30 August 05 - 23:51Hurricanes Really Suck
Sometimes I get in a grouchy mood. Today is one of them. The news reports just keep on coming from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Not very uplifting stuff, terrible stuff, really. This year seems to have had its share of natural disasters including the tsunami, earthquakes in Japan, and this truely horrible hurricane.My heart and prayers go out to those effected by the circumstances surrounding hurricane Katrina.
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Bureaucrats are very amusing. Our government has decided that we need legions of them to keep all of us informed and safe. Lets look at the latest of two groups. First we have the Environmental Protection Agency and their buddies. They maintain voluminous files of chemicals (identified by CAS number for clarity) and their effects on us. One of the baddest chemicals is acrylamide. Since it is used to purify water, limits are set by the Food and Drug Administration as no more than .2% of content in food, and up to 10 mg polyacrylamide/L water can be used to wash or peel fruits and vegetables.
Next we visit the United States Department of Agriculture. They are the creators of the food pyramid. I see a a nice baked potato, corn, breads, and all sorts of other forms of grain and starchy foods right at the base of that food pyramid. These foods are supposed to not only be good for you, but they are the foundation food group. The most basic of foods.
So where has this chemical shown up? In starchy foods cooked at high temperature (by baking or frying). Although you will hear that french fries and potato chips are the worst offenders, this chemical is found in baked potatoes, bread, crackers, cookies, corn chips, breakfast cereal, taco shells, pop corn, in fact, any starchy food that is cooked at high temperature.
Now there are advocates who say we should put warnings on various foods (similar to cigarette warnings and saccharin warnings) indicating that the foods can cause cancer (look to California to lead on this front).
I wonder if the Lord's Prayer will need to be revised from "Give us this day our daily bread" to something more contemporary like "Protect us today from our daily bread."
I love cell phones. I can get a call from my wife or daughter at any minute of the day. This is important stuff. For example, I have given directions (at least four times) to the Smirnoff Music Senter as they call to ask, "is the Smirnoff in Fort Worth?" or I can answer questions out of the blue. Today's question (the call is from my wife), "What is nanotechnology?"
Wow, this is the same wife who shows no interest in any sort of technology other than the advantages of faux wood blinds over mini-blinds, or perhaps the benefits of one type of womens clothing over another. I am excited as she puts me on the speaker phone and I explain that nanotechnology is the technology of building very small machines that are not much larger than molecules, in fact they could be of molecular size!! She and a co-worker seem very interested, and I love an audience.
Now I have a question. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, one of our customers works in the field."
"Well, now you know what it is."
"Yes, and one of the girls I work with wants him to look at a mark she has on her skin to see if it might be a nano-device implanted by aliens!! I don't believe that myself." she quickly adds.
"I am sure your customer will be impressed when she shows an interest in his field."
We each say good-bye and hang up. It is nice to be able to be a part of such a powerful scientific discussion. I am sure that any aliens landing on earth are also fully conversant in the field of nanotechnology so my wife's friend can now talk intelligently not only to customers, but aliens regarding the field.
I like to play the piano. Notice that I did not say that I am good at it. The "guys" at Pete's Dueling Pianos Bar 
It was a gold star day for the dog. Anabel is our family pet, a coon hound mix that we obtained from the dog pound folks for the price of a free vaccination. As a coon hound Anabel is a hunting dog.
School is going well for the daughter. A weekend of meeting people and socializing, classes on Monday (went great), then to bed Monday night with a leg that was slightly swelled due to a bug bite. No problem, take a bit of Benedryl and the swelling will go down by morning. Crap, morning comes, still swelled up.... Go to class and then the infirmary.
Drat, an infection has set in where the bug bite once was. Time for dun dun dun daaaaah, MOM TO THE RESCUE!!!
Then after the usual trips to the doctors and emergency room, we get some crutches, we come home, AND we laze around. Tomorrow mom and daughter will rise early and follow the parade route back to college. The road of life is full of "issues."
Except for the infection, swelling, missed classes, trip home, E-room romp, and the worry, all is going great at school. I promise more updates in the future as things move forward. Be sure to be out along the parade route at dawn to see them on their way back!!
Friday was the big day. The daughter is going to college and we need to take her stuff to the dorm so she can check in and then settle in. I remember my college days. I owned a 1968 MGB (a very small car) and packed all of my stuff in there and went to college. For the daughter (herinafter called princess) it took a parade of three, count em, cars. The cars contained (among other things) television, DVR, phone, toilet paper, bottled water, fridge, color coordinated sheets, comforter, blankets, towels, dust ruffle, etc. And, oh yes, two color coordinated plastic gadgets with wheels and drawers.
I am not sure if a record was set for the most "stuff" for a freshman, but we gave it a try. Welcome the new college student, and try to figure how many cars it will take to get her home in the spring!!
I grew up in a small town. This town was a great place to learn about small ponds. When you live in a small pond, there are usually not many "big fish." In the absence of big fish smaller fish become bigger. The small pond magnifies smaller fish to make them appear to be big fish. It is relativity. If the big fish in the pond are good, then the people (small fish) in the pond are very lucky. If the big fish are bad, the others in the pond are very unlucky. It would appear that the people in Aruba are very unlucky. Aruba is a small pond. The population is about 70,000 people. 70,000 is small. In this Aruban "small pond" the small pond effect is in effect. Those who live on the island know they will be much more comfortable supporting their own big fish in their own pond. They also know that visitors come and go, but they must live in the pond. They do not want to be bullied by the big fish living in the same pond day in and day out. The small fish know what is required to co-exist. It seems now that it is very very difficult for these small Aruban fish to buck the big bully fish in Aruba. In fact, in this case it seems best for the witness disappear. Right now, Aruba seems to be a place I would not want to go. The Arubans seem to have a particular lack of respect for foreign fish due to the bullying effect of their big fish. It is the big fish in Aruba that shape the moral fabric of the Aruban "pond." The morals of the big fish in the Aruban pond seem very much to smell. Aruba is maybe not so magical after all.
I enjoyed the game, my wife enjoyed the game. We will need to go to more of these. There was plenty of between inning entertainment. We saw at least 10 mascot creatures. They had goofy names and personas such as "Harry Canary" and "Clammy Sousa." They even looked a bit like the person the name was taken from. For example, Harry Canary was a large canary headed mascot with huge dark hornrim glasses, thus resembling Harry Carey the famous baseball broadcaster who died in the late 90's.
There was also a bear mascot, I assume he is a "Teddy Bear" as the team name is the "Rough Riders" and a cartoon image of Teddy Roosevelt was used freely on the Diamond Vision screen. These mascots are very tall. The bear is probably 8 feet tall. His "name" is Deuce.
Deuce the Bear in Frisco, TX
The ballpark has a web page. 
Doctor Pepper/7-up Ballpark in Frisco