K-Squared Ramblings

Attack of the Clone Vans

There were at least five of them, but I could only fit 3½ in the photo.

Jupiter and Venus

This is actually from a couple of nights ago, but the view as I left the office tonight was about the same (though the lights were just starting to turn on in this picture).

It’s really odd to walk out of the building into a lot that’s normally lighted (even when I head in to do emergency server maintenance at midnight) and see it completely dark.

Well, not completely dark. There was a little light leaking from windows behind me, and streetlights filtering through trees, and what I could see of the sign on the building across the street. Nothing compared to some of the camping trips I’ve been on, or the drive through Ka‘u at night. But for a suburban office building, it was a change.

Edit: Oops! For some reason I’ve been convinced that this was Saturn, but it’s actually Jupiter.

Line Items for 2008-11-14: Hot or Not?

• Switched to long-sleeved shirts & started wearing sweaters this week. And now it’s supposed to break 90 DEGREES today and all weekend. WTF? #
• Must sleep. Saw spam title “Wanna burn movies?” and first reaction was revulsion against gleeful censorship, not “look, more piracy spam.” #

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Smoke Plume Above Trees

Smoke from various fires up near Los Angeles and Corona, creeping across the sky into Orange County.

Line Items for 2008-11-13: Picard’s Pills

• just got spam from “Patrick Stewart” for body-part enlargement. Reminded of that one SNL sketch with the cake shop. #
• Downside to linking blog with Twitter: When Twitter goes down, the blog’s admin area is veeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyyy ssssssllllllloooooooooowwwwww #

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Exoplanets: Say Cheese!

I remember being bowled over when astronomers first detected planets around other stars. Nowthey’ve actually managed to get pictures!

Of course, they’re about as detailed as pictures of the stars at a science-fiction convention panel taken from the back of the room, or the band on stage from the upper-top-fifth-tier seating (see! that dot there is so-and-so!), but still…it’s a start.

There’s one photo from Hubble of the planetary debris disc around Fomalhaut, with a little dot that apparently has been tracked in other images, consistent with being in orbit around the star. It’s estimated at being about the size of Jupiter and about four times as far out from its star as Neptune is from the sun.

Meanwhile: consider that we can see something the size of Jupiter even though it’s 25 light years away!

Then there’s one from the Gemini North telescope that has actually caught two planets in orbit around a star called HR 8799 — a photo of a planetary system!

Update: Hubblesite has more on Fomalhaut including this image showing Fomalhaut B’s location in 2004 and 2006:

Line Items for 2008-11-12: East/West, TV & Sudafed

• The East/West terminology always bugged me too: http://xkcd.com/503/ But then, living in California, I figure we’re also Pacific Rim. #
• What makes people think it’s OK to post insults/threats just because your old blog post isn’t what they wanted to find on Google? #
• You know, it would be nice if ABC would SAY things like “In 3 weeks” when they’re going to preempt Pushing Daisies 2 weeks in a row. #
• I like having (nearly) full movement in my arm again. #
• End of an era: Our last box of real Sudafed has expired. #

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Line Items for 2008-11-11: More Pain

• Arm still sore. Still not King. #

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Orange Clouds (no rain)

Orange Clouds (no rain), originally uploaded by Kelson.

The sunset view as I left the office this evening. The clouds turned even deeper orange over the drive home, with streamers of pink running halfway across the sky.

Where Do I Start?

So, which one should you use first?

Sort of like being told, “These are all top priority!” when you ask which task is most important.

Line Items for 2008-11-10: Pain

• I thought of something interesting to post on the drive to work this morning, but I just can’t remember it. Pretend I said something witty. #
• Arg. Shoulder seriously sore from tetanus booster shot. Typing hurts. Driving home’ll be REAL fun. Still, better than getting tetanus. #

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Coming Soon! Or Not.

Clearly there’ve been a few delays.

This photo was taken in October. It’s November, and the place still isn’t open.

Best Ripoff Title Ever

Several months ago I was browsing the local Blockbuster video store for a movie to rent, and I stumbled across one that made me laugh out loud. It’s the title on the right, and you’ll see why if you compare it to the rather more well-known title on the left.

I mean, seriously, look how carefully they tried to match the source material.

• The title, Alien vs. Hunter, as close as possible to the original Alien vs. Predator, carefully using only descriptive names.
• The logo design, with the TLA (three-letter acronym) in large type and the full title in small type below it.
• The layout on the packaging, with close-ups of the two creature’s heads, one on each side.
• The monochrome design, using green instead of blue.
• The creature designs, one with an elongated head and nasty-looking teeth, the other wearing a mask.
• Even the font on the full title is similar.

I have to admit I haven’t watched either of them, so I have no idea whether this attention to detail pervades the actual movie. But I can seriously imagine someone not paying close attention picking up the wrong movie by mistake.

On the same trip, I found another video called Transmorphers — by the same production company, it turns out (big surprise) — but they didn’t try nearly as hard to match the packaging to anything Transformers-related. Still, for a good laugh, look through the titles of movies by The Asylum — I think Snakes on a Train may actually trump both titles.

Line Items for 2008-11-07: Spelling, WPA2, Jokes

• Fall in SoCal = checking the weather report daily to decide between shorts or a heavy jacket. #
• I keep seeing pill spam with sensational election-related subjects. Oddly they can spell Obama correctly, but consistently write “McCane” #
• OK, chicken-and-road jokes are old hat, but this set using (mostly political) celebrities is new to me http://tinyurl.com/5jh33k #
• Time to upgrade your wireless network security to WPA2: http://tinyurl.com/6rn2lk #wifi #security #

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Line Items for 2008-11-06: Mercury

• I have never seen the planet Mercury outside of photos. #

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