of artwork, and I only saw about half of the botanical gardens. I had my shoe tassels nibbled on by some of the cutest baby ducks ever (squeeee!). I think I now have blisters.

12:48 am - what to do tomorrow

I'm going to visit the Huntington Library and look at their copy of the Principia, look at their artwork, and see if their very stinky "Corpse Flower" has bloomed yet. What are you doing tomorrow?

12:54 am - not always what you expect

It was advertised in the program as "Planetary classification", scheduled to run from 6:30 to 8. What we got was a verbal smackdown between Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, Science Guy. And I smoozed with Alan Stern, PI on the Pluto Express mission.

12:31 am - day one of the AAS

I survived my plane trip that left Dulles at 10pm, arriving LAX at about 12:15 am Californicated time. Found my room, and got a few hours of sleep. Today was lots of geekery, a minor celebrity spotting (Neil deGrasse Tyson was at the next table at the Brazilian barbequeue), and talking to people I haven't seen in 20 years. The meeting is pretty small, probably no more than a thousand people, and perhaps only about 800. After the meeting I went to the Carnegie Institute for drinks and networking.

09:54 pm

Poll #1408899 What make you feel more like a dork?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What makes you feel more like a dork?

10:18 pm - today

Mowed lawn, trimmed hedges, uprooted poke plants, did laundry, took off painters tape from family room, fixed light in family room, started cutting moulding to size with miter box, measured twice, cut once, wood still not correct size, cut 45 degree cuts in wrong direction, cut 45 degree cuts in right direction, loaded dishwasher, poured glass of drambui.

02:18 pm - gumping at politics

Since I'm totally tired of the "does the bf sleep on the couch if the gf answers the question "do you need cake" with a "no"", I'll vent at hypocritical right wingers.

Two of the most common arguments against Sotomayer are:

1) She's an activist, who won't simply rule on the basis of the law as written, and
2) She didn't overturn Title VII in favor of the Connecticut firefighters.

The point that these are in direct conflict seems to be beyond their pointy little heads, like Krauthammer.

03:53 pm - possible U2 tickets available

It looks like I may be in Vermont on Sept 29th, when U2 is playing at FedEx field. I'd rather someone I knew enjoyed the tickets rather than just putting them on stubhub or craigs list. Any U2 fan out there feeling annoyed caused you didn't get a ticky?
Comments screened.
Edit: I have two tickets available. I don't remember the section number.

12:36 pm - person of color poll

While listening to the talking heads last night discuss Sotomayor, one of them referred to her as a "woman of color". This struck me as weird. I'd like to find out of other people think this is weird, or normal.


Poll #1406585 Person of color
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Can a latino/latina or asian person be a "person of color"?

10:46 am - the fracking drilling

NPR had a story this morning about the regulation of fracking. I first thought it was going to be a FCC type "seven dirty words" type of story, but apparently there is a type of drilling called "fracking" (the name comes from fracture drilling) that may end up dumping all sorts of chemicals in the ground. Apparently these may then leak into well water. This sort of thing used to be covered by the EPA, but the Bush adminstration changed the rules so no regulation was allowed anymore. To regulate that wouldn't be "pro business". I'll be so glad when we are done undoing the damage that sub moronic election stealer inflicted on us.

07:22 am - there is no goat

reedrover and freeofwhip should check out today's xkcd. :)

07:15 am - food coma

Melting pot is yummy. Melting pot is wonderful. Melting pot, with a glass of wine, while celebrating lionessindc's birthday, causes me to pass out upon returning home with a massive food coma.

05:14 pm - yea

In spite of the fact that I feel like warmed over death on a cracker, I got nibbled on by Baby Goats! Ok, they aren't quite so baby as they used to be, but they are cute. Even if they do try to eat my pants.

10:02 am - cold mornings

Sierra looks so cute on a cold morning when she is curled up with her tail covering her nose.

07:48 am - sheesh

Who turned off the heat today?

07:28 am - Bruuuce

Another kick ass concert by the Boss and the E street band. My ears are still ringing. First time I ever heard Hava Nagila done at a rock concert.

11:59 am - Mason Center for the Arts events

Pam and I are mulling over what events we want to see, so I'd see if anyone else would be interested, since the more the merrier.

Flying Karamazov Brothers, Sunday Oct 11
La Boheme, Friday, Oct 16, Sunday Oct 18
Shaolin Warriors, Sat Oct 24, Sunday Oct 25
Virsk Ukranian National Dance Company Nov 7
TAO, Martial art of Drumming, Saturday Mar 20, Sunday March 21 (Taiko drumming)

08:37 pm - geek help desired

Anyone reading this know anything about dealing with redhat cluster? In particular use of the ccs_tool program?

08:06 pm - my quote of the weekend

Conversations with blushing_grace can be interesting. Today's variant went like:

BG: It was air trumpets, you know, like air guitars.
me: When I do air guitars I like to do them Pete Townsend style.
BG: Who?
me: *pause to see if the pun was intentional* *faceplant when it was clear it wasn't*

Modern life then joined in when someone got their iphone and went to wikipedia's entry on Pete Townsend.

11:11 pm - La Boheme

I've wanted to see La Boheme for a while. It is playing at Wolf Trap Friday August 7th. Pam tells me she has no interest in listening to people sing in Italian. Since I'd hate to go to my first opera alone, does this sound appealing to anyone?

12:44 pm - what an unpleasant person

I walked down to Wisconsin Ave for lunch at safeway.While in line, a woman came in behind me. She complained about the length of the line, even though I didn't think it was particularly long. She complained about the bank "stress tests". She complained about her cell reception. (Note, I'd said *nothing* to encourage her). She complained about the way the safeway dude made her sandwich. I was in her presence for about 10 minutes and I felt like I needed to be decontaiminated. reedrover talked about wanting to be around pleasant people, and I have a much better idea of what she means now. I know three people with MS who are more pleasant that the ungrateful person behind me in the lunch line.

Now ever everyone will excuse me I'm going to manufacture a reason to walk across the campus to enjoy more of the sunlight. Everyone please have the most pleasant day that you can.

11:46 pm - Star Trek Mini Review

If they keep the action going non stop, with plenty of things going boom mixed in, you never have time to stop and worry about the huge plot holes.

10:24 am - the stupid, it burns!

Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, went on "Good Morning America" to launch her new pastime as an ambassador for abstinence.

Anchor Christopher Cuomo pointed out that Palin's own personal history went against her abstinence-only message for teens. (Palin, 18, recently had a baby with former boyfriend Levi Johnston.) She became pregnant after she and Levi failed to use protection (something Johnston admitted on the "Tyra" show.)

Palin was less forthcoming on this issue than her ex. "Regardless of what I did personally, I just think that abstinence is the only way you can effectively, 100% foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy," she responded. Asked how she squared her own experiences with her new campaign, she added, "I'm not quite sure, I just want to go out there and promote abstinence and say, this is the safest choice. This is the choice that's going to prevent teen pregnancy and prevent a lot of heartache."

Look Briston, I realize you may never have had a course in statistics, but don't refer to something as being 100% foolproof *after* you have a kid due to playing sex games without using protection.

08:58 am - Weird shoes of the day link

I don't know anyone brave/stupid enough to wear these.


Story at the Telegraph

08:03 pm - GIP

Should I stay with this as a default icon, or try to get an anime type one?

09:55 am - home improvement

The joy of looking at the freshly assembled Ikea Billy bookshelves quickly vanishes when you realise you put the shelves in lamininated side facing the back. And since I used glue to make the bookshelf stronger I doubt I'll be able to fix it. I'll have to see if I can buy more laminate somewhere.

09:36 am - air conditioner fixed

Apparently some bug crawled up the AC and died. And apparently every ac repair dude in the North Virginia area is busy working double time. At least the dude we called out was able to get the unit fixed within about 15 minutes. At a $200 repair charge, that's quite an hourly figure. But given how much Pam was dying with no AC and a high pollen count, at least she can breathe again.

09:41 pm - Sedona

Sedona is an interesting place. When I was walking around playing tourist last Friday, buying shiny rocks for Pam, I stopped in an out of my price range jewelry store to window shop. I started chatting with the sales lady (although I was certain I was older than her, but not by a large amount). In response to her question of why I was in Sedona, I told her I was an astronomer. Her immediate response was "When does Mercury go into retrograde?" At least it was better than "What's your sign?".

10:45 pm - Good news

I got home safe and sound. The bad news is that my ipod was clipped to my belt when I left the hotel, but not when I arrived at the airport.

05:33 pm - beauty

Five am. Walking up the hill towards the car after a long night observing. Sky turning from black to light blue. The cresent moon hanging in the morning sky. Venus a brilliant pearl just touching the north east corner. Driving back toward Flagstaff I got to watch the occultation. I expect it to be on APOD in a day or two.

09:31 pm - I don't think that word means what you think it means

I'm flying to Flagstaff for a few nights of observing tomorrow. I was having dinner with some friends, and we had been chatting about the trip, and Warren asked me what I was going to be doing in Falstaff. I should have said attending a Shakespeare festival.

10:51 pm - yet another sham interview

I found out today that work is going to be advertising for a senior astronomer position, at a level one higher than what I currently am. But I also know they want to hire a dude currently at CalTech. So I get to apply, have a sham interview, then be friendly with the dude when he gets hired. Hard to be mad at him, I've been co-author with him on some papers.

09:47 pm - dissapointment

Neither Borders nor Barnes and Noble had the Jim Butcher book out. What's the fun of seeing if I can scam a copy a day early if the stores won't cooperate?

09:36 am - Chicago

Who doesn't like to see toned dancers prance around in lingerie? Those of us who liked that sort of stuff (reedrover, achaosofkittens, and fireandearth) went down to National Theater to see the baddies make it ahead. I thought the minor characters did better jobs than the actresses playing Roxie and Velma, but I still had fun.

09:28 am - memeage

10:23 pm - I am going to burn in hell

One of our new employees has been having trouble with a certain calculation,
and he had spent about 2 hours with the other new employee, and they couldn't figure
out the problem. Having him describe what he was doing it became apparent
that he needed to use the two argument arctan function, not the one argument arctan
function. He asked me if the use of the two arguments was to prevent
a case when x was zero, and my answer was . . . . .


"Only tangentially."

Pam says I'm going to burn in hell for eternity.

03:49 pm - PSA

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the telescope, the International
Astronomical Union and UNESCO have declared 2009 to be the International Year of
Astronomy (IYA 2009). As part of a world-wide celebration of this event, the U.S. Naval
Observatory (USNO) will be sponsoring a free-admission Open House on Saturday, 4 April,
from 3:00 pm to 10:00 pm. During that time the Observatory's telescopes will be open for
inspection, scientists will explain the mission of USNO’s Master Clock, exhibits will display the
Observatory's history and present work, and local amateur astronomers will share views through
their telescopes.
The open house will coincide with world-wide activities promoted by the IYA, specifically the “100
Hours of Astronomy” activities taking place around the globe from April 2 through April 5. The
main goal of this effort is to give as many people as possible the opportunity to look through a
good-quality astronomical telescope. To this end, USNO’s open house should provide many
opportunities for patrons to do so. In addition to safe observation of the Sun during the afternoon,
the evening hours will feature a multitude of amateur telescopes that will be trained on the Moon,
Saturn, plus a host of other interesting celestial sights.
While a limited number of parking spaces will be available on the grounds, visitors are encouraged to
park across from the British and New Zealand Embassies on Observatory Circle. Visitors are also
encouraged to use public transportation where the Observatory is served by the N2, N4, and N6
Metrobus routes from the DuPont Circle Metro station. Users of public transportation should exit
the bus by the British Embassy and walk to the gate at the end of Observatory Circle. Visitors will
pass through a security screening process upon gaining access to the grounds. Bags and other
personal items will be subject to search. Coolers and large bags or containers will not be
allowed on the base. Cameras and photographs are permitted.
Once on the grounds, visitors may tour the historic Building 1, home of the Observatory's worldrenowned
James M. Gilliss Library, and its 115 year-old 12-inch Alvan Clark refractor telescope,
which will be set up for safe viewing of the Sun, weather permitting. The 26-inch "Great
Equatorial" telescope, famous for its discovery of the moons of Mars in 1877 and still in use on
every clear night, will also be open for inspection.

12:02 pm - I'm too old for comics

Not because I don't enjoy them, but with the new layout of the Wash Post I CAN'T READ THE FRACKING THINGS!

Bye bye Wash Post, it was good knowing you. Say hi to Chrysler as you slide into bankruptcy.

10:42 am - hookey day

I'm considering playing hookey on Thursday and just tramping around
the cherry blossoms with Pam. Anyone else interested?

11:10 am - flexible good news

My BP today was 140/100. A year ago if I had been told that number, I would have been a bit grouchy. However, 140/100 is a lot better than I had been measuring this year, so it appears the meds are working.

10:52 am - grrrrr

I'm getting *really* tired of my car not starting in the morning. Any idea as to what may be the root cause if batterys keep appearing to die?

10:29 am - geek calendar

Happy pi day! (3 14)

08:22 am

first flower of the spring Isn't the crocus cute?