Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bullet, ice, Ohio State University, welding
Get this, you can weld metal with ice bullets. No kidding. A recent patent filing by Ohio State university states they have discovered how to precision weld metal with bullets made of ice. Apparently, if you make sharp bullets of ice andshoot them at point blank range at a metal that needs to be be united in welded bliss, it “plasticizes” the metal and you get a weld. Then the bullets melt and you have water. I’m looking forward to when this new-fangled technology gets out of the lab and gets into the hands of the common people. I can just see how high schoolers could use this to weld their principal’s car doors shut and get expelled for pulling off the loudest, most expensive, but really funny prank of all time. Let’s just hope they never figure out that computers have parts made of metal. I’m more worried about the water than the welding, but I’m no expert…
I listen to NPR on my short drive to work every morning. It’s a habit I started right after the 9/11 attacks. I had never really paid attention to the news before the attacks, so that’s how they affected me: they made me a news junkie. Anyway, one of the short pieces they did today reported how many young couples aren’t getting married these days, but the ones that are getting married this year, have mostly picked July 7th as the date. Apparently, everyone wants to have 7/7/07 as their wedding date. One casino owner (apparently lots of people are getting married in casinos…) claimed that July 7th of this year is the most popular day ever. Let’s just hope that people are actually prepared for said marriage, otherwise having that wedding date is just pointless, but I’m no expert…just married…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Eddie Van Halen, Eugene, guitar, iTunes, Justin King, Myspace, Oregon, Sony
Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head and you couldn’t figure out who sang it? Or even worse, have you ever downloaded a huge batch of songs from Myspace, added them to your playlist in iTunes, fallen completely in love with a song, and not remember where you got or who wrote/performs it? That happened recently. Actually, the downloading part was a while back. I had a fit with myspace one night and looked at tons of profiles and downloaded songs from artists that had free downloads and just went crazy. A while later, when I found them all in my downloads folder, I added them all to iTunes and gave them a listen. One came up called “Reach You” and I nearly crapped my pants. It was amazing! It’s just piano and vocals and its so moody, but beautiful.
I must have spent at a week’s worth of time doing lyrics searches trying to find out who’s song this was! Well, today I found it…FINALLY (eight months later)! Ends up, I was searching for the wrong song name. I was searching for “To Reach You” and it’s actually just “Reach You”. So anyway, I popped in the two songs names I had and someone else had blogged about them and attributed them to Justin King. If you haven’t heard of him, you’re about to! He’s this disgustingly talented young guy from Eugene, OR and plays guitar like Eddie Van Halen…only musically. Apparently, he’s been recording an album for Sony, but it hasn’t been released yet…or something, that’s not really clear. Anyway, you gotta see him play! Here are some videos and here are the two songs you can download for free!
Check them out and I think you’ll be pleasantly impressed, but I’m no expert!
PS – if you don’t like them, you are officially branded an expert and banished from no-expertdom. Such sacrilege shall not be tolerated! 
There is very little that truely upsets me, but injustice is top of that list. I read this story about an online sports mag that put together a fund for a fallen soldier’s family. All good there, and no, they didn’t steal anything. They decided to use Paypal to allow people to quickly contribute to the fund. Here’s the rub: they went to get the money out of the Paypal account to give it to the families and Paypal has denied them access to the account. Apparently Paypal f-ed up and changed the account type to a non-profit account (without the owner’s knowledge or consent) and is demanding that the mag prove they are a non-profit in order to get the money. Apparently, they have been on the phone with some a$$wipe at Paypal about the matter and Paypal has decided to freeze the account for 180 days. Just…a…little…upset…
So, let me get this straight, Paypal. You screwed up. You changed the account after the owner set it up. Without their permission, consent, or request. And now, when they’ve pointed out your mistake, you’ve decided to steal their money for six months as a solution!?!?!? And yes, I mean steal. Any company that takes your money and keeps it for any long period of time is getting an interest-free loan from you…therefore stealing… There is no excuse. Corporate policy is nothing compared to the beating you’re about to take in the press. I’m sure there are dozens of other bloggers out there railing away against Paypal right as I type.
I just wish I didn’t do enough business with eBay so I could completely close my Paypal and list this story as the reason for leaving. Then I’d set up another account, call customer support to gripe about this story, then cancel the new account with this story as the reason for it too. Oh, then I’d order pizzas for their call center and tell the driver to expect a $500 tip! Then I’d call their houses at dinner time and offer them a discount on long distance. Then I’d resort to kicking their dog. Even if they don’t have a dog. Then I might leave them alone for a while, just to get their guard down. Then I’d…something, I’m not really sure what, but it would hurt. And if all that wouldn’t help, I’d plea to other people to help the fallen soldier’s families by protesting with Paypal’s customer service since that would apparently be the only effective way to get through to them. I figured they would have broken after the dog thing, but I’m no expert.
Filed under: But I'm No Expert, That's So Cool! | Tags: American Dialect Society, dwarf, planet, Pluto, verb
So, a while back I wrote about the demotion of poor Pluto from a full-fledged planet to a dwarf planet. We’ll call this Pluto’s revenge. Pluto become a verb and was voted word of the year by the American Dialect Society. It apparently means “to demote or devalue someone or something”. So, if someone approaches at some point and says you’ve been plutoed or “They’re going to pluto you, man” be sure to watch your back…or at least have your resume ready. Adding pluto as a verb totally vindicates the whole “dwarf” planet insult, but I’m no expert.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: American Dialect Society, dwarf, planet, Pluto, verb
So, a while back I wrote about the demotion of poor Pluto from a full-fledged planet to a dwarf planet. We’ll call this Pluto’s revenge. Pluto become a verb and was voted word of the year by the American Dialect Society. It apparently means “to demote or devalue someone or something”. So, if someone approaches at some point and says you’ve been plutoed or “They’re going to pluto you, man” be sure to watch your back…or at least have your resume ready. Adding pluto as a verb totally vindicates the whole “dwarf” planet insult, but I’m no expert.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fashion, Oprah, Stacy London, What Not To Wear
I’m not sure how many of you out there are married or are in a relationship, but let me tell you about this one thing: on Friday nights, if you spend time with her around a TV, you’ll probably end up watching What Not to Wear on TLC. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best show out there about fashion…I’m still no expert, but I’ve learned about picking clothes better. Why do I bring this up? Stacy, one of the hosts of the show, was on Oprah today (another show you’ll end up watching or at least hearing about). She has apparently become the unofficial US expert on clothing. The thing I’ve noticed is this: if you get on Oprah, you’re an expert at something. So there’s my goal: get on Oprah. What would I be an expert on? Being a non-expert of course! But since no one out there is looking to increase their non-expertise, I doubt that will happen anytime soon. But I’m still no expert.
Filed under: Uncategorized
This picture has been floating around on the net for a while now and according to Snopes.com, it’s for real. His name is Herman, he weights 17 lbs., and he’s been raised by the German rabbit breeder Hans Wagner. Herman is a German Giant hare, which is not the only “giant” breed of hares. Another picture that circulated a few years was of Bodmin, an 18 lb Flemish Giant hare. The real crazy part is these aren’t the biggest ones on record! That title belongs to a French doe at 26 lbs, 7 oz. I’m thinking that would be one lucky rabbit’s foot, but I’m no expert!
Filed under: Uncategorized
Can I just say that jet lag sucks? It took several days in California to get used to actually being ok to stay up “late”…as in 10 pm Pacific Time, which felt like midnight. Now that I’ve gotten used to it, I’m back to where staying up to 10 pm Central is late and it’s time to crawl in bed…and roll around for hours. Actually, jet lag is not as bad as reverse jet lag. I’m just going to have to explain to everyone that I’m on California time, which is a much better time for me to operate on anyway. Everyone here will just have to adjust to my schedule from now on. I think this place will run a lot smoother that way, but I’m no expert…
Filed under: Uncategorized
Ok, add this to my growing wishlist. This is a touch-screen carputer. It is based around a Mac Mini and looks like Front Row (this program is called AMP), but it does much more. Incredible. You have to watch the video to believe it. Apple is trying to make in-roads in every place in your life, I wish (though I doubt they ever would) they would try to make their own unit like this. It would easily rock the car stereo world, but I’m no expert.
