The freezing of 2014

 

It’s cold, scientists baffled by Arctic front in Winter and all that, but it is miserable. It turns out the heating system in my shitty apartment can’t handle sustained temps much below freezing. The heating element only adds a few tens of degrees to whatever passes through it, so it blew warmer air, warmer meaning about 45 degree F if the thermostat is accurate. But hey, armed with a solid knowledge of thermodynamics and several layers of clothing, it also turns out that if you just leave the hot water in the shower on, that warm air rises to the ceiling and gets yanked into the heater and that gets it almost to 60 degrees. Which got the apartment above 50. … Let’s just say it was a bad night. Then I saw what was hitting the majority of the US and thought I’d better just quit bitching: [Read more…]

The trials and tribulations of a single man

We’re all flawed human beings. As a single male constantly on the lookout for female companionship, I can readily admit one of the flaws inherent in the hetero-sexual Y-chromosome community is we, that is men, are easily manipulated by looks. It only takes a few months of puberty to go from painting No Girls Allowed signs on our tree forts to suddenly noticing the pretty faces and shapely bodies quickening on the other side of the sexual divide. But we spend the rest of our lives learning, or trying to learn, how to deal with the consequences. That knowledge doesn’t come easy. To this day, at age 51 and even as a hard-nosed cynical skeptic, I occasionally find myself wanting to give a pretty girl a pass for behavior and actions that wouldn’t be available to other ladies and certainly denied to my fellow man.

At least I’m aware of it, I know it’s a weakness, and as any recovering alcoholic or reformed gambling addict can attest, recognizing you have a problem is half the battle. So I wonder, are women as equally aware that they have a similar weakness for jerks? [Read more…]

NASA waiting on Da House to act

Suppose every time a civilian or pure research plane lifted off there was an obscure law, originally passed with good intentions, that had to be regularly re-authed by Congress or no more flights. And let’s just say that Congress became hyper-polarized, a do nothing body, where even the simplest, once uncontroversial acts morphed into a potential hot potato in a mid-term election year. Air traffic would grind to a halt.

Well, that’s a fair analogy for a bureaucratic hurdle currently faced by NASA, along with contractors and customers, all waiting on a critical reauthorization before a score of rockets can be duly licensed and cleared for launch in 2014. Follow me below, deep into the cosmic weeds, and we’ll review just how easy this should be to fix. [Read more…]

2014: Let the games begin!

CB7501

I should be back to regular posting tomorrow. But I wanted to drop this post on a low traffic day and thank all you regs for the support, both financially and emotionally, you have provided during the toughest year of my adult life. It would have been far worse without you guys. I’ve been on vacay, in part keeping tabs on my mother, she’s having some health issue, but she was well enough to dig up the pic above. That’s a 19 year-old Steven with my beloved bike and windjammer faring in the bottom right corner, in 1982! So much life ahead!

Got great news this week: my blood counts are perfect, hemoglobin is now 15.5. It was 21 at the height of the leukemia scare. My doc told me yesterday that that kind of elevated hemo increases stroke risk by a factor on the order of a 100.  I celebrated with Four Loko last night. On a downside, I did finally lose my job, so I can now reveal I worked at Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft. But it’s a new year, new hope, with health and a little luck, we can do a lot of good. Let the games begin!