Happy Thanksgiving

What happens when Psych students are required to draw a turkey on an exam paper? One student drew a cat? See the disturbing results at flickr

Geek Watch

People laugh at my watch. Well, they laugh at me because of my watch. This is my second DBC150 and I'd be lost without it. The feature I use most is the countdown timer which I keep set at 10 minutes. After the timer counts down the alarm sounds for about 15 seconds or until I silence it by pressing any button. As you can see, there are lots of buttons. After the alarm, the timer begins counting down again. I use the countdown timer a lot.

If I think of something I need to remember until I get to my computer, the office, the next room, etc., I start the timer. When it sounds, I'm reminded to do whatever it was I knew I'd forget until I got to where I was going. If I haven't gotten there, I just let the timer count down again. It's set right now to remind me to check on Li-Po batteries charging in the garage. When I need to give the flowers in the tree well a little extra water, I set my timer so I don't see the Great Flood when I leave in the morning to go to work. When lap after lap of a NASCAR race makes me sleepy, I set my timer so I wake up from my nap every 10 minutes to see what hasn't happened. When I order pizza, I start my timer because it's time to leave the house 10 minutes after I place the order. (A Pizza Hut pizza takes 18 minutes from phone call to box. Usually.) When my wife says, "I just put some jeans in the washer, remind me to put them in the dryer", I set my timer. I can't believe she still makes fun of my watch. And why isn't there a buzzer on the washer like there is on the dryer?

If I have to remember something more than an hour away, I use the schedule alarm. Doesn't matter if it's two hours or two years. I have to be sure that I use an appropriate description in the 8 characters allowed.

I have all my important phone numbers in my geek watch. I even have some PIN numbers in there. But not for the ATM, so don't try to steal my watch.

I gotta go now... my timer is going off. If I could only remember what I set it for. Do you smell smoke?

Look! Up in The Sky! It's ISS

At 6:18 p.m. tonight, if you look low in the south-southwest, you'll be able to see the International Space Station and Shuttle Edeavour as they begin to fly over. They'll be over the south-southeast horizon at 6:20:05 p.m. at 45 degrees up.

A repeat performance, not quite as bright, will begin at 7:54:21 p.m.in the north-northwest. But that pass shows to last only about 7 seconds so you'll have to be quick to see it.

Bankhead Highway

I always thought the Bankhead Highway was a local, or at least regional, highway. It was actually a national highway running from Washington D.C. to San Diego, California. It was part of the National Auto Trail system. Wikipedia entries for: the Bankhead Highway and the National Auto Trail system.

And speaking of history... I recently bought an 1856 Texas map poster and learned that this area of Texas was part of Bexar County at that time. I was aware that several counties out here were carved out of Tom Green County (late 1880's) but didn't know we were ever lumped in with San Antonio.

There are replicas of a 1910 Texas roadmap for sale (check eBay) and it sure is tempting to buy one.

If you're interested in West Texas history you should be aware of the Permian Historical Society.

Helicopter. Yikes!

I was flying my RC helicopter today when it inexplicably* came after me. After hovering it over the street just off my driveway I made the necessary twitchy thumb movements to bring it back over the driveway to land. It was slowly coming toward me as per my electronic commands when it suddenly occured to me that it was coming directly toward me and not toward the center of the driveway/landing pad as I intended.

My back was at the wall of the garage so I couldn't step back. Extra room behind me would have been of no use anyway because terror had already raced from my eyes to my legs and as the former widened, the latter weakened. To appreciate my perspective, imagine a lawn mower at eye level, moving toward your head with the blade exposed. No grass catcher, though - in case your imagination is detail-oriented.

At the last moment, the terror that originated in my eyes made contact with my brain which sent instructions to my thumbs to push the left stick forward, the right stick to the right. Then left stick backward, right stick in a kinda whirly motion. This caused the pretty yellow helicopter to plop solidly on its skids on the concrete a couple of feet from my tingling toes.

While the sweat dried I watched the shuttle launch I taped last night from HDNet. Just to return to topic.


*irony