Post #44,682
7/7/02 4:23:50 PM
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Lessons learned
- Do not offer Ben transportation to Bill's party.
- Do not trust Scott to serve you beer.
- Bill's parties rock.
Explanatory notes may be in order.
- Last year, on the way to Bill's party, the train I was on caught fire, and I wound up stuck for several hours.
That was by way of a warm-up for this year.
This year, rather than face me, Amtrak threatened bankruptcy until I looked elsewhere. Barry offered a ride part way. Barry's car promptly got sideswiped. A friend of Bill's, Dave, offered a ride point to point in his RV. On his way to pick me up, Dave got stopped, searched (read ransacked), and rejected at the midtown tunnel. Repeat at the 59'th street bridge, with even worse ransacking. (Keep in mind that he lives in this RV, it has a lot of interesting stuff, random electronics, etc. Said stuff used to be neatly organized in boxes, etc.) The second time they said that he could enter - via the Triborough Bridge. They gave him a police escort there. Hence considerable lateness for meeting me.
I get into this fine vehicle. We go about a block and stop at a red. The air conditioner and the generator in the back both cut out. At the same time. This is a 2 year old vehicle, and these things are separate systems - they aren't connected in any way. (Turns out that a wire was sawed in half in back from vibrating against the frame, and there had been a surge in front that blew a fuse and something else.) What are the odds?
Dave's considered opinion is that the only reason that I arrived successfully (albeit rather late) to the party was that he was driving 15,500 lb vehicle that was 34' long - this was too much for my powers to disable. (Unlike, say, Barry's ex-car.)
I dread to find out what next year holds.
- I arrive at the party at about 8:00. People (Scott in particular) have been drinking. I start off intending to make up lost time. Scott proceeds to ensure that I don't slack my pace off. An example trick was when I finished a beer, said I was done, and went to the bathroom, Scott would get another beer, open it, pour part of it into his so it looked like I had been drinking, and replace my emptied beer with that. I would come back, sit down, go, "Shoot, guess I didn't finish this one..."
The next morning Bill's wife Rita summarized my state with, "You were trashed last night." Considering that I fell asleep at a table about 3 AM and could not be moved, then later stumbled into someone else's bedroom and found a cozy floor for the rest of the night, I suspect that Rita's observational abilities are in working order.
Scott's summary was, "Met Ben. Got him drunk." Let that be a warning.
My only consolation? Scott drank more, weighs less, and therefore was left with a worse hangover and a longer drive home. (However he retained enough clarity to find more sensible sleeping arrangements than I did.)
- The fact that I am willing to put the US transportation system at risk to attend next year should be sufficient demonstration of the last point. :-)
Cheers, Ben "... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything."
--Richard Feynman
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Post #44,696
7/7/02 6:19:19 PM
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OTOH
Offering Ben a ride back from the party seems to be considerably less fraught with danger.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
[link|http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/|TWikIWETHEY] -- an experiment in collective intelligence. Stupidity. Whatever.
Keep software free. Oppose the CBDTPA. Kill S.2048 dead.
[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/...a_alert.html]]
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Post #44,697
7/7/02 7:09:51 PM
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So 2 uneventful years would indicate
"... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything."
--Richard Feynman
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Post #44,748
7/8/02 11:11:39 AM
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Pacing, Ben, pacing...
I started at about 3PM. You started about 7 or 8PM. While yes, I drank a good half a case, it was over the space of about 12 hours. Add in one unghodly fast metabolism, and my hangover was more about lack of sleep and not enough food than it was about alcohol.:-)
Having said that, yes, I was fairly inebriated. Not As Much As You, however. Honestly, I don't remember doing that trick with the beers. I suspect it wouldn't have mattered that much... ;-)
The ride home was... interminable. And that's even with Greg letting me sleep. We got to my house about 12:30AM, and Greg drove home. I imagine he arrived at home nearing 3:30AM or so.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #44,759
7/8/02 11:34:52 AM
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Yeah, like that's any excuse
We got to my house about 12:30AM, and Greg drove home. I imagine he arrived at home nearing 3:30AM or so.
You would have had plenty of time to stop by my place on the way, and still make it to work in time. Take a shower when you get home, bring the electric razor on the commute in, snooze at your desk -- no problem.
PS: Anyone got any pics posted?
PPS: My wife assures me she will not be pregnant next year at this time, so we will be coming.
===
Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978|Andrew Grygus]
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Post #44,760
7/8/02 11:37:41 AM
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Hey!
We waved as we went by! Not my fault you weren't watching...
Actually it was disappointing that we couldn't stop. But as you said, next year. Greg has these plans on getting a 47-foot land yacht at some point, you see... just need to get him to bump up the priority a bit.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #44,761
7/8/02 11:42:06 AM
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Uh... nope....
I had a "3 hour tour" of the backside of my eyelids... at the rest-area on I-69 about 20 miles before Lansing... And that after drinking 3 Double Latte at an espresso bar in Flint... and 3 Diet Cokes and 2 Diet Mt Dew... Those eyes of mine just became one with themselves a bit toooo often.
6:02AM I rolled into home. Of course, Early morning driving is a bit FAST for even ME... Sheesh... 85 Minimum... 96 Average between Lansing and GR at 5AM. Yikes.
Scott can (I believe) remember the inertial slides for his head in Pennsy.
Well off to charge too much for my expertise.
greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
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Post #44,763
7/8/02 11:44:53 AM
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Ugh.
Like I said, you coulda used the guest room...
Glad you got home safely though, either way.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #44,767
7/8/02 12:08:22 PM
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Happy Happy Joy Joy
Nice to see you both made it home safely.
As Karsten and Ben have already discussed..the Tilly curse seems to be >one way< only...as Ben and Dave made it back in relatively short order...with no more visits from NY "officials" intent on re-arranging his belongings again.
I am recovering nicely from the experience..and should be ready to do it again in just under 12 months...though there were discussions towards the end of a Labor Day event (insert primal scream here)...
Was asked by several to post my mp3 listing...will get to that...but I did post the [link|http://www.bepatient.net/july4playlist.html|7/4 playlist] down in "Entertainment" in the plug-in thread (and here again also ;-))
You were born...and so you're free...so Happy Birthday! Laurie Anderson
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #44,787
7/8/02 2:10:46 PM
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Yewww STOOPID BLOATED EEEDEOT!
We may yet... have a "communal" storage area... if all things come to pass as (hoped) expected...
Something in an e-mail coming from a certain [link|http://merit.edu|organization], is comfirming we may get both to be a "service" node and be able to have "co-location" of dedicated mirroring storage at thier NOC... with me having "full administrative" i.e.: ROOT priviledges on these pieces of equipment...
BTW, got an e-mail message from Vint Cerf asking me about an idea I mentioned to him on June 13th during a 2 hour chat I had with him, about status (or better, the lack of good status) in the "inter-planetary" network he is working on... with NASA. My idea was a tri-state tokenized communication architechture, based upon "sets" with control and schedules using a serialized manner of timeshare. Best parts: NO status, No Collison, no arguing about who can speak when.
And !ADMIN, where is that "Alfa-Sierra-Hotel-Tango-Oscar-November-India-Zulu-Echo-Romeo" on the priority list?
greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
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Post #44,794
7/8/02 2:59:45 PM
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Holy Moly
And that after drinking 3 Double Latte at an espresso bar in Flint... and 3 Diet Cokes and 2 Diet Mt Dew... Good God, that's almost more impressive than drinking any amount of beer. How many podunk towns did you have to stop in to lighten the load? Famous last RPG quotes: "I'll just shoot this fireball down the dungeon passageway..."
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Post #44,799
7/8/02 3:25:04 PM
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Ahh, flashbacks
I did something like that while cramming for a midterm. Everything seemed fine until we started passing the blue books down from the end of the aisle. I got the stack and it sounded like wind going through leaves, my hands were shaking so bad. Either one of the side effects of caffeine is that your eyes dry out, or I simply forgot to blink for about an hour.
===
Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978|Andrew Grygus]
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Post #44,811
7/8/02 5:36:36 PM
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As the saying goes...
Tire Check on I-80...
Only a few mintues respite at the Rest area between run-ins
Also ask Scott how many 20oz Mt. Dews I had from Friday through him being Dropped off.
UMM, lesse... I guess once you know the answer... you'll understand.
That number is 24... Plus Ton's of coffee... a couple of Latte's (Venti) and 4 HUGE Diet Fountains Cokes... 3-4 glasses of water and such...
greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
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Post #44,814
7/8/02 6:29:50 PM
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So you claim, so you claim
Because of my wife's schedule, I had gotten used to going to bed about 8-9 PM. So it was a lot later for me than you. This was a significant contributer to the sleeping incident.
And I remember you as being in pretty bad shape.
As for the glasses incident, well Greg claims to have seen it, and I remember sitting down and wondering how I still had a partly full bottle, particularly since I was pretty good about finishing up before taking my breaks...
Cheers,
Ben
"... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything."
--Richard Feynman
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