xkcd

So I'll admit it, today I'm obsessed with xkcd.
Yeah, weird little comic, simplistic drawing, heavy on the in-jokes and pop culture refs.

People wonder how I seem to be up on pop culture, its because I read things like xkcd and when I don't understand a reference instead of filing it away in the "things I don't understand" file I Google it. Today I've been Googling a lot.
Specifically:
Rickrolled - Okay I had a pretty good idea on this one but still
River Tam - Character from Firefly which I've never seen
xkcd - huh, it doesn't mean anything...
Cory Doctorow - still not sure I get this one.

I even spent some time playing with Google maps trying to get it to do odd things, interestingly it won't map from Inch Marlow, Barbados to my house...

Kerosafe

We spent last weekend at my parent's house. When we were getting ready to leave my mother told me to take something of mine from my bedroom. I chose this:As near as I can tell its a Kerosafe M1001 made by the Thomas Manufacturing company of Dayton, Ohio sometime between about 1913 and 1926. Information is scarce about these though I did find Pressure Lamps International which basically has told me everything I know on the subject. If you Google Kerosafe m1001 there are 5 hits, one is in German...

I found the lamp in my Grandmother's house where it'd sat for who knows how long, my lifetime anyway. All I've done is clean it a bit with a wet paper towel. To fire it I need an airpump which it appears I can get from Lehman's, mantles which I've got and something that'll pass for Kerosene.

Apparently K1 which is what passes for kerosene these days isn't good for much and white gas is too volitile. I've read that a 50/50 mix of K1 and white gas or K1 and odorless mineral spirits will work. I've got to travel next week but when I get back I'll see what I can do. The lamp appears to be in near perfect condition. I'd like to have it useable.

-Curt

ER is done

I just watched the last episode of ER. Its up on Hulu if you didn't see it broadcast. I didn't, officially speaking I "don't watch tv".
Anyway the first episode of ER was broadcast on September 19, 1994. I know that because I checked Wikipedia. On September 19, 1994 I was 18 years old, working as a surveyor's assistant, at that point we would have been starting the closure of the Waterville, Maine landfill and I didn't know squat. I didn't know what I what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go or what my options were.
Hulu didn't exist, neither did Wikipedia. At that point if I'd wanted to find out when a TV series started I'd have had to get in the car and drive to the library. Bill Clinton was president and I wasn't happy about it but as I say I didn't know shit about shit.
In 4 months I'd head off to college, the program was "Interactive Communications". I didn't know what it was but I figured it had to be better than freezing to death out surveying. I was dating a girl I was convinced was "the one". My conviction that she was "the one" didn't stop me from cheating on her in college where I developed a little theory I called "everybody cheats". That following summer she left me for another guy and broke my heart.

Today I'm 33 years old, married. We own a house and have a dog. There are 3 cars in the driveway and 2 motorcycles in the garage. I still don't know where I'm going or what my options are. The only real improvement I've made in 15 years is that I seem to have an idea how little I actually know. These days I help people make television. No not "televisions", television shows, I'm behind the scenes, way behind the scenes.

So I watched that last episode of ER and now I'm trying not to be too sentimental.

-Curt