From ed@hintz.org Wed Jan 1 13:16:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Wed Jan 1 13:16:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] NYE setlist, photos, comments Message-ID: <20030101205934.28307@127.0.0.1:2525> (I figured I'd send this to promotum as there are enough deadheads on the list to warrant general distribution; feel free to trash it if you aren't one of them) It was fun, I finally got to be the head with family in tow. Hunter was somewhat overwhelmed by it all but had fun nonetheless. He can tell when something's not right with someone and doesn't react well to it, so when the more inebriated folk tried to talk to him he'd clam up. He didn't understand what their problem was, but he understood something wasn't right, and he didn't like it... Working our way through the lot a young tourhead by the name of Meagan talked to him, gave him a hug and a little rock shaped like a horse, and said she'd see him inside; he spent half the show looking for her. Cute. He also came away with various little trinkets and glow sticks; seems like a show is a fun place to go for a 5 year old. He got this cute little tyedye with a turtle pattern on it, and we got a Terrapin during the show, so I made a big deal about his having the Terrapin Turtle on his shirt. Had to show him the album cover before he understood what I was rambling about though... My thoughts on the show: as close as you can get to the Dead without having Jerry(and I also missed my traditional NYE co-conspirators, Darryl and Marjorie). It really was a good show. The jams, doodles, setlist, all of it was sweet. The one piece I felt was missing was the soul Jerry brought to certain tunes. Stuff like Stella Blue, Morning Dew, those sorts of songs. When Jerry was on they were incredible, I didn't get the same soulfullness from any of the rest of them. So, I missed that piece, but it was a lot better than when I saw Ratdog several years back-the first 3 tunes were great, but then it was time for a Jerry song, and it was depressing that there were none. One interesting thing; TOO seems to have borrowed a page from Lynyrd Skynyrd. After Skynyrd reformed, whenever they played Freebird they made it instrumental, which made it more poignant; it was explicit that somebody was missing. Same with the Stella Blue last night; making it instrumental acknowledged the fact that Jerry wasn't there to sing it, and none present could do it justice. Well done. And, I finally got my St. Stephen(15 years later, sans Jerry, but I got it). Just a side note on that; reportedly Jerry was reluctant to play Stephen, the rest of 'em wanted to revive it but Jerry wouldn't do it. Jerry's memorial service was held at St. Stephen's; ever since I've wondered if he somehow sensed St. Stephen was a bane of some sort. I grabbed a few photos with a digital camera, it didn't deal with the low light conditions very gracefully, but they are pix of the gig: http://www.hintz.org/photos/public/too-nye/ The setlist: December 31, 2002 The Arena @ Oakland, CA Set 1: St. Stephen> The Eleven> Jack Straw> Unbroken Chain> Playin' In The Band> Scarlet Begonias> Fire on the Mountain GD NYE AudioVideo> COUNTDOWN TO NYE> HAPPY New Years> Sugar Magonolia> Sunshine Daydream> Shakedown Street> Cryptical> Other One> Drumz> Space> Lady With A Fan> Darkstar> Terrapin Station> Throwin' Stones> Not Fade Away Donor Rap> Caution Jam> I Know You Rider> No More Do I> Baby Blue E: Stella Blue Instrumental Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Fri Jan 3 15:20:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Fri Jan 3 15:20:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] Eleventy-First Message-ID: <20030103230219.27016@127.0.0.1:2525> Today (3 Jan. 2003) happens to be JRR Tokein's Eleventy-First birthday-a rather curious number, and a very respectable age for an author (although JRR only made it to 1973-age 81). The Tolkein society recommends a toast to "The Professor" at 9pm local time. I'm in, I've got a nice Imperial Stout, about 6mos old, in the keg and ready to go... http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,867575,00.html http://www.tolkiensociety.org/toast/index.html Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Sun Jan 5 10:32:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Sun Jan 5 10:32:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] Illegal immigrants Message-ID: <20030105181424.17530@127.0.0.1:2525> Saw this last month in Morro Bay, at a store selling American Indian stuff: http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/datadown/cartoons/joke.gif The attribution's been removed from the one on the web, but the original was dated 1994, from the San Diego Union Tribune, S. Kelly as the cartoonist. Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Wed Jan 8 15:12:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Wed Jan 8 15:12:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] LOTR, starring Humphrey Bogart Message-ID: <20030108225231.2730@127.0.0.1:2525> http://ringil.cis.ksu.edu/Tolkien/Movie/lotr.mov A bit long, but damn funny. Castlist included Bogart, Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles... A brilliant little piece of satire. Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Wed Jan 8 16:08:01 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Wed Jan 8 16:08:01 2003 Subject: [Promotum] If LOTR was written by... Message-ID: <20030108234816.10902@127.0.0.1:2525> I normally refrain from posting anything here that's been through /., but this one is way funny, and there's enough folks here that don't read /. that it's a reasonable forward. If you're a /. reader, there's nothing to see here, move along... http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/s howthread.php?s=ce24f67f4391402642140 618dcde1e00&threadid=138905&perpage=50&pagenumber=1 Reader submissions include Ernest Hemingway, Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, HP Lovecraft, ee cumings, Milton, Mickey Spillane, Danielle Steele, Ayn Rand, Ray Bradbury, Gilbert and Sullivan(nice song/dance routine), John Cage(mostly blank space of course), Old Testament ("Frodo 2:6 And Gimli sayeth, shall we not leave the ring with the Elves? And Elrond grew wroth and rent his garment."), Tom Clancy... The list goes on. I'm only on page 2 of 17 (!!), and it's totally brilliant. Here's the text of the Dr. Suess one: 'Gandalf, Gandalf! Take the ring! I am too small to carry this thing!' 'I can not, will not hold the One. You have a slim chance, but I have none. I will not take it on a boat, I will not take it across a moat. I cannot take it under Moria, that's one thing I can't do for ya. I would not bring it into Mordor, I would not make it to the border.' Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Sun Jan 12 00:14:01 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Sun Jan 12 00:14:01 2003 Subject: [Promotum] SCIENCE! Message-ID: <20030112075249.29664@127.0.0.1:2525> (Subject to be said in best Thomas Dolby voice) Hunter and I had some fun today; we built a cannon out of a piezoelectric generator and a film canister(fuel: Binaca breath spray). It was also of course intended to show how the air/fuel mixture expands, and since the canister has an opening on one end it naturally expands that direction causing the canister to move in the opposite direction. Quickly. ;-) Sam was out while we constructed it, she called while we were testing and it was amusing to hear Hunter explaining how the expanding gases were causing the canister to fly across the kitchen. Photos of the device, including a nice action shot with flames shooting out of the canister, can be found at this link: http://www.hintz.org/photos/public/science/index.html I'd love to say the idea was all mine (and I've been known for pyrotechnics in the past, as my Mom will no doubt attest to), but it's actually from scitoys.com; a very worthwhile site for those with kids. Having spent about 2 hrs on a science experiment, he's begging to do another one tomorrow-this is what learning *should* be like... Some notes on our construction: The lumber is scrap (obviously) and we didn't bother with fancy finishes. The rubber feet on the bottom are actually surplus firewall gaskets, normally they live between an engine and passenger area keeping wires from chafing on the metal firewall. Having a pneumatic finish nail gun and stapler makes this kind of project much easier (and when the base started to crack near the end of construction the framing nail gun did a nice job of smacking it back together with the big ol' 2.5" nails). The piezoelectric generator came from a Scripto candle lighter; Rite-Aid had 'em on sale, 2 for $5, so now I have a high class bbq lighter too. Whee! Scitoys link: http://www.scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/thermo2.html Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Wed Jan 15 10:33:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Wed Jan 15 10:33:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] Frodo has failed Message-ID: <20030115181125.7515@127.0.0.1:2525> Thanks to Dan for this lovely little piece of photoshop art: http://cicatrix.fragland.net/smurf/frodo_has_failed.jpg Peace, Edmund A. Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer, Mac Techie, Unix Geek, * | * But I'm not the only one... Mac/Unix Consultant * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us, */ | \* And the world will live as one. '78 Westy ***** Imagine." http://www.hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Wed Jan 22 19:17:01 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Wed Jan 22 19:17:01 2003 Subject: [Promotum] Lords of the Rhymes Message-ID: <20030123025243.24668@127.0.0.1:2525> Dan gets credit for this bit of wrongness... http://lotr.fistfulayen.com/ http://artists.iuma.com/site-bin/mp3gen/80696/IUMA/Bands/ Lords_of_the_Rhymes/audio/Lords_of_the_Rhymes_-_The_Lords_of_the_Rhymes.mp3 B-dil and Q-Beam live it large. Extra style points for A: including "Bright Blue my jacket is and my boots are Yellow" in the rap, and B: incorporating Nimoy's Bilbo song in the samples... Regards, Ed Hintz ed@hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Wed Jan 29 22:56:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Wed Jan 29 22:56:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] VTOL Message-ID: <20030130062947.17784@127.0.0.1:2525> After 3 scrubbed flights due to fog, I finally got my first hour of dual in a Schweizer CB300. http://www.heli.com/helicopters/300cb.html What a brilliant experience. The sensation of holding a hover a few feet off the ground is incredible. Controlling the thing is rather interesting, very minor changes in pressure on the controls are sufficient for controlling it. Being a hamhanded novice I was over correcting quite a bit. I was able to hold a hover for maybe 15-20 seconds but beyond that I started to overcorrect and had to let the CFI bring it back into line. It's certainly a balancing act, similar in many ways to a motorcycle but an order of magnitude more difficult to control. Still, having now tried both fixed wing and rotor, I certainly dig the rotor. Yeah, it's not as practical or inexpensive as fixed wing, but damn it's fun. I was grinning like an idiot when we left KCCR. Anyway, I'm figuring on getting my private on rotor first, then transitioning to fixed wing, and then seaplane. After all that I guess I'll go for IFR, but I don't figure on flying in the soup. If it's too ugly I'll drive, so IFR would be more for backup than anything else. I took a few photos of the helicopter after the fact; I'd intended to take some aerial shots but I was much more interested in controlling the thing... http://www.hintz.org/photos/public/cb300/ Regards, Ed Hintz ed@hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Thu Jan 30 00:15:02 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Thu Jan 30 00:15:02 2003 Subject: [Promotum] LOTR:TTT Engrish Message-ID: <20030130074821.29230@127.0.0.1:2525> http://home.online.no/~gremmem/engrish_ttt_captions/index.htm Screenshots from a bootleg Asian DVD of TTT with "English" subtitles. Good for a laugh or two. Worth special mention is line fierce line of elves waiting for the attack on the Hornberg, with the subtitle "You gonna pick it up or what?" Regards, Ed Hintz ed@hintz.org From ed@hintz.org Fri Jan 31 17:32:01 2003 From: ed@hintz.org (Edmund A. Hintz) Date: Fri Jan 31 17:32:01 2003 Subject: [Promotum] The Holyland Experience Message-ID: <20030201010512.32088@127.0.0.1:2525> http://www.theholylandexperience.com/map/index.html We've got Disneyland, Knotts, SeaWorld, SixFlags, Dollywood, and now, The Holyland Experience. Yes, you can spend 30 bucks to get sung and preached at by folks in 0-100 AD period costumes at a $16mil/15 acre attraction in FL. Vegas + Disney + Baptist. Praise Jesus. And check out Roadside America for a lovely review. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/FLORLholyland.html (Please note; the Oasis Palms Cafe is a Pepsi only attraction, apparently God doesn't like Coke.) http://www.theholylandexperience.com/map/index.html Gawd Bless Uhmerika. Regards, Ed Hintz ed@hintz.org