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Lots of randomness from an awesome weekend: Saturday was the Georgetown College Academic Team (GCAT) tournament at my Alma Mater. I served as scorer in the Division I room, alongside my old pal Joe Guillory and the delightful freshman, R. (Did I see R. making eyes at Joe? Perhaps!) Georgetown’s dominance and capability stunned me–this was a team of depth and quiet competence, obviously playing a level above their competition. They’re going to Nationals (College Bowl?) and I expect they’ll do well. ...

a.k.a. Nothing like brake fluid that’s so old it’s green…. Installed the new Brembo rotors and Akebono ceramic pads from the Tire Rack yesterday on our 2000 Camry, and for once I did it right. - I jacked the car up one night. - I disassembled everything another night - I did the install, brake bleed, tire rotation, and power steering belt adjustment yesterday. Nice having zero pressure to get the Daily Driver back on the road before morning. I took my time, read through the Haynes procedure 3 or 4 times, and did each piece meticulously. I regreased the pins the caliper slides on, and made sure I put plenty of Moly-Lube on everything as it went back together. ...

Well, we got the final diagnosis of Maria’s 9 days of diarrhea today: Rotavirus. She’s been one sick girl, admitted to the ER twice for fluids. She seems to be over the worst of it; no diarrhea today, she’s just really sleepy and wanting fluids but not much solid. Took the day off work so I could do a few jobs around the house and finish the brake job on the Camry. Got a sweet set of Brembo rotors and Ceramic pads, and things are going famously so far–everything disassembled without any WD40 or torch application :D ...

Nasty stuff Jeff Roberts - Apr 5, 2008 Nasty stuff

I’m cross-wired. I intuitively perceive what must happen in a situation, yet I delude myself into carrying-on as if I didn’t know. I’m optimistic about people (despite all advice), yet am unsurprised when the worst comes out in them. The only thing I can reconcile about it is the two sides of my personality, one of which is recent. I grew up a pessimist; selfish, I kept account of people’s sins. On the average, people seemed pretty crappy–ruled by their emotions, rationalizing bad choices, hurting others for their own gain. What’s there to be optimistic about? Society was one big, entropic system that’d eventually devolve into chaos. ...

GMail custom time Hehe…

Link to their research blog 1-800-GOOG-411 Just tried it and it’s pretty slick, and free. :-)

Yes, it’s over-the-top. Yes, it has plot holes you could drive a pumpkin carriage through. Yes, it’s not IMPORTANT CINEMA. So what? This is a fun romp through fairy tale land (and into modern-day New York), complete with a wayward princess, overblown prince, and evil stepmother/witch. It’s a mashup of every cliche from the Golden Age of Dinsey, right down to the poison apples. The premise is…er…complicated: Giselle is about to have her happily-ever-after in Fairy Tale Land (Andalasia), but the Prince’s evil mother casts her down a well, delivering her to Times Square in New York. ...

Article Those of us who have been prudent, lived within our means, and didn’t overborrow are paying a huge price for this. Income on our Treasury bills, money market funds, and CDs has dropped sharply, thanks to the Fed’s rate cuts, and our wealth has eroded relative to foreign currencies and commodities Sloan’s article (or commentary, take your pick) is clear, concise, and scary as hell. My intiuition tells me there’s another Bear Stearns out there, and that the Fed can’t bail out everyone–trillions upon trillions of dollars of “bad money”. Hoo boy. ...

Jeff’s back. Update your RSS Readers accordingly.

In October, my Mom had nearly inoperable Liver Cancer throughout her torso–liver, right lung, and diaphragm. As of Friday, March 7th, after radical resection surgery and 2 months of treatment, her PET scan showed she was fine. To the prayer warriors from Ashland to Louisville, for the thousands who heard mom’s story on WLJC TV from Beattyville, and to those who sent encouragement through this blog, email, and in person, my thanks. ...

That is great news I am happy for you all. Susan - Mar 2, 2008 That is great news I am happy for you all. Absolutely fantastic. A brave, tough lady for sure.

Easter Pageant?! What is this, amateur hour? Who cares about some piddly church passion play? What’s next, “Best Little Christmas Pageant Ever”? How’s this for Piddly: Two professional composers, a 9000 seat auditorium, 75,000 tickets over a month-long run, a 300 person chorous, two IMAX-size video screens. Traditionally, Southeast’s Easter Pageant has been the biggest theatrical production in Louisville. They took a year off to retool and rework it, comissioning a rework from the ground up. Whereas the previous iteration had been a “cast of thousands” broadway-style production, they wanted something…different. ...

I second the review completely. This all punctuat… Whitney - Mar 1, 2008 I second the review completely. This all punctuated by a preacher who spent tens of thouseands of dollars to change the carpeting throughout the massive facility because he thought it’s mauve overcast was too feminine, eradicated the library completely to put in a starbucks, and banned the sunday school class communal coffee machines and bringing of donuts bc it would detract from the profits reaped by the coffee shop. Can we say Jesus angrily turning over tables and whipping the baristas for defiling his house? I get more angry every time I enter that building. We will not be returning, EVER probably. ...

So, Chinatown. “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” Iconic stuff. Nicholson back when was an awesome actor, not just paid to play himself (see “Witches of Eastwick”, et al.). Faye Dunnaway’s cheekbones. John Huston as the creepy dad. Umm…I hated it. Lined-up against L.A. Confidential, Chinatown is darker, more mysterious, but at the same time, distant. We learn about the characters bit-by-bit, but once we learn everything, we just want to forget them. ...

No, not that awful sitcom, I mean I’m carpooling. Apparently, a 4-cylinder Camry has more uses than sucking the joy out of the driving experience. It’s also an efficient appliance for transporting up to 4 adults on the twice-daily jaunt to and from work. Currently, we’re leaving ~6:45am and heading home around 4:30ish; Whitney’s now taken over drill sargeant duties for getting Joey to school.

The Fence fairy showed up at my house this weekend: New Fence We’re pretty pumped about it, because it’ll let us send the inmates…er…children to the back yard. :-)

That’s really nice! Jeff Roberts - Mar 6, 2008 That’s really nice!

So, I pretty much spent this afternoon watching all 33 extant webisodes of Quarterlife, a melodrama about 5-7 late-20somethings who aren’t really going anywhere with their lives, but who have plenty of spiffy dialog. The central plot vehicle is Dylan, aspiring writer who’s turned to blogging (really video-blogging, but who’s counting) to express herself and her opinions, particularly on her friends’ lives. (Aside: This is the central tension in blogging–how honest do you want to be? What if someone reads what you wrote about them. That lead to the downfall–and deletion–of my “private” blog. Anyway, Dylan doesn’t pull any punches good for her.) ...

Whitney’s surgery went just fine…she was in and out into recover in ~20 minutes. She’s resting comfortably at home now.