Hockey playoffs and the law of averages

Well, I went to bed after the first overtime because I was exhausted and I need sleep in order to be an effective teacher. Woke up at 9:48 when my roommate yelled "GOAL" from his room.

Some observations.

a) That was a cool goal. Dump in ricochets to Biexa, everyone else is looking in the corner, he slaps it in for the win. Still not sure who or what it ricocheted off.

2) People keep talking about how this is the first time in 17 years we've gone to the Finals. True enough. But with 30 teams in the league, shouldn't each team, on average, go to the Cup Finals every 15 years? So we are right on schedule if you want to be fair about it.

c) Who the hell wants to be fair? I say we go for the next four in a row!

Review of M14Doctor op rod spring guide

I'd say it was a success.

The rifle: Springfield M1A Standard.

First, the stock rifle grouping, final target. 1.81 MOA

Second, installed M14Doctor ungrooved match op rod spring guide. 1.28 MOA

I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this as I am not the greatest shot in the world but I am very pleased with both the rifle and the op rod spring guide.

PS Shooting South African surplus 7.62x51.

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

So here's the back story before I link to the video. Apparently, back in the old days of the internet, when AlGore was just putting the final touches on his creation, someone came up with an idea. You'd go to a website and it would give you two names, chosen at random from a database. All you had to do was decide which would win in a head to head battle. So, Godzilla v Batman? Optimus Prime v Chuck Norris? You choose, the next pair loads. All this raucous fun and excitement was stored in a database and eventually, after enough nerdy computer geeks spent enough time on the site, the Ultimate Winner was left, the only one left standing. I won't ruin the surprise for you.

The original database is long gone but in 1998 a song and video were created. This post is not random or just funny, it is educational. Turns out that using this to illustrate "dominant terms" in Precalculus worked beautifully. Not only did my students remember the song but they also remembered how to figure out which term was dominant in a rational expression and other more complicated fractions.

So without further ado, The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

We Could Have Shot You Anywhere

This is great!

Martin Short on David Letterman singing Candle in the Wind as rewritten for OBL.



Thanks to Small Dead Animals for the link.

Installing fonts

Why the h$ll can I never remember how to install fonts? I mean, I only change the oil on my truck about every year or so and I have no trouble remembering how to do that? I never say "Where the heck do I put the oil?" and run inside to google it. And yet, every time I install a font for Microsoft Office (something I have done dozens of times), I have to go on the internet and google "installing font". If there were no internet I would have no idea how to install new fonts. Oh wait, if there were no internet I couldn't find cool new fonts to install. So is this better or worse.

PS Benguiat Frisky. A really weird name. Apparently named after Edward "Frisky" Benguiat. Or possibly I just made that up. I don't know. Much too late to be blogging.

Useful Tool or Weapon of Mass Destruction?

Not for the first time I am struck by the differing attitudes between Canadians (at least some of my close relations) and Americans (at least most of my friends).

At a birthday party for my father (Happy 75th, once again, Dad), I hand him my pocket knife to open the packing tape on his birthday gift from Mum.

Here is is with a ruler included for size reference.

This knife is a high quality folding pocket knife manufactured by Camillus, back when they still made their knives in the United States. I bought it by mail when I was fifteen and thirty years later it is still as useful as it ever was. For the record, I have used this knife to: open packages; cut fruit, eat steak, turn screws, cut hoses for automotive repair jobs, whittle kindling, and other numerous and all legal actions over the course of thirty years.

About fifteen years ago I was pulled over at the Canadian border for a random check. They found the knife in my pocket and wanted to know "do you have any other weapons that you didn't declare". Canadian law does not define this or any other knife (with few limited exceptions) as a weapon unless carried or used with the intent to harm.

This weekend two members of my family referred to my knife as "the weapon" while it was out for the purpose of package opening.

What is it with Canadians and pocket knives? Apparently anything bigger than the little teeny Swiss Army knife blade is a weapon and anyone carrying it has some sort of issue. My American friends and acquaintances, otoh, would probably assume that if you had a pocket knife it would have a blade length of about 3" and be heavy enough duty to actually use.

Me (0): 100 million years (1)

Apparently this plant, commonly known as "horsetail" to those of us in the Pacific Northwest, is the only surviving member of the Equisetaceae family. I suspect that, having made it 100 million years, it will outlive me and continue to be the bane of my rose garden long after I am nothing but a picture in an old yearbook.

Here is what my research has uncovered:

1) It regenerates from spores so pulling out the plant serves no long term purpose. They regrow from the rhizomes left in the ground.

2) It is unaffected by most herbicides

I imagine that somewhere horsetail and cockroach spirits are sitting around together laughing at us. In my more insecure moments I imagine they are specifically laughing at me.

Quotes and Stuff

Trying to figure out a way to hold onto memorable quotes. This may not be the best but I'm going to give it a try. It's mostly just for me anyway.

“A world with no room for the Gordons is a world that will return to the sands.”
Khartoum, 1966

Happy Mother's Day, Mother

What do you do for your mother when she doesn't like breakfast?

:)

Answer: You show up and help her cater a party that was scheduled before she broke her arm and before her youngest daughter, who was supposed to do the catering, hurt her arm becoming the next roller derby queen.

Are We Losing?

For Whom The Bin Tolls

Three telling examples of how we are losing the war in spite of our successes on various battlefields.

Keep Right Except to Pass

It's the law. Why on earth can someone drive by a state policeman at 55 miles per hour, in a 70 zone, in the left lane, with four cars stacked behind them, slam on the brakes when they see the state patrol car, and NOT GET PULLED OVER?

Aaaah!