Out with the old... Good bye Bush II!
In with the new... Hello new little one!
Today I should be a grandfather. I sit here in the hospital waiting. Daddy (newly become a citizen, this is his first election) stopped to vote on the way to the hospital. Priorities seem right to me :)
Update: I AM a grandfather.
And McCain's concession speech was high class.
Randall Munroe
image via Wikimedia CommonsSo, today's xkcd consists of a drawing of the Wood article in Wikipedia, but cut away to show only the lede, and the bottom, which is a large "in popular culture" section, with such gems as "In episode 7 of Firefly, "Jaynestown", Jayne is given a wooden rain stick by a villager", among others.
Wikipedia is big enough time that it now gets mocked in cartoons on a regular basis (in xkcd's case, lovingly... I think. :) )
Random questions:
Does anyone not think this is one of the funniest Firefly episodes? :) (it goes without saying that I expect most of my readership (all 3 of you) to have seen all the Firefly episodes)
Does Randall Munroe not actually like "in popular culture" sections? Or, is he annoyed that Wood doesn't have one? :) (It goes without saying that it doesn't have one, actually)
Was I the only xkcd reader to go check if Wood actually had an "In popular culture" section? (It goes without saying that I did go check)
My car is a bit more silver
and has better wheels :) ... ]
but it's rustier too!
Image via WikipediaSo my 11 year old Stratus (don't laugh, it's paid for and it gets 34 mpg on the highway... keeping a car for 11 years is actually a rather green thing to do compared to buying a new one every 2 or 3) started having electrical problems... first the tach would randomly cut out, then the odometer too.
Took it to the local dealer, Grand Chrysler in Lowell, (who has been very good to us over the years) and they said it was electronics behind the dash... 500 USD to fix. Meh.
I decided I could live with a tach that cuts out, I shift by ear anyway. But last week, enroute to Holland to my client I noticed the idiot battery light on, and random other dash lights too. Fortunately the battery had a good charge, I was able to make it back to the dealer in the afternoon, just barely (by not running anything, it got hot and stuffy in there) on what the battery had in it.
They took another look, and reported... "you have a mouse problem"... apparently something had chewed the ground wire enough to make things erratic. So no circuit board replacement, yaay! When I told my wife we had mice, she laughed and said she had seen chipmunks exiting the hood area of the car several times.
So you darn chipmunks, that's the last time I say you're cute, you almost left me stranded. I'll be putting mothballs in the engine compartment, find somewhere else to stay warm.
Can you top that one? What's the strangest car repair story you've got?
Bronson campus, Kalamazoo
Image via Wikimedia CommonsWest Michigan has a bit of a complex about Detroit, and the southeastern part of Michigan in general. There's a perception that "they" get "more than their fair share" of ... well, of everything. More revenue, more media attention, better roads, etc. More of everything, especially if it's provided by government. (There's a reason for that, it has to do with the relative longevity of southeast Michigan legislators in office, among other things).
Going along with that there is also a bit of "we're actually better than them" that goes on. You'll find it to be fairly pervasive, wherever in W MI you go, people will explain why that is... less reliance on the Auto industry, better government, better quality of life, and so forth (despite the fact that we don't have a good road S to Indiana :) )
We had occasion to visit Bronson Methodist Hospital, in Kalamazoo Michigan, this weekend. A fine facility and very competent at what they do. But I was rather amused to find that while we WMers all share a common chip on our shoulder about Detroit et al, that it turns out that Grand Rapids sometimes is the villain in these little set pieces.
See their spring magazine (a pdf). It's just a little puff piece about how generally wonderful the hospital is, and in amongst the other articles is one about a bariatric surgery candidate. Tucked in the copy was this little dig:
Balkema drove to Grand Rapids to meet with doctors to investigate his options and discuss bariatric surgery.
“I wasn’t thrilled with my experience there,” says Balkema.
So that shows that sometimes Detroit isn't the villain. Moral of the story? There isn't one. I just found it funny.
What about you? Do you have any local rivalries in your area that you find amusing?
I can't take credit for finding this. It's not even new. But it's fun to play with. The guy has a fair few other good generators too. You can get some fairly realistic signs and tickets using them.
My favorite church sign I've come up with so far is
http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/makesign1.php?line1=St0p+st3al1ng+th3++&line2=l3tt3rs+%21%21%21+kthxby3&line3=&line4=++++++++++-+g0d
(you'll have to cut and paste it yourself to see it, understandably he doesn't want people embedding his images into their blogs and costing him bandwidth)
Along the same line, but not made up, is this commentary site.
Most of this stuff is funny in small doses but a bit much in larger ones, I suppose.
And no, there is no significance to publishing this on Sunday, we're all atheists in this house. It was just a filler I had lying around so I used it today :)
