The Haphazard Blog

With the completion of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai it reminded me of a couple things. It’s a sad reminder about how inefficient the United States has become in so many areas. Politically we can’t make positive progress on much. Healthcare reform has been bounced around in Congress for six months now. There still hasn’t been any work done to adjust regulations for financial institutions. Matt Drudge purposely lets the ignorant know global warming is a joke. I’m sure climate change will also end up going nowhere.

Nothing illustrates how ineffective and inefficient we are than 1 World Trade Center (The Freedom Tower). There was a time where the biggest skyscrapers were being built here. People would set out to build something and it would get done. Now, over eight years after the attacks, there is still nothing there. What is supposed to be a symbol that the terrorists won’t win is around 200 feet of steel so far. Estimated completion date is 2013, over 7 years after the groundbreaking and nearly 12 years after the attacks at an estimated cost of $3.5B.  Comparing that to the Burj: Ground breaking to completion was 5 years, 4 months; Total cost was $1.5B; Nearly 1M more square feet; 1,000 feet taller (1,350 feet if you exclude the antennas.). In summary, for $2B more, we get a smaller building that takes longer to build.

The other thing the Burj reminded me about was a science fair project I had done in 8^th or 9^thgrade. My friend Mike and I did a project called “How High can a Skyscraper Go?”. The answer ended up being pretty much as high as you want. There would be logistical issues to overcome (plumbing, elevators, etc.) but structurally the sky really was the limit. In retrospect, the project probably should’ve focused on a specific height instead of being open ended. But that’s not why I was thinking about it. I was talking to Mike recently and he mentioned that he saw a design that looked like the model we had built back then. Unfortunately he couldn’t remember where he saw it. We build it with balsa wood and hot glue. It was about 6 feet tall, but I’m told it no longer exists. Since I didn’t have any pictures of it, I spent part of the day messing with Google SketchUp to create a mock-up of it.

Mile High Skyscraper in SketchUp

If anyone recognizes it from somewhere, let me know. I want a commission or at least some credit!

Google SketchUp is a pretty good product, especially considering it is free. For someone with a more artistically geared mind than me, I bet it works great. You are always working in 3D. There are very few drawing tools which keeps it simple, but it’s very capable. I wanted to design a house, but I don’t think that is the best thing to use. It’s a little too generic for that purpose in my opinion. Better to use something geared just for that purpose.

The last two standard definition shows that I watch are finally in HD. I have wondered if/when they will start to frame stuff in HD and broadcast the SD versions in letterbox. As it is now for most things, HD viewers get the better picture (resolution and colors), but the additional viewing area isn’t put to much use to avoid leaving the SD viewers with a reduced viewing experience. It would be most valuable on sports and anything that makes use of on screen graphics.

Now that everything I watch is in HD, announcements should be showering down this week for 3D HD in the home. You’ll need a new TV that is capable of displaying it, but that looks like the next evolution. DirecTV is supposedly going to announce a 3D channel to debut this year. My question for DirecTV: Will we be able to watch Mad Men and Breaking Bad on AMC HD first? Please?

I recently watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. I thought they were both good but Transformers was better. It’s interesting that what started out as childhood toys for me were both summer blockbusters.

Watching both, one thing that stood out to me was that special effects, especially CGI, helped make both movies do as well as they did. Even ten years ago, I think many of the effects would’ve been extremely difficult and even more expensive to do. It is all so seamlessly integrated now. I even admit I took a look at the job openings at Industrial Lights and Magic to see what kind of engineers they are hiring. (Quite a few, but mostly specialized.) They have become such an integral part of movies that quite a bit of the credits are devoted to the special effects people.

Looks like both movies will have follow-ups. Also, I had no idea that was Sienna Miller in G.I. Joe. Dark hair looks really nice on her.

Well, as you can probably tell by the huge gap in posts (a lot in September, less in October and nothing since), I got behind. More to the point, I had other things going on in life.

I tried to keep notes on things to blog about and I was going to back fill the blog with them. It’s kind of pointless though. It would not reflect what I was really thinking at the time. Instead, it would’ve been a mix of what I thought at the time with some hindsight. That seems somewhat disingenuous, and it’s not like there are all that many readers of this blog that are waiting for my incredible insight into random things.

Another thing I will not do is make any resolutions for New Years to blog every day or any nonsense like that. I am starting anew, and it is a new year, but it’s more coincidence. I’ve had the last couple days off from work and I’m not so busy. I wasted my afternoon watching WVU get beat by an inferior (on paper) Florida State in the Kiss Bobby Bowden’s Ass Bowl. Then by about 5 minutes into the second half it was evident WVU was going to be killed by Purdue in basketball. So, I’ll quickly touch on the stuff I had taken notes on over the last couple months. It should be apropos of the blog’s title.

Patriots are up and down this season. That Colts loss was brutal. I can not remember the last time the Patriots got beat as badly as they did by the Saints. Have they ever benched Brady because they were losing? Pure domination over the Jaguars. Can they get the job done when it counts? We’ll see in 2 weeks if they get to play the Colts or Chargers.

Why do announcers and writers call so many hits to the QB that result in a flag the “Brady Rule”? It’s really only hits below the knees when the defender is on the ground. Low hits were banned after the Steelers took out Carson Palmer.

I admit I am somewhat a fairweather fan when it comes to the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics. I don’t follow them all that closely during the regular season. Nothing like the Patriots. I know they won the World series again in 2007, but I still keep wishing they re-signed Orlando Cabrera. They still haven’t found a shortstop.

President Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn’t do anything to earn it. The Republican reaction. Predictable and overboard. There really is no need to pile onto the obvious.

Microsoft needs a much better way to install an upgrade version of Windows 7. Many enthusiasts reinstall their OS often. Having to install XP or Vista first is ridiculous. They should allow people to submit their old XP/Vista key and the Windows 7 upgrade key and receive a regular Windows 7 key to do a true clean installation.

I got a cold in mid-October. I figured maybe I should get the Flu shots. I hadn’t had one in probably 10 years. I called my doctor, a Physiatrist who should be very familiar with the needs of people with spinal cord injuries, to see if I should be trying to get the H1N1 shot ASAP. Her response: Ask my primary care physician. That does not feel right at all. I think I need a new Physiatrist. They said I should, but there’s no waitlist. I needed to call and see if they were in on my own. That got old/tedious fast. Long story short, I didn’t get either and got the flu 2 weeks ago. I still have a cough. There’s supposedly a second wave expected, so I guess I still will end up getting the shot. The flu sucked. I did not get the flu in over 10 years. I can’t decide if it’s better to keep avoiding the shot or not.

I read this article in Rolling Stone about some stock option sales that netted insane profits during the financial crisis in 2008. It’s quite upsetting. I don’t see any reason they can’t figure out the people involved and charge them with crimes. Is everyone complicit in this? Everything is such a mess. It feels like no one is going to do anything about Wall Street. For the most part, no one on the government side took advantage of the leverage they had during the crisis. Now the remaining Wall Street giants are back to making huge profits. I would too if the government loaned me money at 0% that I then could loan out at 4-5%+.

I didn’t write a follow-up Fall TV post. So here’s a quick rundown. Hank stunk (ABC agreed and cancelled it). The Middle is better than Cougar Town but not Modern Family. White Collar is an interesting crime drama, but Leverage is better. I liked V and never saw any incarnation of it before.

The anniversary of the JFK assassination came and went. At least for me, the computer simulation Dale Myers did helped me realize that I forgot about the windshield on the limo. That eliminates so many angles for a shooter on the ground. Oswald makes the most sense. It doesn’t preclude a grander conspiracy per se, but I think the ones about who the shooter was and where the shooter was just don’t cut it.

I got a new PC. It is pretty fast compared to the old one. Everything is snappier. On the old one, things ran well, but I notice they run better on here. Use less CPU time. I still need to get everything transferred over. I have a lot of PC housekeeping I need to do. Consolidate to one machine. Build a new machine for my Dad. replace the 802.11b cards with 802.11g ones so my network can run at G speeds. I can’t stream all of my HD video over wireless B speeds. Then I need to send back my old/broken PC.

We got a pretty good World Cup draw. Hopefully that will help the U.S. avoid a last place, no wins finish in their group again.

I’m hoping to go to the Formula 1 race in Montreal in June.

Health Care “reform” is looking like a train wreck. The Democrats are so disorganized. They stripped out everything the Republicans didn’t want and they still won’t get any votes. If that’s going to be the case, why even bother to appease them? You are going to end up with either all the blame or taking credit, why pass something you don’t like much? I think in the long term, we’re in serious trouble. Nothing the government is doing makes sense for the long term. The Congress can’t do anything but appease special interest groups/lobbyists. I think the smartest people are getting theirs now before everything goes south. Get a lot of money in the bank now with little regard to long term consequences. A lot of good talk from President Obama, and I know change doesn’t happen overnight, but I’m not even seeing any indication that change may happen. It’s business as usual in Congress.

This attempted Christmas Day plane bomber story is very weird with the stories from the lawyer about how the guy tried to get on the plane in Amsterdam, the second person being arrested and a possible second bomb in the luggage. I could understand them not wanting to disclose in order to aid their investigation. I’ll be interested to see what comes of it.

I got Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS. It’s a neat game. I’m not even 10% through it and it is challenging. How do you “defeat” a tornado? Destroy steel spikes?

I’m thoroughly enjoying the Colts resting starters meltdown. It has so badly blown up in their faces. They went about it in the worst way possible and every defense of it that Bill Polian throws out there makes no sense. Obsessed with the Patriots much?

If you read all of this, I commend you. I also want to wish everyone out there a Happy New Year!

With the demise of American open wheel racing, I’m left with one racing series I like: Formula 1. This season has been interesting and uninteresting at times. The changes from last season to this season (chassis, KERS, slick tires) made the beginning of the season a wild card.

The top teams from the previous season, Ferrari and McLaren, were caught off guard when Brawn (formerly Honda) took advantage of a loophole in the chassis specification that let them generate significantly more downforce. With in-season testing banned, it would be a long time before the teams who didn’t figure out the loophole before the season started would catch up.

Brawn and Jenson Button streaked out to win 6 of the first 7 races. People who know me, know that I think Jenson Button sucks. Up to this season, he’s been racing in Formula 1 for 8 years, had 150 or so starts and won one race because of heavy rain. Way better drivers have come and gone. I think the only reason he wasn’t shown the door was he was the most promising British driver when he started and then no one else came along (David Coulthard preferred to be called Scottish). After this season, he would’ve been done. Lewis Hamilton was the man. Instead, he lucked into getting the best car on the grid and built up enough of a lead with those early wins, he’ll win the championship. Predictably, he has fallen right back as soon as the competition put better cars on the road. He can’t even do better than his teammate.

(As an aside, this does give Danica Patrick some real hope. As she continues to hold on to her seat, she may luck into a car that is superior and win as well.)

This Renault mess is interesting. After they fired Nelson Piquet Jr., he revealed that he was told to crash in a race last season to help his teammate win the race. Not the best move on his part to rat out his former team after the fact, a.k.a. pulling an Eric Mangini. If his F1 career wasn’t over before, it is now. The demand for crappy drivers who can’t bring buckets of money with them is non-existent in F1. As expected, the FIA came down hard. Flavio Briatore got the worst of it. Not only did he receive a lifetime ban from F1, but they also banned him from being involved in anything that is FIA sanctioned. And as the cherry on top, they stated no driver he manages will be granted a superlicense to drive in F1.

In the end, I just haven’t been that excited about this season. It started out exciting with underdogs dominating, but it quickly got old as I realized how castrated the sport has become. No one could really catch up over the course of the season. The entire season was won during the off season (and in Brawn’s case, during the previous season when they decided, screw it, this car sucks, let’s work on 2009). With all the limitations, it has hurt the competitiveness in my opinion. I agree there needs to be cost controls, but they are in the wrong places at times.

We went to Poblano’s Mexican Grill in Wichita the other day. It’s very much like Chipotle. They have a couple more options like Nachos and Quesadillas. And for vegetarians, there’s one other benefit: the pinto beans are vegetarian. (Chipotle’s pinto beans are seasoned with bacon.) It’s a very simple place. You go up, tell them what you want and tell them what you want in it (and how much). You pay, eat and you’re done. So you get your food quickly and are out of there quickly as well. It’s a great place for a quick meal with better ingredients than Taco Bell. Most of the things on the menu are right around $5. It’s a place I like and will definitely go back to again.

I really enjoy the NFL Matchup show on ESPN, but I’m sure the ratings bear this out; I think I’m in the minority. The show dives into the X’s and O’s of football. The show currently has a home at 6:30 AM CT on ESPN Sunday mornings. Fortunately we are at a point where many have DVRs so it isn’t that bad. I’ve just observed the time slot/day for the show has progressively worsened over time. I hope the next step isn’t cancelation.

What makes the show most interesting to me is they are able to use the coach’s tape (which is basically inaccessible to the public) to show a more in depth breakdown of football plays.  I wish they devoted 30 minutes to every game. There is so much that goes on in football that simply is not explained to the viewer. For people who really love the game, they present it in a new way that helps you understand what is going on in a given play.

NFL Network has a show they air three times a week for 1 hour called Playbook. They go over the previous week in one show and they cover the AFC and NFC in their own shows for the upcoming week. This show definitely contributes to the fan’s understanding of the game.