JamesSavik

According to Einstien's theory of special relativity, time flows at different rates within gravitational fields. For example an observer watching something enter the event horizon of a black hole, a few seconds would elapse. From the point of view of the object going down the drain, time would appear to move very slowly. I can't think of anything else that effects the flow of time and nothing that would allows you to look backwards. However- telescopes looking into very deep space see astronomical events and objects that existed billions of years ago. This is a consequence of the speed of light and the distances involved. In theory, a telescope a "light week" away could see things as they happened a week ago. Problem is that no telescope has resolution enough to get useful images at that distance and those images would take a week to come back. A light week is defined: 186,000 miles/second X 60 sec/min X 60 min/hr X 24 hr/day X 7 days = 1.249 X 10^11 miles or 124,900,000,000 billion miles An astronomical unit (A.U.) is defined as the distance from the earth to the sun or 92,956,000 miles. It takes light from the sun ~8 minutes 20 seconds to get to earth. A "light week" is about 1343.6465 AUs whereas the distance to Pluto is ~ 40 AUs.

Cold weather is what you have a boyfriend for! Surely you can think of some amusing ways to keep warm. If all else fails, you still have a pile of cats. My cat is like a fuzzy electric blanket. I go to bed and he wraps around my feet.

Can I run for Congress from that state? I hear you get pages and interns. I'm not half as perverted, dishonest or sneaky... oh well, perhaps I'm disqualified. I feel ya brother Clinton.

Lots of writing breaks out on cold winter days.

Joe- Funny and sarcastic works for poetry. Make your readers laugh- or think. Just don't sweat it. It doesn't have to be Byron or Keats. I envy you moving to Texas. I think you'll dig it there. If you are near Denton, check out my favorite book store on the square. Recycled Books- in a big purple building. Ya can't miss it. Best of luck, JS

By 11:00 everybody was awake and aware of our good fortune. We piled into Andrew

Because you have a really cute avatar.

Bah- I'm no postaholic. I can stop anytime I want. I just don't want to.

I dig Christmas but Halloween is just too durned early to start with the decorations and muzak. Retailers ruin Christmas music. By the time its Christmas, people are so sick of the cheezy Jingle bell rock and Adolph the Nazi reindeer they are ready to snap and go postal. BTW- they are trying to get me to do Oh Holy Night or God Rest Yee Merry Gentlemen. Which one should I do?

Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest rock and roll band in the world, I give you the Rolling Stones! Sucking in the Seventies Some Girls It's May 1980. Me and all of my friends and a bunch of friendly strangers without many clothes have been partying since March. It is the graduation season: sangria in garbage drums, feasts of friend, alive we cried, stoned, immaculate, laid and luded, wasted and poluted... I'm sitting on a bean-bag chair in my friend Scotty's houseboat hitting the bong and drinking wine at 10:00 in the morning. The party never really ended; you just passed out for a while and woke up to start all over again. Yesterday's hangover was dancing in my head so I turned on the radio to confuse its rythym. Scotty groaned from his place beneath the table. He hated the Knack and who the f**K was "My Sharona" anyway? His groan became even more plaintiff when the next song rolled out: Toni Basil's Hey Mickey. I started to feel a little queezy myself. David sat up from his spot on the sofa and whined, "Oh for God's sake gimme me a bong hit and change the station." I loaded a hit for David and handed him the bong and changed the station to find the Rolling Stones Missing You which quickly tamed the unrest caused by Toni Basil's bubble-gum abomination that so grated on hung-over ears. Joey sat up and grabbed the phone and started dialing furiously. He sat patiently and then asked, "Am I caller number seven?", "No shit? I'm Joey White of 230 Dogwood. I'll be right down." Joey hung up the phone and started bouncing around the room, and muttering something about the Stones. Bouncing and muttering was very unpopular given the circumstances so Scotty grabbed him and said, "Dude, settle! What about the Stones?" Joey caught his breath and gathered his composure enough to form a complete sentence. "Dudes- Miss You was K-rock's secret song! I just won six tickets to see the Stones in New Orleans. We're going to see the Stones!" Suddenly six people were bouncing off the walls. The Stones. New Orleans. The Superdome... Holy shit! We're going to see the Stones! ...to be continued Miss You I've been holding out so long I've been sleeping all alone Lord I miss you I've been hanging on the phone I've been sleeping all alone I want to kiss you Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh Well, I've been haunted in my sleep You've been starring in my dreams Lord I miss you I've been waiting in the hall Been waiting on your call When the phone rings It's just some friends of mine that say, "Hey, what's the matter man? We're gonna come around at twelve With some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin' to meet you. We're gonna bring a case of wine Hey, let's go mess and fool around You know, like we used to" Aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah aaah Oh everybody waits so long Oh baby why you wait so long Won't you come on! Come on! I've been walking Central Park Singing after dark People think I'm crazy I've been stumbling on my feet Shuffling through the street Asking people, "What's the matter with you boy?" Sometimes I want to say to myself Sometimes I say Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh Oooh oooh oooh I guess I'm lying to myself It's just you and no one else Lord I won't miss you child You've been blotting out my mind Fooling on my time No, I won't miss you, baby, yeah Lord, I miss you child

No. I'm not watching anything in particular. The person below me has something they should talk about but they don't want too.

I decided to board my cat during my Thank giving trip to Texas at the vet but I waited too late. My usual vet was full. I had to shop around to find him a space. He doesn't travel well and gets horrible gas when he's anxious. I was down to the wire and desperate. I begged my usual Vet for a referral list. Tuesday I went down the list. Animal Medical Center? No vacancy. Sullivan's Animal Hospital? No Vacancy. Cat Hospital? No vacancy. OK it's closing in on 4:00 and I'm getting desperate. No way am I driving to Dallas with flatulent kitty. Two 80 year olds are enough of a challenge. I arrive unceremoniously at the Bottom of the List: The Doggie Discipline Academy. When I show up, I go inside with cat in carrier and am met by a gung-ho guy with short hair and entirely too much energy. I say, "I'm going away for Thanksgiving and need to board my cat until Monday. Can you hook me up" "Sir Yes Sir! We run $15 bucks a day." I fork over the cash and the cat carrier and I'm off. Monday Morning- 5 days later I picked up Boo this morning. He was playing a harmonica. I'm not sure whether it is the dragon tattoo or his cold, hard stair that is most unnerving. It'll be quite a while before his tail is unpuffed.

I'm a fan of Peyton and Eli. They are two class acts. In a league where many big stars show that they have more money than manners, the two Mannings are a pleasent change. Another second generation QB Chris Sims- son of former Giants great Phil Simms. He is also soft-spoken and modest. One of the things critics attacked him for was his toughness. He ended up playing most of the Ravens game with a ruptured spleen. That has to be tough enough.

Just had another thought. Some people say leave a radio on for cats & dogs. The sound makes them less conscious of being by themselves. [just don't use a punk or heavy metal station unless you want your cats to thrash] Another trick is to have an aquarium with a cover and in a very stable place where a fat cat standing on top of it can't tip it over. Cats will stare at the fish swimming back and forth for hours on end. When you are home, give them attention. Its not like you've got to spend all of your time entertaining them. Most cats are purrfectly happy reading a book over your shoulder.

Cats usually get in trouble because they are bored. Two of them can entertain each other- or instigate each other. They need some toys or something to keep them busy. Idle paws are the devils workshop. Lots of people with indoor cats get what they call cat condos or trees. This gives them something to play, scratch, climb and perch on without destroying your house. Check out Cozy Cat Furniture. You don't really need baby locks. Try Bungee cords like you use to secure things to a backpack or motocycle. They are pretty cheap and do a good job securing all sorts of shelves. Another possibility is using old-fashioned hooks like you see on a screen door. You can get them with security snaps that are child (and cat) proof. Can you secure your garbage can inside a cabinet? They can't mess with it if it is in a secured cabinate. Another thing that you may consider: plastic storage bins. These things are great for storing all sorts of things: dry foodstuffs, clothes, papers, paper products, etc. Target has whole aisles of them. BTW- I'm very pleased that you've found a guy. Y'all be good to each other... JS PS- As cats get older, they get lazier and into less mischeif. Cats that are "fixed" tend to have a whole lot less nervous energy.

Jeez- talk about the wicked stepmother. Should have splashed her with mop-water. She would probably have melted. Oh wait... wrong story.

Speaking of bookmarks, if you have a lot of them and don't want to lose them, I suggest that you set yourself up an account on: http://del.icio.us/ I use it to back up my bookmarks and could restore them if I had to rebuild my system. You can also have a peek at other users bookmarks, IF THEY ARE SET TO PUBLIC, based on ratings, popularity and keywords. It's an easy way to discover new sites without googling through pages and pages of BS sites.

I use both Firefox and IE7. When you support a lot of users, you have to know the software they are using.

Grant! Happy birthday to one of my favorite Brits!

duct tape: it's like the force. It has a lighth side and a dark side and holds the universe together.

Over on Digg.com, I saw an article called Ten reasons every programmer should know C. On a whole I have to agree with the author: if you are a computer science student or a professional programmer, you should know C. It is a powerful language but that power comes at a high price. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn, use and master. However, if you do manage to master C, there aren't any uglier languages to learn. Most programs don't really require C and can be handled at a higher level like an SQL database or a scripting language like Perl or Ruby. Using C would be taking the long way to handle a trivial application. Where C really shines is in systems and utility software and cross-platform portability. If you are worried about things like that then C might just be what you are looking for. In the interest of balance, I decided to include a rebuttal here in my blog: Top 10 Reasons NOT to program in C 1). Because C code is ugly and will make you cross-eyed. 2). Because those that want to fondle embedded technologies risk creating a new order of intelligence that will exterminate mankind. 3). C stands for :wacko: cryptic, crusty and :2hands: conniption. 4). If you use C, you'll spend most of your time rewriting library routines already included in C++. 5). C uses pointers which often point to nothing in particular. ===> nowhere 6). C programs are small, tight and efficient and make Microsoft programs look bad. 7). C programmers consider themselves elite and wonder who are you to think that you can join their club. 8). Programming in C can cause dain bramage. 9). Bugs in C look remarkably like undocumented features. 10). C isn't object oriented and you probably can't afford the version of C that is.

As my British friends say... Brilliant!

I am in the backpack camp. -Organizer -Toolkit -4-way screwdriver -Gerber multi-tool [don't leave home without it] -notepad -research journal -check book -nail kit -cell phone -watch -lighter -wallet -pencil case -index cards -cd case -cd player what you can't see -digital camera -swiss army knife -Maglite -digital voice recorder Depending on what I'm doing, this load out may vary considerably. Sometimes books, notebooks or a laptop. Guys- str8, gay or flexible: carrying something like this is simply too much of a advantage to give up out of insecurity. Get over your antiquated gender role neurosis and get out there and get yourself the coolest backpack you can find. I suggest SwissGear which are very well made and run about $40.

On the campus of Mississippi State University during the late-seventies a great deal of construction was going on causing all sorts of traffic and parking problems. Creative students saw an oppertunity to escape the terrible traffic tangle by going the wrong way up a fire lane. The campus police put up a DO NOT ENTER SIGN and issued tickets which did nothing to ease the traffic/parking nightmare or the students creative solution. The campus police decided to change the sign to DON'T NEVER, EVER ENTER. This lingusitic nightmarish double-negative was removed after a week for causing numerous accidents as people were so stunned by the gramatically incorrect sign that they kept looking at it and forgetting about the traffic.

Authors do die and we usually find out about it. I would rather not name any. Some authors just decide to disapeer. They do this for a variety of reasons. Sometimes its a matter of burn out. With others, the reward isn't worth the work. For whatever the reason, I think that an author's privacy should be respected.