CJ's Bullhorn

New flickr pics

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:38:25 GMT

I have uploaded some new pictures to my flickr account:

Oktoberfest Morris Dancers

Steamboat vacation (HDR)

I LOL'd

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:48:38 GMT

nutty republicans

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:50:12 GMT

So in 2003 "liberals" peacefully protested the american military killing a lot of people based on lies.

Now, in 2009 "conservatives" are going to town halls with guns because the government wants to provide healthcare for everyone.

Seriously, what is wrong with these people?

The gang of six

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:16:04 GMT

I received an email from CREDO Action... this is appalling, and the more people that know about it, the better.

Basically: these 6 senators, 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans, are arguing for a policy WITHOUT a public option or mandatory employer-based insurance. These are two key components, in my opinion. Gee, why would they be so dead-set against those issues? Well.....

Senator	Lifetime contributions from Insurance/Pharma
Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)	$1,203,205
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)	$206,297
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)	$442,165
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)	$342,228
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)	$702,595
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)	$161,706
TOTAL:	$3,058,256

I don't believe that greed is a prerequisite for becoming a politician. These guys need to start thinking with their heads and hearts. Right now they're just acting like spoiled, greedy children. I actually wrote to my senators today (not something I do very often) to urge them to work hard on this issue, and to resist the intense pressure from the lobbyists.

(Campaign contribution data from opensecrets.org)

facebook

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:08:30 GMT

Yes, I have succumbed to facebook. I have never been able to get "IRL" friends to join up to LJ, and FB is just working out for me better these days.

Are you over there too? If so, fire me a friend invite... I'm at http://www.facebook.com/mtnkodiak.

I expect my updates here to be infrequent at best.

Cheers!

Entertaining story

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:36:44 GMT

Here is a fun story I ran across via reddit.com. It's about the first (successful) female stowaway, written in the 60s by Paulette Cooper. Her life is also pretty interesting if you were to google or look her up on wikipedia.

I first went to the bar to inaugurate my first scheme; establishing myself as an alcoholic who preferred liquid to a real meal. A large number of passengers were already at the bar, and since I’m friendly, I immediately met almost everyone there, as I had done on other cruises I had been on. But unlike the other times, I couldn’t enjoy myself. Whenever someone casually touched me, I could feel a pain right through to the pit of my stomach. Whenever the loudspeaker went on, I held my breath, certain they were about to announce my unwanted presence. And every time someone looked me straight in the eye, I knew they knew. I became so nervous that I was grateful when they at last left for dinner. (“I prefer to drink than eat. That’s how I keep so slim,” I said to explain my staying there.)

http://www.oceanliner.org/stow_away.htm

Foldit

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:04:59 GMT

I read about this "game" via a link at reddit.com. Pretty interesting concept... Foldit is a protein-folding puzzle "game". I keep using quotes because while it is a game and you get points and have high-scores, the underlying mechanics of the application are all science, baby. More information can be found here: http://fold.it/portal/info/science

The end result is hopefully that players discover protein folding secrets that will help in finding the cure for HIV/AIDS, Cancer and Alzheimers. While brute-force number crunching via distributed clients is one approach, they have found that humans can visualize the attracting/repelling forces between amino acids better in some cases. Another goal is for them to find "natural folders"-- players who are just good at visualizing the correct folding of proteins.

I installed the Linux version of the game and I'm going to check it out over lunch today for a bit... I fired it up and did the very first tutorial, and the graphics are pretty sexxay. But, it's definitely a puzzle game. No FPS or RTS aspects here...

No no no! (10-20 inches of snow for Denver)

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:10:29 GMT

Here we go again. I sure hope the roughly-half of the meteorologists in the Denver area that are saying this is going to be mostly rain are right. Otherwise 10-20 inches of wet, heavy snow? Ah... no.

It's pretty rare for them to predict this much snow over the urban corridor-- usually those amounts are for the foothills.

A CHANCE OF MIXED SNOW AND RAIN IS EXPECTED FOR MUCH OF THURSDAY NIGHT...BEFORE LIKELY CHANGING OVER TO SNOW BY EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. HEAVY SNOW IS POSSIBLE OVER THE URBAN CORRIDOR...PALMER RIDGE... AND WESTERN WELD COUNTY ON FRIDAY...CONTINUING INTO SATURDAY MORNING. POSSIBLE ACCUMULATIONS COULD RANGE FROM 10 TO 20 INCHES OF HEAVY WET SNOW. HOWEVER...THERE ARE SOME INDICATIONS THAT A RAIN-SNOW MIX MAY OCCUR IN PARTS OF THE URBAN CORRIDOR FOR SOME OF THIS EVENT WHICH COULD LESSEN TOTAL SNOW AMOUNTS. NORTHERLY WINDS OF 15 TO 35 MPH ARE ALSO EXPECTED LATE THURSDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING.

And, true to typical Denver weather, the high for Sunday, the day this storm finally ships out? 56F and partly sunny. No way am I shoveling this time!

Snow Day

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:59:38 GMT

Whee, they closed the office! I am safely home now; the drive home was... whew. I'm pretty sure they put mag chlor on the roads, but it was very icy anyway. And terrible visibility:

Spring storm

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:31:04 GMT

Our winter has been very dry, so it's nice to see any moisture... but does it have to be multiple feet of wet snow? I don't think we'll get much more than a foot, realistically. But we're wsw of Denver, near the foothills, so the potential is always there for an upslope mess. And we're supposed to leave to Silverthorn on Friday morning for the weekend. Hmmm...

Snow will develop in the Front Range foothills tonight... and
across the plains late tonight into early Thursday morning.
Snowfall is then expected to become widespread and heavy at timesfollowing the passage of a strong cold front early Thursday
morning. At this time... the heaviest snow is expected to occur
from mid morning through the mid evening hours Thursday. Inaddition... north to northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts toaround 45 mph may also produce considerable blowing and drifting
snow... with near whiteout conditions possible on the Palmer Divide
south of Denver.

Total snow accumulations by late Thursday night will range from 8
to 16 inches in the I-25 urban corridor and across South Park...
and from 1 to 2 feet in the Front Range foothills and over the
Palmer Divide. Over the far northeaster plains... snowfall amounts
are expected to be closer to 6 inches.

Remember... a Winter Storm Warning means hazardous winter weather
conditions are imminent or highly likely. Significant snow
accumulations are occurring or expected. Strong winds are alsoexpected. This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.

New Piccies on Flickr

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:16:22 GMT

Denver St. Patrick's Day Parade:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnkodiak/sets/72157615436308411/

Snowmobiling w/ the FRB:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnkodiak/sets/72157615381579900/

TIME FOR SOME STORIES

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:39:38 GMT

Thanks to DAVESECRETARY. Don't know how old these are, but they are pretty amusing.

http://www.storylog.com/time-for-some-stories-davesecretary/

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:01:39 GMT

Our new French Mastiff, "Lola".

Netflix

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:54:40 GMT

Butch and I have a 4-at-a-time netflix subscription. He gets two, and I get two... works out nicely.

If you'd like to be my friend on NetFlix (so we can exchange reviews and notes on movies an stuff) clicky here:

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PWHX9nkbbMX6m5nj3Iye

and that'll connect us. (My nickname on netflix is "Kodiak")

We're considering working through the Lost series. We have been fans off and (mostly) on, but knowing what we know now it would be fun to go back and fill in some blanks. The quality is better than what we get on our TiVo, plus there are no commercials (and possibly wide-screen video?). Sounds like a good end-of-winter viewing goal.

Caller ID?

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:12:21 GMT

Is it just me, or does anyone else "pretend" they don't have caller-ID when answering a phone call? The phone rings, I see it's someone I know, but I still answer the phone with "hello?". I think that even when caller ID is very common, it still throws people off a bit when you answer using their name. Maybe it's just me.

Ugh, I am working through a cold of course, it hit me last Friday night and I was pretty sick all weekend... picked up some Mucinex after recommendations from a few different friends... we'll see if that keeps it from setting up shop in my lungs like colds usually do for me. Gotta rest up for our boarding/snowmobiling trip to the bunkhouse w/ the FRBears this weekend! ;)

(What? I do update this blog sometimes...)

The Gaza Strip

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:57:01 GMT

Can anyone point this ignorant American to a good resource for helping to understand what's going on over there? It would seem that violence is really escalating lately, with probable war crimes being committed.

I hated history classes in school and avoided them. Now I wish I would have paid attention a bit more.

Burning questions:

What caused Israel to change it's mind about Gaza after the 2005 peace agreement?
Is it "all about" religion, or oil? Or both?
Why doesn't any western nation intervene to stop the bloodshed?

Sirius returning dropped channels?

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:10:55 GMT

Well, what'dya know. Sirius isn't mean and nasty after all. Apparently starting Jan. 15th, they are bringing "The Strobe" (classic dance/disco) and "Backspin" (old-school hip-hop) back! Those were two of my staples (well, Strobe more than Backspin, but it's always great to hear old EPMD or RUN-DMC, y'know?).

Gosh, they really care! [...about potential lost sales]

Sometimes Penny Arcade just makes me lol

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:34:17 GMT

Attention PC Gamers...

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:54:11 GMT

If you don't own the original Half-Life already, and have ever had a passing interest in it, you owe it to yourself to pick it up now as it's only 98 cents via steam. It is/was critically acclaimed as a genre-breaking game, and with the average gaming rig of today you should be able to run it at full video settings.

Click on the image below to go to the Half-Life order site (PayPal accepted):

Sirius channel changes

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:04:04 GMT

Aw crap.. no more Boombox (electro/dance) and no more Strobe (70s disco). I was naively thinking that the XM merger was going to result in *more* choices, not fewer. Sigh.

(And what? Posting from work? This is a test, but it appears that they have allowed the viewing of LJ blogs now... but just not any friends-list functionality.)

Olbermann's special comment on prop 8

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:56:44 GMT

As seen on several other blogs:

MC Frontalot in Denver...

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:36:12 GMT

Hmm, at Soiled Dove Underground w/ MC Lars and YTCracker, next Wed Nov 12... $10, $12 day of show... Anyone?

It's Nerdcore Hiphop, yo. :D

Just... yay.

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:57:30 GMT

We did it.

Mark Udall showed up

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:36:02 GMT

Cool, the Mark Udall bus showed up at our volunteer office. And Mark Udall too! :)

Udall's opponent is Republican Bob Schaffer.

Taken with my lame cell camera after finishing a call...

It's Election Day!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:30:25 GMT

Get out and vote, if you haven't already.

I voted early (two Saturdays ago), but I am taking a vacation day today to volunteer a bit for our man Barack. I am having a bit of a slow start but I'll get going soon. I'm not sure what they'll have me doing, but it's probably canvassing or phone bank, not my two favorite activities in the world... I hate feeling like a solicitor, you know?

But I will happily do whatever I can to make this day a pivotal point in our country's history. :)