THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE THEIR DAN MILLER

Yes folks we’re talking about silence. First of all, the silence of TPMHTDM. Things have been kind of busy for me lately. I’ve been taking some orientation classes at H&R Block, which have me somewhat busy at nights. And on the nights I’m home, I’ve been spending some quality time with the fam (and playing Civ too, of course). But I’m sure you’re all excited to hear from me now. I’ve been meaning to blog about some things lately but just haven’t gotten around to it.

But all that is just an aside to my main topic, which also has to do with silence. More specifically, people talk way more than they need to. An example: I’m in the elevator at work and it’s kind of full. We go up to the 3rd floor and start to get out. As we are getting out, some people come in and one of them remarks, “It’s kind of full “. Thank you, thank you for your comment. I mean it’s not that there’s anything wrong with saying that, I guess. It’s just that it’s OKAY TO BE SILENT. You don’t *have* to say something at every turn.

Another example that I have done before and seen countless people do (I bet you do it too). At least I’ve noticed that I do this and am trying to stop doing it. Picture this - you’re walking down the hall, or down the street or wherever, when you realize that you’re going the wrong way. It could be that you’re lost, or took a wrong turn or whatever. Most everyone that I’ve seen will, when they turn around, audibly say (maybe somewhat under the breath) something like “whoops” or “ooh i’m goign the wrong way” or whatever. I’m not sure if it’s just so that anybody that happens to be watching knows that they’re not just careening around like a drunken sailor or what, but EVERYONE does this.

And finally. Carolyn and I are watching trick shot billiards on ESPN. I mean that, in and of itself, could be its own blog topic, but it’s not (at least not right now). So anyway, we’re watching and one of the trick shots was to jump the cue ball off the table AND INTO A BOOT! Yes, into a boot. It was about a 12 foot distance. They showed some video of this guy Mike Massey actually making the shot a few years ago. Neither of the guys on the show we were watching made the shot. They in fact showed several replays of one of them (whose name I believe was Stefano Pelinga) missing the boot by about 6 inches (with the cue ball going over the top of the boot). Then, one of the announcers says, and I quote, “Oh if he had only shot that about 6 inches lower he would have made it” GEE DO YOU THINK? Sheesh.

In any case, I call on all of my loyal readers (all 4 of you) to think about what you’re saying, and if it does not need to be said, then CENSOR YOURSELF!

Jeff sent me this link to the current Dilbert (click on the image to go to a full-size one), saying that it reminds him of me. What do you think?

Pursuant to my last post, I have created a new blog entitled “Barbecue TV“. On it, I will chronicle my experiences in turning my bottle of barbecue sauce into an HDTV.

Make sure to check it out - the wheels are already in motion!

So I came across this site, and umm it rules. The basic premise is that this guy started out with one red paperclip, and he’s going to keep trading things for it until he gets a house.

It reminds me of something that “The Great Brain” did in one of those books. I forget exactly how it went down but it was something like this.

So I want to do something similar to this but am having trouble thinking of a good starting item. It has to be crappy enough to start out with something trivial, but I’d like something with some panache. Of course what I’d really like is to be able to put the correct accentuating mark over panache.

So leave me some comments of some good items. So far the best idea I’ve come up with is some Open Pit BBQ sauce or an emery board.

So I’m driving to work this morning and I notice that gas is $1.89. I think to myself, “self. That’s pretty cheap, especially given it’s Friday and prices are usually higher on the weekends”. So I stop and fillup, even though usually I don’t fill-up on my way to work.

And lo and behold on the way home, gas is $2.19. Boo-yeah! Stickin’ it to the man baby

Rather than blog about our Thanksgiving trip I will drop a quick note on something that came to mind as we were driving to and from Blacksburg. I think that blogging about our trip there would be kind of boring. Not that our time there was boring, because it was fun, despite some childreny madness.

So I drove most of the way to and from Virginia. That in and of itself is noteworthy, because typically Carolyn does most of the driving. In fact, a few years a couple from our ward (not old folks either - these people were younger than us) saw Carolyn driving us and asked if I had my driver’s license. Apparently it was unheard of that she would do the driving unless I didn’t have a license or something. But anyways…

As we were driving through the curvy mountains of West Virginia, I started trying to take the inside lane on curves where possible. So if we were curving to the right, I’d go to the right lane, whereas if the road was curving to the left, I’d take the left lane. Obviously this isn’t always possible due to having to pass cars or cars being in your way, but I was trying to do it.

The reasoning behind this is that driving on the inside takes less distance. If this does not make intuitive sense to you, think of a high school track. If you’re running something that doesn’t take a whole lap (like the 200 meter), the racers that are in the inside lanes start further back, so that everyone has to run the same distance.

I tried to do some calculations in my head as to how many miles you would save if you were able to do this, but it was hard because so many of the variables are unknown, at least to me while I was driving. I tried to assume that the curve of each road was equivalent to a 60 degree arc of a circle, and that the distance around each curve was 1/10 of a mile. I did know the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle (PI baby!) but I decided that when I got back I would use Google Maps to try and plot out the points to see what I could figure out. So hold on a sec.

Okay I’m back. I plotted using the google maps api and the scripts I wrote for my Madeira biking adventure 2 plots. One used the outside lane and one the inside lane. This was about a 2.3 mile trip just north of where 64 and 77 split south of Beckley WV. The inside lane was 2.3088 miles and the outside 2.3235. So if that’s indicative of things, over a 50 mile trip you might save half a mile. Probably not worth it. But it’s fun to do anyways