Relativity

Ok, now I feel better about my own debts. :-)

A divorced Navy officer who testified this week that she moonlighted for an alleged prostitution ring while stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., was nearly $300,000 in debt at the time despite a Navy income of more than $93,000, court records show.

Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Dickinson, 38, owed more than $58,000 on 20 credit cards and $177,000 in three mortgages on a house in Georgia, according to records from a bankruptcy filing in December 2006. She also reported spending $700 a month on travel to see her three children, who reportedly live with their father in Georgia.

Posted by Garrett on April 15th, 2008 in Random | No Comments

Happy pi day!

Once again, it’s 3.14! What’s your favorite pie? Mine is Boston Cream, especially as made by Brown’s University Food Services.

My mom’s apple pie is no longer in the running, unfortunately, since it’s a long time since the apple tree in the backyard was even there, never mind generating enough fruit for a pie. :-(

Posted by Garrett on March 14th, 2008 in Random | No Comments

Happy New Year!

And may your 2008 be all you hope. :-)

Erin and I went down to the celebration in Bangor — I have a bunch of pictures posted to my Flickr account.

Posted by Garrett on January 1st, 2008 in Maine, Random | No Comments

N.A.D.D.

I finally got around to clicking through to Matt Mullenweg’s blog, and found an article on Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder. That’s way too accurate to be amusing…

Posted by Garrett on September 13th, 2007 in Random | No Comments

Self-importance test

I seem to be:

Matt Mullenweg.

Posted by Garrett on September 10th, 2007 in Blogging, Random, Self | No Comments

Slankets?

Hey, Laura, thanks for the pointer to Slankets. I may have to get one of those for myself…

Posted by Garrett on June 28th, 2007 in Random | No Comments

You can’t support this guy…

…but you have to admire his driving skills.

Posted by Garrett on June 7th, 2007 in Random | No Comments

Living on food stamps

I know just how not-fun this is, so it was good to see members of Congress go a week under the same constraints. They blogged their experiences as they went along.

Posted by Garrett on May 22nd, 2007 in Random | No Comments

Dangerous books for all

Mark@BoingBoing tell us about books which used to be considered perfectly acceptable, but would raise eyebrows if they were offered today.

…Dangerous projects include: War kites with broken glass on the strings, mole-trapping techniques, hot air balloons with fireworks, blow guns, and a spring shot-gun (”Although the shot cast from the tube will have sufficient force to stun a small bird, it will not injure the specimen by making ugly holes in the skin and staining the feathers with blood.”)

Almost 120 years old, The American Boy’s Handy Book offers a glimpse of what life was like (or what boys of that era fantasized about) in the late 19th century. Children in those days wanted to emulate Lewis and Clarke, pioneers, trappers, and settlers — people who could be airdropped naked into the wilderness with nothing but a buck knife and a coonskin cap, and six months later be whittling happily in a rocking chair on the front porch of their newly-built log cabin, a curl of smoke rising from the chimney, and a half dozen rabbits waiting to be collected from snares and added to the stewpot simmering over the fire.

200705100956 The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (1960)

Dangerous projects include: making chlorine, ammonia, hydrogen, and ethanol.

The book is long out of print, and used copies are very expensive (Amazon.com has used copies for over $100). Of course, in today’s litigious environment, no major publisher would dare republish a book that had actual chemistry experiments in it, for fear getting sued.

Posted by Garrett on May 10th, 2007 in Random | No Comments

Unfairness in the classroom

Wil Wheaton recollects a story from first grade when his teacher penalized him for something his little brother did.

Posted by Garrett on May 6th, 2007 in Random | No Comments

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