Regardless of what you’re willing to pay, it’ll cost you about $100,000 for this full-cavity-search-capable shower set-up. Depending on the strength of the jets, really small people could use it to levitate.
[Product Page via BornRich via Gizmodo]
For the last year I’ve supported a few local Magic players by providing them cards in exchange for any promotional cards they win as part of their regular playing. They cover entrance and what not and get any prizes except for those scintillating slices of cardboard periodically dispensed to participants. Anyway, a local player who I think is about 12 wanted to compete in Grand Prix: Philly which is a rather large (850+ people, is my guess) tournament coming up soon and asked to borrow cards. I refused his offers of payment and had him email a deck list of stuff he wanted the proximate week.
He sends me the list and I reply telling him I may not have everything and that he should be prepared to pick up some cards himself but after using some favors, doing some bad trades and using some of my own promos I get 71 of the 75 cards he needs and bring it to the next event. I give him the pile, tell him that I’ve gotten 71 of the 75 cards he needs and he immediately starts pestering me for the last 4. Why don’t you have them? Is there anyone you can buy them from? How am I a supposed to get them? Well, can’t you’re friends that actually pay you use something else? I get him 94.6% of the cards he needs and he bitches, I let people borrow 3 or 4 cards and I practically get a shrine and receive burnt offerings, and he bitches about four god-damn cards.
Kids today.
Each Tuesday and Thursday, I have a 3 hour break at midday between two classes and it doesn’t make much sense for me to go home, so I tool around Temple, hit up Turkish Lunch Cart #2 or Greek Lunch Cart #4 (combine them and you get Cyprus, oh!) for a wicked gyro (they like that I don’t pronounce it JI-rho). Today, I ate my gyro and promptly fell asleep in the Speakman study area. For some strange reason, when I fall asleep on the train or at school, I don’t move around nor make much noise compared to my normal heavy breathing when sleeping. Today was an exception.
I woke up with my arms flung out to the size of me my head back, mouth open and somehow I was in the exact middle of the aisle of 10 partitioned desks in the study area. Apparently I’d been like this for some time, as the aisle dead-ends and to the right of me all the chairs were full while those to the left were empty. Temple follows the urinal rule of only using every other desk space when possible, I’d clearly broke that up. I went to the restroom and I had sleep lines on my face like I’d rested on something, yet I had no jacket, pillow or bag on which to sleep. So I think someone’s got an odd story to tell about a man stealing their jacket to use as a pillow, I hope that person comes to school on Tuesday and tells me. Hopefully I don’t fall asleep.
The planned program for the Playwicki Klondike looked dreadfully dull so I volunteered to come up with a few afternoon activities. Â This is my initial list, comments appreciated.
Competition ideas
I. Blind tent set-up – Scouts set up a standard Y-tent and dome tent blindfolded.
a. Blindfolds
b. Tents
c. Stop watch
d. (?) Extra pole
II. Atlatling – Competitive atlatling
III. Dirt fishing – Unit broken into two groups, one lashes a giant fishing pole where the other draws a map of an area containing the traps. Once done, the groups switch, and one group operates the crane while the other guides it.
a. Rat trap/mouse trap
b. Barrier (tarpaulin over some sort of 6’ upright
c. Staves
d. Break up traps into two types, one gets points the other loses one (size difference, color?)
IV. Slingshot Art – Groups must draw a deer using 100 paintballs (?), TAKE PICTURES, run by lodge
a. Paintballs
b. Sling shots
c. Tarp
d. Squeegee or scraper
V. Gumdrop direction set – one group of Scouts receive a hat made out of gum drops held together by tooth picks. Group must describe the toothpick structure without using charts or diagrams and gives directions to another group who must construct it. Eat the gum drops when they’re done
a. Gum drops
b. Tooth picks
c. Lined paper
d. Clock
VI. Floating fishing weight activity (is there a way to set up
a. Water tub
b. Corks
c. Fishing weights
d. Fishing hooks
VII. Garden hose splicing – unit must straight splice together two ropes made out of pool noodles or garden hoses.
a. Lots and lots of garden hose or pool noodles connected (heat bond polyethylene
b. How about plastic conduit
VIII. Dressing in layers, how many shirts you can wear at once, alternatively Simon says game with layers of clothing. End of day for SPL activity (?)
a. A lot of clothing
IX. Scout bowling
a. Balls
b. Pins
X. Balanced Scouting – Team goes successive rounds of adding square 1-5 lb stones to each side of a balance, goal is to get as many rocks on as possible without scale tipping.
a. Various weighted rocks
b. Stop watch
c. balance
XI. Magnet orienteering – I was rethinking this and thought it might be neat to do a rough orienteering course using water/needle/leaf compasses and quarter/paperclip magnets
a. Small water tubs
b.
XII. Giant clove hitch – giant clove hitch, preferably at least 20 to 30 feet around.
a. Stakes
b. 150+ feet of rope
XIII. Vertical Styrofoam shoot – I wrote this down, but can’t remember for the life of me what it means.
XIV. Spaghetti knots – some activity where participants either lash or tie knots with cold cooked spaghetti. Maybe lash a little spaghetti tepee.
XV. Keep aloft – Scouts are given a soda bottle and various materials to make a water-bottle rocket that stays aloft for the longest time.
a. Parachute materials
b. Soda bottle
c. Soda bottle launcher kit
The cat came in today with a heck of a dent in its head. Over the last few years scabs have been appearing from his frequent scrapes with owls, other cats, a small fox and in one case what looked like a wolverine. The dent had no scab and was quite white and about the size of a dime, which is pretty big on a cat’s head. My dad said it’d been there for a day or two and may not just be a scab and that it had a lump under it while at the same time the cat’s been far nicer than normal. The cat had to go to the vet anyway but I started to envision the conversation with the doctor.
Me: What’s wrong?
Doctor: Your cat has one of the most adorably deadly diseases in the animal kingdom: kitty cancer.
Me: Well, what can we do?
Doctor: Well, sit by and watch him nuzzle against you as he descends a cute spiral of snuggly death.
Me: That’s terrible…
Doctor: Terribly soft and cuddly.
We had presentations today in BA 4196, goody. The teacher spent the session staring at us unhappily and I spent the session looking quizzically at poorly wrought PowerPoint presentations. At then end, the group answered a question really poorly and the teach popped.  While I hate it while it happens I love it after the fact when a teacher blows up. In particular I like two speeches:
1) My generation is superior to you generation
2) You’re undervaluing this useless and valueless material
There’s also the “Your ethnicity is inferior to mine” speech but that can only be implied and generally comes from grizzled Soviet bloc mathematicians. This professor wins the award for being the first instructor to give both in one semester! He beats out my stat professor who did both but over two semesters. He even walked out angrily two minutes before the regular end time of the class.
Later, I got my test back in Act Sci 3505 and there was a rare instance where I bit my tongue. I had been out the previous week and after reviewing the test angrily told a classmate that the 2 points I received off for failing to explain an answer properly robbing me of a 90. He said he’d lost 30 points for similar things and was unsuccessful arguing it. His grade was a 50 while the class averages was 48. Whew…
Gary Gygax, co-creator and innovator of Dungeons and Dragons has failed his saving throw vs. death and is no longer with us.
On March 4, Gary Gygax died at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, after suffering two strokes in 2004 and being diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 69.
-Ars Technica “D&D cocreator Gary Gygax now beyond scope of healing spells”
 Depending on his alignment, he should be on his way to Elysium, The Beastlands, Arboria, or Ysgard. He’s one of the few people for which I’ve read multiple obits simply because each contains some witty D&D joke.
Test question from CIS 1055 Midterm:Â Which of the following is the largest representation of data?
A) MB
B) ZB
C) TB
D) GB
Correct answer: B, but the “correct” answer was C. Apparently someone never heard of the zettabyte or 10^21 bytes.
I narrowly missed the arrival of the 5:43 PM train so I went to the bathroom and started checking my email, in the process confirming a suspicion I’ve had since going to Temple. Every bathroom stall in a building with a wifi connection receives a signal yet approximately 1/3rd of the bathrooms do not. I applaud the Temple Technology Committee’s prioritization.
Gizmodo via Audioholics via Consumerist has an article about a head to head test between monster cables and 4 coathangers soldiered together. Based on the title, guess who won?
I will never feel bad buying monoprice.com cables again.
Last Monday I nearly ripped my hair out writing a memo and preparing a presentation for a group project in BA 4196. I got my grade late today. 48.5…. out of 100. I looked into the individual grades and it broke down to one person getting 32 out of 100, another getting 33 out of 100 and me getting 48 out of 100. Below that was a note saying “do not attempt to convert points out of total into a grade or percentage” I don’t know if this was some policy to cover his back-end kabuki system or a warning that based on our group’s poor performance such mathematical work could cause ourselves personal harm.
After six years, two schools and $3360 in SEPTA train passes I will not be undone by “Strategic Management”. Ironically, I need a game plan.