My OTHER blog

Just an FYI...

I do have another blog, indeed, another website. www.mikesjunkyard.com. It's my experimental site. I use it to experiment with software. The current site is written in Euphoria and runs as CGI via Apache 2. It is up and down (whenever I need to connect to our company network, all other traffic is blocked), but mostly up. If you would like to see some of the source code check out the links page there.

Anyway, I reserve that site to do more with computers and programming, sometimes other things. I also post my own product reviews there.

That's all! Have a nice day!

Boots molted!

Wow. It seems like forever since her last molt.

FINALLY (yesterday WHILE I WAS WORKING, just 4 feet from her) she molted. And I missed it. Arg! Anyway, she is so drop dead gorgeous!

I am letting her harden up a bit then I think I will take her out and get some nice photographs of her. She is such a pretty spider.

OH! Boots is my Brachypelma emilia. A Mexican Red Leg tarantula. Her abdomen has been the size of a golf ball for half a year. Took a long time, probably has to do with the seasons? I don't know. She is a Northern Hemisphere spider, and it has been Winter...

Anyway, I will post the pics when I take them in my tarantula gallery (on my .mac account).

Almost forgot: Euphoria 4.0-A3

The alpha 3 release of Euphoria 4.0 is supposed to happen today. It will probably be the last alpha release before they declare it beta.

It is already 100% usable with few issues.

I might jump in on this version... need to be careful because mikesjunkyard.com is written in Euphoria (3.x).

So that is exciting.

Long time, no post.

I've been a bit reclusive and not overt the past few weeks.

I have mostly been working, playing games, doing some geocaching with my wife and family. Quiet, less social stuff. Well I guess geocaching with the entire family is sort of social. :)

I am traveling to Boston the week of the 22nd for work. Next week kids have off for Spring break.

That's about it! I have a few Tarantulas that had better molt soon or they will explode. My GBB molted and is getting too big for her current cage.

Sorry to be so boring!

I did attend a seminar which was basically about how we got our [modern/English] Bible. That was interesting. Some of the speakers were good (a couple of archeologists were excellent), some of them were not so good - their presentations turned into sermons. I was disappointed that they did not include a section on the separation of church and state in America, but all in all it was worth the price of admission (free - accommodations paid for by a large donation).

Here we go again...

Per my usual rant: popular science (not the magazine) running rampant.

See this article: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/10/oldest-human-hair.html

Human hair found in fossilized hyena dung. Let me pull some quotes from the article.

The researchers then extracted 40 hairs from a single coprolite using fine tweezers. Although amino acid analysis detected no protein, and DNA sampling was not possible, very high magnification revealed that the size and shape of the hairs, along with their distinct cuticular scale patterns, best matched those of human hair.
...
Since the hair's chemistry was transformed by the animal's digestive process, its natural pigmentation, and whether or not it was originally wavy or straight, cannot be determined at present.

So what can we derive from this?

'First of all, the hair casts left in coprolites not only represent a very early occurrence of human hair, but they also document the fact that hominins were being consumed by hyenas,' explained Susman.

Please note that there ARE other animals whose hair/fur does resemble human hair (google for images, compare). Second note that the hair was not in the best state.

Somehow this all adds up to "ancient human eaten by hyena!"

People, please... if you want to toss out theories that is fine, let's not make them out to be fact. ARGH! This really bugs me.

Enough. I'm done until the next sensationalist article is posted.

Fire and more Fire

Australia is having a time of it right now. It reminds me that here in Arizona we have had a ton of rain. Rain is good, gives us water to drink. Rain is bad, it causes lush growth which, in the heat of the summer, becomes tinder. The prediction for this summer: Lot's of wildfires.

Another kind of fire that I generally want more of is a fire in my soul. Faith is one of those things that, while I always have it, it waxes and wanes in a disconcerting manner.

There are times when the fire in my heart is so hot that I burn through life, and times when it is a grey lump of coal and I sort of sit there, feeling the ashes of my faith float away in the breeze.

I need to go read the Bible.

Congratulations Pittsburgh...

...But even more kudos go to the Cardinals who were part of one of the most exciting Superbowl finishes in the history of football.

The Cardinals showed heart. A lot of heart. And credit Pittsburgh who showed enough heart to win the game with that 2:00 minute drive.

NEXT YEAR! :)