Haven't used a pen (sustained) in a while, its nice

I was drawing some diagrams today and drew them on paper before I put them into figures on the computer.

My trusty Pilot G-2 mini and computer printer paper were made for each other.

Lifelong goal reached

So, I finally met a lifelong goal.

I can now walk to the printer without taking my headphones off in the office.

I bought a 12ft extension for headphones and it works great.

Data fusion

I was reading yesterday and two facts came together in my head.

First, from "A Day Without Seapower and Projection Forces":
almost 90% of the world's population lives within 500 miles of the ocean

and

from an aviation week article about future technologies:
with hypersonic vehicles we can hit targets 500 nm away in less than 8 minutes

I am going to assume the Navy guy was talking about 500nm, so that means, almost 90% of the world's population would be at risk of attack in under 8 minutes if we have hypersonic vehicles.

How not to make grilled cheese

I'd just like to let the world know that you *can* make a grilled cheese sandwich in the toaster, although I don't recommend it.

I took a piece of cheese and put it between two slices of bread. I then smashed the whole thing to one slice of bread thickness. Went around the edges smashing a bit more. Then two cycles on "not crazy dark" in the toaster.

Its ... meh. Spend the time to do it right, who cares if you make a pan dirty. (I had just finished a weekend full of dishes, so I was looking for something quick.)

I was lucky that the cheese did not drip out, I think they sell sleeves for the sandwich to make cheese sandwiches in the toaster.

Thesis baby (inlaws: no, not a real baby... )

me: "Man, I have gotten fat"
*me grabs belly and pats it
her: "Well... we will just call it... your thesis baby"

1 attoparsec per microfortnight

I feel like my dissertation work is moving at one attoparsec per microfortnight.

gah.

In other news, I maimed a butterfly by accident yesterday. I was driving back from the store and saw this butterfly in my path. I braked and swerved and braced for impact. Sometimes, small insects can just be pushed around without actually hitting the car, but it was not meant to be for this butterfly. I couldn't see the impact, so I thought he was safe. He was not. When I stopped at a light, a dazed butterfly tried to fly away from the front of my car, but fell to the ground and kept trying to fly. I was hoping I missed him, but nope.

my monitor is dying

I bought a crt monitor in 2002, and its been moved at least 7 times (5 of those include a cross country shipping.

Lately, its been acting up, it loses one color so that the screen has a red tint to it.

I'm sort of resolved to see this one to its end, and if I wait, it always goes back to working. While its missing a color, I tend to keep doing what I was doing as I mostly need to read text and type.

I was reading some news this morning though, and they had an article about the North Koreans and getting back into talks. There was a picture of Hilary Clinton, and she was looking much more youthful than normal. I figured it was due to the color change on my monitor, so I googled "bill clinton color blind".

Turns out he is color blind.