I have several boxes of archery fletching supplies for sale.  Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

My ad on craigslist has additional photos: (more…)

I discovered this while perusing Wikipedia… The Seven Wonders of Wales is a traditional list of notable landmarks in North Wales, commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme:

    Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple,
    Snowdon's mountain without its people,
    Overton yew trees, St Winefride's well,
    Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells.

The rhyme is supposed to have been written sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century by an English visitor to North Wales. The specific number of wonders may have varied over the years: the antiquary Daines Barrington, in a letter written in 1770, refers to Llangollen Bridge as one of the “five wonders of Wales, though like the seven wonders of Dauphiny, they turn out to be no wonders at all out of the Principality”.
[Details at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wonders_of_Wales]

Tonight, upon my sister’s recommendation, dad and I drove through the housing tract NE of Kraemer Blvd and Birch St. in Brea (just west of where Rose becomes Birch). My sister wasn’t kidding when she said that practically every house in the tract was lit up with fancy displays. It took us about an hour to see them all. One house, in particular, had a display that was timed to rock music. In front of another house, a teenage boy played music on an amplified keyboard. Many of the displays consisted only of ordinary strings of lights around the roof’s edge, but others were elaborate indeed. My favorites were the ones where the displays were obviously hand made — usually painted wooden cutouts, or fabricated out of metal rods and strings of lights. Mom would have loved the cutout that resembled the front door of a baked goods shop. Dad, of course, liked the trains — there were 3 or 4 of those — and anything animated (ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, and such).

“You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Thar be monsters here!” — Captain Barbosa, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Jimmy Fallon noted today that Donald Goerke, who invented Spaghetti O’s back in the 1960′s, died today at the age of 83. According to Fallon, Goerke’s last words were “Uh, oh!”

Two of my cousins, Jonathan and Michael Geller, ran in a half marathon at Disneyland today. Out of nearly 12,000 entrants, Jonathan took first place in his division (Men 50-54) and placed 27th overall! Also impressive, Michael placed 14th in his division (Men 45-49) and 201st overall — pretty fantastic for a relative newcomer to the sport. They’re both planning on running in a full marathon in Long Beach next, where they hope to qualify for the 114th annual Boston Marathon, coming up in April.

Having some free time between consulting gigs, and it being my birthday, I treated myself to a trip to Vegas on the spur of the moment. There I took in two shows: Rob Becker’s “Defending the Caveman” at the Golden Nugget, and “Scarlet: Princess of Magic” at the V Theater in the Planet Hollywood Casino (formerly The Aladdin). (more…)

Last week I took a mini vacation to Las Vegas. I was originally planning on going in March, but all of the package deals to be had expired in February — March and April being heavy convention months. My usual cohorts all being unavailable, this was a solo trip for once. I figured, what the heck? Las Vegas is a friendly town, and I’ll make new friends when I get there, which I did. So, I loaded up my iPod with enough podcasts for the 9-hour round trip, and hit the road. (more…)

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first mathematician says, “I’ll have one beer, please.” The second mathematician says, “I’ll have one beer, please.” The Nth mathematician points to N-2 and N-1 and says, “I’ll have what those two are having.”