What S Said the other Morning

The other morning, as I was waking up, Scott said to me, "Do you want some Diet Coke to wash down those Mentos?"

Is he trying to explode my stomach or something??!!!

(and if you are like the people in my office who didn't know about Diet Coke & Mentos, click on the title above.)

This is even better than "Peeps in the microwave" -- a favorite activity of one of our physics majors. Not our office microwave, please!

Buddhabrots

I've been fascinated with fractals for years, and I've recently discovered a particularly beautiful form of the Mandelbrot Set -- the Buddhabrots. This one is from a Wikipedia contributor, Evercat, who has kindly released this image into the public domain.

Happy Solstice from my Cat

Well, he really didn't say "Happy Solstice", but he sure was talking this morning, and much too early at that. meow meow meow meow. meow meow meow meow meow!

he can only say a few things:

*give me food
*open the door
*i want soft food
*let me out
*i'm very concerned about the food situation
*sit down and give me a lap
*did I tell you i was hungry?
*open all the doors -- i hate closed doors!

sorry but he doesn't know how to celebrate a Solstice, so that greeting has to come from me!

Mmmm, Chocolate (click here for chocolate)

I lived in Germany from '83 to '86 when it was hard to find Leonidas chocolates anywhere but Belgium. Several times friends of mine travelled to Belgium and brought back a small box of these yummy, yummy chocolates. As my friend Kellee said -- you have to ration them wisely and force yourself to eat 2 a day because they only last a week or so because of the fresh ingredients. But oh, one or 2 Leonidas were worth a pound of any other chocolates.

One of the women who are helping Scott's family in Ft. Worth just returned from visiting relatives in Europe, and she brought back the perfect gift -- pretty, pretty boxes of Leonidas. Scott was sweet and gave me half of his box, and I will love Sondra forever! (You can get Leonidas in the states now, but it's great to get some from the source!)

After Time, I'll Be Unstuck in Time

After you die... Unstuck in Time After death, you will become unstuck in time, and re-live various moments of your life. Time will cease to exist. One moment you will be learning to catch butterflies, the next you will be using your walker to go to the bathroom. You will live on forever in this way, constantly reliving the sweetest and not so sweetest of moments.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Need a Funny Today?

Click on the title for today's funny!

Next post (when I have some time) will be how Scott and I "outed" ourselves (as non-believers) during our recent trip to visit family in Colorado. (Guys, you would have known a lot sooner if you'd just paid attention, or even asked -- it wasn't like we were hiding anything. sheeesh!)

I Cry Everytime We Go Here (Ludlow Massacre)

We stopped at the site of the Ludlow Massacre north of Trinidad, Colorado, off Interstate 25, today. We stop here everytime we decide to return to Texas from Colorado via New Mexico.

Click on the picture for a larger view, and click on the title for a brief story of the massacre. I'll write more later, and post a picture of the names of the murdered -- of the 20 killed at Ludlow, most were children -- some as young as 3 months old. Yeah, they were a real threat to Rockefeller (J.D. Jr.), the owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

Playing with the camera what is smarter than me

(click on the pics for better detail)
O.K. O.K.! I know these are horrible, but they were my "test" pictures -- the first pictures taken on that particular camera and downloaded wirelessly. I was expecting much more grief, but it was really quite effortless for my first attempt at anything like this. (although in retrospect, I'll probably go back and change the configuration from using our wireless network to an Ad-hoc profile -- camera to computer -- which was recommended "for first time users of wireless networks", which I am -- well, except for setting up the AirPort last night. (which ran into a minor glitch because I, or perhaps SRI, had gotten it partially set up either 6 months or 1 year ago, and the computer couldn't find the network, and then I realized, "Hey, I'll bet if the base is reset this will work," and it did!) (You gotta love the Macs -- intuitive AND logical.)

The real reason we wanted a digital camera was to take cute pictures of the cats and put them all over the internet. And now that said camera is ready to go, there is nary a cat in sight. Perverse little critters anyway.

These pictures are of our entry hall. They look a bit more orange than the actual color, and of course there is the flash in the midst of the drawing (by a man named Mike Bear (R.I.P) -- my mother bought this years ago when he showed up at the doorstep with some of his art and a need for money.) The small mirror on the left was a wedding present from Lucinda -- it incorporates some small red stained glass. (It is supposed to be moved to the other side of the hall, but that hasn't happened yet.) From Korea are two gifts from Spence -- a Buddha plaque/relief and a bell -- the bell is supported by a dragon breathing fire, and at the end of the flame is the mallet that rings the bell. Oh, and a couple of pics of my nephew who is graduating from (home)highschool this year. (What? Is he both the valedectorian and salatutorian? As well as last in his class? What was his prom like? Did he ever have to stay after school?)

SRI really prefers white walls, but I really, really liked this red foyer. (the rest of the house has more muted colors.) I just love looking at that red wall for some reason.

Hey, I got an e-mail that said Rove got indicted on Friday, but I haven't seen anything in the media about it. Just a rumor or wishful thinking? Heh, heh, I've got a couple of Rove stories from my days in the Government dept. at UT, but I really can't repeat them. Rats.

The Office

Well, not "THE Office" -- just mine.

Two funny/weird things happened today:

1. Got an e-mail from a mathematics professor with whom I work: "Susan, I just got your voicemail." (that I left two weeks ago.) "There is something wrong with my SmartVoice." (our voicemail client.) "SmartVoice doesn't tell me when I have new messages. It should be referred to as the Dumbest of the DumbVoice. So, if you leave me a voicemail message, make sure that you e-mail me to tell me that you left a message."

2. When I opened my office door, I was greeted with the sight of 4 or 5 acoustic ceiling tiles and two big fluffy slabs of pink insulation strewn across my credenza and the Norfolk pine which are on the east side of the room. (Don't eat the insulation no matter how much it looks like cotton candy.) We had a horrendous storm last night, but I couldn't quite figure out how THAT could have happened since we are on the ground floor of a 17 story building. RLM! RLM! I also notice a rather large "ell" air conditioning duct piece on top of my bookcase. WTF? WTF?

So, I call maintenance and they dispatch someone to look at it. In the meantime, Jesse comes in and opens the conference room door and notices water all over the carpet. We open the other advisor's office, and it too is soaked. Since the other office, the conference room, and my office are all on the north side of the building, we think, "uh-oh" -- perhaps my office is wet, too. Sure enough -- our offices have wall to ceiling glass and the seals on the lower third must have given way what with the wind and all.

The maintenance crew comes with an extractor and attack the soggy carpets. Another crew comes to put my ceiling back together. Eying the a/c duct part on my bookcase, I ask, "Uh, are we going to be without air conditioning today?" The crew leader says, "No, because that duct piece wasn't attached to anything -- it was never hooked up to the system and it doesn't belong there." Gee, that's the way to get rid of spare parts -- just stash them on top of the acoustic ceiling tiles which are strong enough to hold, oh, nothing heavier than the Des Moines, Iowa phone book.

The other advisor's office smelled, so I wafted a stick of lavender incense around and Jess sprayed some disinfectant spray. We'll have to see what it looks like on Monday (or rather smell what it's like.)

The crews worked quickly, and we were able to be back at our desks by 10:30.

Never a dull moment in the RLM. (Robert Lee Moore Hall)

No Pants Day is Almost Here!

And sadly, the Underpants of Science Museum in RLM @ UT Austin hasn't returned:

http://underpantsofscience.blogspot.com/

It's No Pants Day; the Cinco de Mayo; and the last day of classes at UT -- PARTY!