DAFT PUNK

-Say WHAT?!  Huh?!!!

I've watched TRON: Legacy twice now.

I saw the original TRON when it first came out in 1982, and in 2002 I added the 20th Anniversary Collectors edition to my DVD collection.  It somehow survived the many purges and sell offs I had gone through over the years.

With the new movie sequel coming up, I was very surprised to not see the original all over the place; Disney has absolutely no peer when it comes to milking something for all it's worth.  It's been out of print for years now, and I've learned that my copy truly is  a collectors item; prices starting at $130.00 on Amazon.com for new copies still in the original factory wrap.

A relook at my copy of the original verified my memory of it; it was fairly good, but not all that fantastic.  I suspect the suits at Disney took a look and decided that it would not compel people to put the sequel on their "must see" list.

Which is a shame, as they did something truly amazing with the sequel, elevating it into one Hell of a fine movie, with a simple (deceptively simple) storyline that has a lot more going on than at first appears.

(Jeff Bridges also has had an amazing year, appearing in this, and  in True Grit ; THE best movie of 2010, so far. He deserves a post of his own, so I'm not going to cover him here.)

The first thing that grabbed me (really grabbed me) was the music; seemingly a marriage of Phillip Glass and Tangerine Dream (with bits of John Carpenter and John Barry thrown in). The music is mostly for motion (and there is a lot of motion here) and it puts the movie into overdrive.

I had to wait until the end credits to learn that DAFT PUNK (an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) did this score.

I had never heard of them before, and this appears to be their very first film score, but they've been around for awhile.  I can see now that my next bankruptcy may well be engendered by seeking out what else they have done.

Hunt up the CD soundtrack of TRON: Legacy and give it a listen.

If it doesn't move you, and make you want to check out the movie, you might as well pack it in;  you're already dead!.
-

Dr. Sanity's already been here.

I had thought (in my post  Dr. Sanity nails it! ) that she had said it all about nanny-statism.

That clearly shows my lack of imagination. 
Check out one of AJStrata's latest:  Dumbest Lawsuit Evah ...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The left truly is insane. Who else would champion a lawsuit that basically cries out: “Mom has no damn backbone“:

"The lawsuit alleges that “McDonald’s exploits very young California children
...
said she was bringing the case because of the constant requests for McDonald’s Happy Meals."

Good lord, what a moron.  Her kids want Happy Meals and so she is suing McDonalds to shut them up.  Just let that one settle in for a bit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

There appears to be truly no limit to this urge to place restrictions on absolutely everything we do in life. In total contradiction to everything I've ever believed in and advocated, she makes me feel that, in her case at least, some people really shouldn't be allowed to run around loose. :(
-

"What is THAT for?"

-
I'd love to post the whole Strategy Page  article that answers the question, but that might strain their patience on copyright, so look for "What is THAT for?" on this page...  http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic324b.asp

(Somehow, this brings to mind Jerry Van Meter's "Glooshmaker" joke.  No, you probably wont find it on Google; it's peculiar to his sense of humor.  If any of my Air Force buddies see this, they will know it.  I could tell you, but then... :-)

Bureaucracy forever.
-

HOW do spambots evade my site meter?

-
I occasionally get anonymous comments of the type that neo-neocon has posted about as "Spambot of The Day", when a new or somewhat original example came through her spam filters.

Often whimsical, with wonderfully loose language, and sometimes no other apparent purpose than to show that it could  be done.
(Updated - With an answer)

December 7

My calendar shows today as...
   1) Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
and...
   2) First of Muharram (First day of the first month in the Islamic calendar;
       making it the Islamic equivalent of New Years Day)

Any bets on which one will most likely be honored (or even mentioned) by The One?
-

ADDENDUM - After that vent, I remembered this...

Today (Dec 7) is also the 38th anniversary of the Apollo 17 launch;
the very last manned lunar exploration mission.

This is very personal to me, as described in...
  Adventure of a Lifetime
and
  The Adventure - Continued

(Yeah, I'm blowing my own horn here.
 Well -- So What? :-)
-

Help! - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome???

That's a term I've heard for a long time, and always thought of as some kind of arthritis-like pain in hands and fingers.  (Updated below) 
(Updated again 05 Dec 2010 below)

For months now (since my 68th birthday on May 25) I've had problems with my fingers and thumbs feeling numb and thought it to be a circulation problem; hence the walking regimen I've forced upon myself since the end of May. While good for other things, it may turn out to have been an exercise in futility for this particular problem.

You see, a number of people where I work, observing my problems, have raised the possibility of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). While that sounded just plain wrong to me, I finally decided to look it up on the internet.

So, what did I find?

Thanksgiving pizza...

...will have to wait 'til Friday.

You see, Pizza Hut will be closed on Thanksgiving day (the one convenient to me at least).   For some time now, I've favored them over others; having long considered grease an essential ingredient of a good pizza. :-)

Wasn't always so; when I first came to Houston in the mid '60s, the absolute best pizzas, bar none, were served by Shakey's, but they became history here when Hunt International bought them out in the mid '70s and closed the local restaurants (Domino's taking over most of them).

A lot of other buyouts followed, with the results that an outfit once having hundreds of locations all over the country has now been reduced to a few dozen, mostly in their home state of California.

Second best (also now history) was the Post Oak Drive-In Theater.  Instead of pulling out a frozen pizza and shoving it into the oven, they made theirs from scratch, just like a real pizzeria.

One of their toppings  was chili.  When washed down with the beer I had snuck into the the drive-in, it was fantastic. (Just had to be sure to also bring along a trash bag, a roll of paper towels, and some wipes; messy doesn't even begin to describe it. :-)

Once in a while I try to duplicate that experience by adding chili to a frozen one.  Close, but somehow just ain't the same.

By now, instead of asking "What about turkey?!!!", you've probably deduced that I'm not a big turkey fan.  Give me pizza and beer, and throw in a DVD to watch (there'll probably be nothing but football on TV that day), and I'm all set.

Did I just commit blasphemy with that "there'll probably be nothing but football on TV that day" above?

Well, I've never been much of a football fan either, except for a brief shining moment in the late '70s when coach O. A. "Bum" Phillips raised what was then the Houston Oilers to superbowl material, twice actually making it to the playoffs (only to run into that steel wall called Pittsburgh).

Something I'll always remember was the wonderful welcome the team got from cheering crowds that greeted them when they came home. They had to be feeling pretty low from those defeats, and for those fans to give that kind of "Welcome Home" made me proud beyond description.

(For a while, before those playoffs, I'd considered the Oilers as mostly just their two prima donnas (Dan Pastorini and Earl Campbell). But, while on vacation with friends in New Mexico, I saw a game (don't remember who they were playing), where both of them were benched and the remaining players went out there, just like a real team, and WON!)

Unfortunately, Phillips was getting more publicity than team owner Bud Adams (worthy of his own story) and many of us felt his days were numbered.

Sure, enough, Phillips was eventually fired and went to New Orleans to coach the New Orleans Saints (at that time owned by River Oaks native (and neighbor of Bud Adams) John Mecom.  I think there was a rivalry between them worthy of a TV movie, if it hasn't already been done.)

So many Oilers' players (Campbell, Pastorini, others) followed him there, our secretary began referring to the team as the Houston Saints.

Well, I've managed to wander all over the map this time, even including one of my least favorite subjects. So, I think it's time to close this one.

Hope you have a really wonderful thanksgiving. I'm gonna give it a shot. :-)

-

The Anvil of Life

To be smart as Hell and to not have a lick of sense are not mutually exclusive.

In my previous post Ready for a firestorm? :-)  (about an Ann Coulter article on the insanity of letting young people vote) a commenter noted...

"After reading Ann's full article, if it's true that 18-24 yr. olds broke for Obama by 19 points (I still question who's polling them and where because I don't recall any pollsters anywhere in my neighborhood) but if that's true, with a military service exemption, I would be for. Sigh. There really are millions of stupid Americans.

I replied in a comment of my own, and after further reflection, decided to tweak and expand the comment into the post you are now reading.

There really are millions of stupid Americans.

Yup!

But, in the 18-24 range, I suspect it is ignorance more than stupidity.

I've always viewed ignorance as simply lack of information, whereas stupidity consists of going ahead and doing something when you damned well (or should) know better.

In 1962, I was in the USAF, newly stationed at Goodfellow AFB outside of San Angelo, Texas. One weekend, I went with three other Airmen down to Del Rio and across the border into Villa Acuña (now Ciudad Acuña) to check out "boystown" (the local red light district) and to buy and bring back cheap duty-free booze.

A little background necessary for what follows:

We were in the United States Air Force Security Service (now the Electronic Security Arm, I think).  (See update below)

When you enlist in the service, you are given a battery of tests on almost anything imaginable (of course, to see just what, if anything, you're good for).

The spook shops have the privilege of being the first to troll through the results and they pick from the top 2%.  If they're interested in you, background checks will be performed while you are still in basic training ("Some people from the government were asking about you, but we lied and said you were Ok." :-) but they'll likely wait until they're sure you aren't going to flunk out of basic training before informing you.

In my case, about 2/3 of the way through basic, after being marched to a class one morning, and standing at parade rest waiting to go in, my drill instructor comes up to me and quietly tells me, "at 1300, you will report to Bldg. ####, Room ###, in the Uniform of the Day. That is all."

The strangest thing is that, for the first time in 7 or 8 weeks, he's not looking at me as if I scuttled out from under a rock, but has a quiet smile, as if he's proud or something.  Also, I'm the only one in my flight (40+ Airmen, the USAF equivalent to a platoon) to receive that attention.

Upon reporting to that room, I find several dozen other Airmen, NCOs and Officers also there to see what the Hell this is about. We're told that they are seeking linguists to attend a one-year intensive language course at the Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale University (this was 1961 - The USAF departed Yale in 1965 and now uses the Defense Language Institute or whatever at Monterey, California).

The afternoon is spent on testing our aptitude on learning Mandarin Chinese, although some will be selected for other languages (Korean in my case).

I manage to do Ok, and am selected. I had to drop out of school after the 9th grade, and here I am chosen to go to Yale!  (Well, I did know how to read (see On Reading... for how lucky I've been in this area)). I suspect that I really needed a cap a couple of sizes larger at that point.

I spent a solid year at Yale, with some of the brightest people I have ever met, and that was the greatest thing in the world for me.

After graduation, we were then sent down to Goodfellow for the next phase of our training. Whereupon, the four of us embarked upon the great Villa Acuña sex and booze adventure noted way up yonder.

What I'm trying to convey is that our little bunch was absolutely as sharp as they come (including, modestly, yours truly :-).

And, just how was all that brilliance used?  Stay tuned...

To bring that booze back over the border, you had to be 21 or over, and not one of us had reached that exalted age. So, we cleverly shoved the bottles under the seats as we approached the border crossing.

We had noticed that the Customs guards and Border Patrolmen were just waving through car after car of families that had come over to watch the bullfights and indulge in some very cheap shopping.

So, this bunch of super-smart Airmen (including myself) would later actually conjure up conspiracy theories, about informants in the liquor stores, to explain the mystery of why a Patrolman takes one look at this old Mercury pulling up with a Goodfellow AFB sticker on the windshield, occupied by four young punks sporting military haircuts, and waves us right over.

   "Do you gentlemen have anything to declare?"
   "No Sir."
   "Right!  Step out of the car please."

And they go straight to our hiding place and pull it out.

Not having enough to pay the fine, so help me, I actually asked, "Can I just leave it?"

To which one of the Patrolmen (probably really straining to keep a straight face) replied, "I've got news for you son; you are going to leave it."

Thankfully, one of the others was able to loan me enough to handle the fine.

As I said, being smart as Hell, and not having a lick of sense, are not mutually exclusive.

The missing ingredient, of course, was experience; the hammer with which we're forged on the anvil of life.

Updated 12 Dec 2010, and AGAIN 16 AUG 2019  - "(now the Electronic Security Arm, I think)" - Slightly off, and way out of date.  Its name often changed along with what was covered in its mission.

The various incarnations were...
  United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS) 1948-1979.
  Electronic Security Command (ESC) 1979-1991.
  Air Force Intelligence Command (AFIC) 1991-1993.
  Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) 1993-2007.
  Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance Agency (AFISRA) 2007-2014.
  25th Air Force  2014-Present.

-

Ready for a firestorm? :-)

Then check out Ann Coulter's latest: REPEAL THE 26TH AMENDMENT!... (Updated below)
   ...
Adopted in 1971 at the tail end of the Worst Generation's anti-war protests, the argument for allowing children to vote was that 18-year-olds could drink and be conscripted into the military, so they ought to be allowed to vote.

But 18-year-olds aren't allowed to drink anymore. We no longer have a draft.
   ...

Dr. Sanity nails it!

One reason I'm a Republican is that, while we may be cursed with a few of those she describes, the Democrats seem absolutely infested with them.

This lady is well worth bookmarking and reading.

Her latest post (at Dr. Sanity ) ...
--------------------------------------------------------
WHAT 'PROGRESSIVES' STAND FOR
Let's get down to the nitty gritty of what "progressivism" is all about, shall we? And, it's all about controlling other people's lives, down to determining the food you and your kids will be able to eat ( because, you know, you are far too stupid to decide that yourself).

For all their happy talk and utopian fantasies, that is the essence of progressivism. Oh, they say it is for your own good...they insist that they are protecting you from the "greed" of those evil capitalists who desire not only your money, but your death--but make no mistake, what they really want is to control your life.
--------------------------------------------------------

That last emphasis is mine. She has a lot more to say, but she really nails it right there.

Update - 05 Dec 2010 - Dr. Sanity does not permalink her individual articles, and this one no longer appears on her main page. To find the full article, look in the sidebar at the left of her page, go down to Archives, and click on November 2010,  Once that page finishes loading, look for Thursday, November 04, 2010 (near the bottom). The full article WHAT 'PROGRESSIVES' STAND FOR begins there.

-

Election 2010 - So, where are we now?

...Not nearly as far as I'd hoped we'd be.

As I write this (Wednesday afternoon, 03 Nov 2010) the House appears to be 239 Republicans (for a gain of 60, so far), 185 Democrats, and 11 undecided.

That ain't chopped liver; legislation originates in the House, before being passed along to the Senate and eventually to the President's desk for signing. At the very least, after the new congress is seated in January, there will be enough Republicans to stop any new atrocities from being passed in the House.

Further, Republicans will now chair House committees. As this includes the House Ways and Means Committee, Republicans will now have a very big say on how much (or even if) certain legislation will be funded.

The Joker in this deck is, Will the Republicans actually exercise this power they have won?

"...Don’t worry, you’re boring.”

Found this on John Lott's website... 

   http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2010/10/indian-givers-fbi-demand-gps-bug-back.html

“We have all the information we needed,” were their parting words, “you don’t need to call your lawyer. Don’t worry, you’re boring.”

Now, that's cold. :(
-

Early Voting

As I don't know what my unpredictable working schedule will be for Election Day Nov. 2, I took advantage of early voting today, about 15 minutes ago.

A LOT of people there. I'm told it's this way all over. This very likely means lots of people that just can't wait to get their point across, even though it's still a week until the results will be known.

This year, what to do was real damned simple; select "Straight Republican Ticket", then page through the ballot to be sure that every Republican candidate (and NOT ONE Democrat) was selected, and then cast the ballot.

From how quickly many voters were done, I suspect a lot of them were doing the same thing.

From the turnout,  I expect a very bad day for the Democrats when the results come in the evening of Nov 2.

We'll see.
-

Airshow

%)#-#!&^##  &(%^#$-$&#**^%  @(^-($-!-%*%#^!!!

Just got back from the Wings Over Houston Airshow at Ellington Field, just south of Houston.

On May 30, I had posted Ready to hear God laugh?, in which I mentioned health problems and announced a regimen of walking to help with them. I set as a goal, catching this airshow, getting a lot of good shots and having something really good to write about in a post.

Well, here's the post. But it sure ain't what I intended.

Experiment

I'm going to see if I can play with the order of my posts by editing the publishing time.
(Originally published 10/10/10 11:00 AM)

Result, YES, I can!!!.

There's a post from a while back that I intend to move to the top when the time is right.
Now, I know how.
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A Boy and his Vampire

(This post is mostly about remakes)

  Owen: "How old are you, -- really?"  
   Abby: "Twelve, -- but I've been twelve for a really long time."

Let Me In is the story of 12-year old Owen, lonely and tormented by bullies at school, and of Abby; a very unusual girl of the same apparent age, with whom he becomes acquainted when she and her guardian move into the apartment next to his.

Based on the Swedish thriller Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), from the novel of the same name, it is the latest in the long-standing Hollywood tradition of taking an absolutely superb foreign film and remaking it for those who "don't want to read their movies".

What is not in that tradition is the fact that this remake stands in the same league as the original, to a degree I haven't seen since Gore Verbinski's The Ring.

The Swedes have been cranking out some interesting work lately, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, already scheduled for an American remake with Daniel Craig.  For the role of Lisbeth Salander (the girl of the title), for a short while Emma Watson (Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films) was briefly considered for the remake, before being ultimately passed over for someone else. Lisbeth would have been one Hell of a change for Watson; very edgy and as big a step as Kurt Russell going from the nerdy kids he played in Disney movies to putting on the eye patch and becoming "Snake" Plissken  in John Carpenter's Escape From New York. (Believe it or not, even that one has a remake in the works.)

Before that, I'd have to rate Insomnia (with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hillary Swank) as maybe one of the most successful re-dos of a first-rate Swedish movie. That particular remake was directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception) and that may have had much to do with it turning out so well.

Of course, Hollywood doesn't have to go overseas to mine something already done (and done very well) before. (They never seem interested in taking something that should have been good but was botched, and giving it another shot.)

Even the Coen Brothers are going down this path. After couple of decades of some of the most original work seen on the screen, they confessed to being inspired by The Odyssey for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they adapted Cormac McCarthy's novel for No Country for Old Men, and now they are going as mainstream Hollywood as one can possibly get; they are remaking True Grit.

Scheduled for this Christmas, this is one remake that does not fill me with dread. I've not seen any of the trailers now available online (watching videos on a dial-up connection is an exercise in masochism), but some of the stills I've seen give me a very good feeling about this.

Jeff Bridges steps into John Wayne's role as Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, and looks absolutely perfect for it.

Matt Damon is the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, and while Damon can make me want to throw things at him when he opens his mouth politically, as an actor he has a lot more going for him than did singer Glen Campbell in the original.

Likewise, I have no problem with Josh Brolin taking over from Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney, the object of the manhunt the story is about.

Who I'll be most curious about is Barry Pepper (the sniper, in Saving Private Ryan, who would cross himself before blowing out the brains of some poor German soldier). He will be essaying the role of the outlaw "Lucky" Ned Pepper, a role that was filled by Robert Duvall in the original.

Now, that will be a challenge on a par with Steven Weber following in Jack Nicholson's footsteps in the TV remake of The Shining. I think Weber did a fine job of meeting that challenge. We'll just have to see how well Barry does.

As of now, the "True Grit" remake is scheduled for Christmas Day, 2010.

December 25th this year occurs on a Saturday. New movies are usually released on a Friday, with an occasional Wednesday or Thursday thrown in. I don't ever recall a Saturday being used before, BUT, this is the Coen Brothers we are talking about. So, anything can be on the plate where they are concerned.

But, WHY does Hollywood depend so much on remakes and sequels? Are they really that devoid of imagination?

I seriously doubt it. I believe some of the most imaginative people on the planet are in that industry, but, you must never forget that there are two words in "show business". Millions (lately hundreds of millions) are at stake in modern movies, and that is a powerful incentive to play it safe by remaking, or making sequels to movies that made money. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

As for sequels; there have been some good ones. But as far as most of them go, consider Robert Rodriguez's violent, over-the-top live action cartoon spoof of late 60's exploitation movies Machete.

As the end credits start, they announce...

Machete will return in

"MACHETE KILLS"

             and

"MACHETE KILLS AGAIN"

Right there, Mr. Rodriguez says it all about most sequels.
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Spambots - Or, why comment moderation is back on.

-
For a long time now, neo-neocon has posted Spambot of The Day when a new or somewhat original example came through her spam filters. Often whimsical, with wonderfully loose language, and sometimes no other apparent purpose than to show that it could be done.

I've gotten these examples on Anatomy of an eBay Transaction... 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
Clearly, many thanks for the information.
   July 13, 2010 6:28 AM

Paul_In_Houston said...
Although that comment appears appropriate to this post, my site meter (StatCounter) shows no trace of anyone even visiting my blog around the time the comment was put up, let alone actually reading this post.

In fact, that comment would have been far more appropriate to the follow-up posting "An Ode to PayPal...".

So, I have to conclude that it is almost certainly a spam-bot.

I'd love to learn how it accomplishes this; finding a particular post to comment upon and actually doing it without leaving a trace other than the comment itself.

And as for WHY it was done ("What's in it for them?") I suspect the answer may be because they could.
-
    July 13, 2010 2:26 PM

Anonymous said...
The excellent and duly answer.
   September 13, 2010 3:47 AM

Anonymous said...
You have quickly thought up such matchless phrase?
   September 13, 2010 11:42 PM

Anonymous said...
In my opinion you are mistaken. I can defend the position. Write to me in PM, we will discuss.
   September 16, 2010 10:41 PM

Beginning today, these are what I'm getting (on Yet again, the Brits know us much better than our own media does.. )...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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    September 23, 2010 11:51 PM

Paul_In_Houston said...
Like other spambots that have visited here, this one left no trace at all on my site meter (StatCounter).

As this one at least provided a URL, I've emailed them, asking how they managed that.

If they simply came here the same way as anyone else, doing nothing special to avoid detection, then I may want to take it up with StatCounter.

In the meantime, I'll leave it up for a while before purging it.

Just a little while; if I'm gonna provide advertising space for someone, I want my cut. :-)
    September 24, 2010 1:09 PM

Anonymous said...
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    September 24, 2010 4:21 PM

I'm afraid that final one was the last straw. If you want to advertise on my site, we need to negotiate a fee first.

Because of this, I have purged those last three comments and I'm turning comment moderation back on. :(

(And, as I mentioned in my comments before, I would still love to know how they manage an end run around StatCounter.)
-

Yet again, the Brits know us much better than our own media does..

Thanks to neo-neocon for Finally: a fair depiction of the Tea Party movement

She simply points to Tea Party insurgents prepare to seize power in 2012
and figures (rightly) that it says it all.

Not feeling bound by such a restriction, I'm gonna quote from it a bit:

Flu can really suck, you know.

Back to square one...

If Stephen King hadn't already described the circumstances (in "Danse Macabre") of how he wrote "The Stand", wherein flu (albeit a souped-up version) was the instrument of the downfall of civilization, I would have guessed his inspiration to be a recent bout of it and thinking "What a miserable way to go!!!".

Tsunami

- Yeah, others have used that word for what's coming in November.  So, tsu me. :-)

AJStrata, of The Strata-Sphere has used the analogy frequently of late, in There Is An Anti-Dem, Anti-Big Gov Wave Out There, following many other posts on his site.

He points out (in some of those other posts) that, like an iceberg only revealing 1/10th of itself above water, a tsunami wave doesn't doesn't look all that different from other waves out in mid-ocean (unless you can note its length).

It's when it begins arriving in the shallows that the true monster rears its head.

Now, HERE'S an eye opener!

-
From Strategy Page ...

Chinese General Declares Democracy The Ultimate Weapon
August 19, 2010: Chinese Lieutenant General Yazhou Liu has been giving speeches to his fellow officers in which he insists that China must embrace democracy, or perish. Liu recently got promoted, and his speeches and published articles continue. What is going on here?
...
Liu's backing of democracy is purely practical, and really has nothing to do with political beliefs. He describes American democracy as a system designed by a genius for effective use by stupid people. As Liu puts it, "a bad system makes a good person behave badly while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most important reform for China, for without it there can be no sustainable growth."
...
Change is in the air, whether communist officials want it or not. Liu offers a way out, but there's no guarantee that enough of these officials will take it.

-

G. Wolf is Howling -- You might want to pay attention.

Sometimes he appears to go on sabbatical for a while (probably this thing called LIFE). But, he's back full-bore now (and, NO! That does not mean "boring"). I'm trying to persuade people to give his site a look. As doing this on my own blog means that only two or three dozen will ever see it, I'm also gonna email the hell out of this.

Now at Wolf Howling ...

"The Lady of Spain"
O'Reilly comments on First Lady Michelle Obama's ostentatious vacation in Spain while a very significant portion of America suffers through our worst economy since WWII. And O'Reilly even let's Charles Krauthammer get in a word or two. Let us eat spinach indeed.

"The Ground Zero Mosque & Our Government's Mishandling Of "Islamic Radicals"
As it stands today, Obama is pretending that nothing about Islam is implicated in the terrorist attacks against us. It is a risible canard that invites disaster. It is not fooling any American with a pulse.

"Can I Have The BS On Rye, Hold The Mayo?"
Afrocity's post this week, Bullshit, It's Not Just For Republicans Anymore.
Here is a snippet:
. . . But understand that bullshit is an acquired taste. That is to say, if someone feeds you crap election year in and election year out, you only know… well…crap. You become accustomed to the broken promises and pointing fingers game. You accept your permanent place in the war of America’s needy versus America’s greedy. Despite your inner brilliance- your wiser conscious plea to ask questions and get real answers, you continue to eat the plate of bullshit set before you. Some like myself ate with small spoonfuls -drinking huge glasses of water between each swallow. Others like my mother and most Obama supporters put the feedbag on with gusto.

"Let Them Eat Argula"
Indeed. Were I the left, I would not fear a second American Revolution in our country. I'd fear a second French Revolution in our country.

-

The Texas vs EPA War

-
From The Strata-Sphere ...

 Texas declares War on the EPA
I have *never* read an official government document that is this bitter and contemptuous of the Federal level – I never thought I would! This is damn close to a new Declaration of Independance.

And, for good measure, this from Liberty Pundits ...

 Texas Tells The EPA To Pound Sand – UPDATED A War Is Breaking Out

I have nothing to add to these, they speak for themselves. I have sent emails to a bunch of other bloggers alerting them to this, because at my site, maybe about two dozen people will see it. The others can do a bit better than that.

The Strata-Sphere post has this link to the actual letter, in pdf format...
http://www.globalwarming.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/epa-texas-letter.pdf

Enjoy

(And, not for the first time, I notice that you have to roam, not merely the internet, but bloggers, to even become aware of this. No wonder they seem so desperate to exercise control over the internet.)
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Hiatus

- A twenty-dollar word for "I haven't put up anything for a couple of weeks now".

Why not?

John Hawkes - Man of Steel

Not so much a movie review, but an Actor review.   (Updated at end of post)
(23 JUL 2010 - New update about sound problems at end of post)

Part I - Setting the stage...

Winter's Bone (2010), from the novel by Daniel Woodrell ...
Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly (seventeen, in the movie) is trying to support two younger siblings, and a mother who is no longer quite all there, in the Missouri Ozarks.

The local deputy-sheriff drives up and informs her that her father, Jessup (out on bail for running a crystal meth lab), hasn't shown up for his court date and, Oh by the way, had signed over everything for his bond.

She has maybe a week to find him and haul his ass back, or find proof that he's dead, before losing the property and becoming homeless.

Part II - Meet Uncle Teardrop...

Into the situation enters Jessup's brother, Haslam (Teardrop - so called because of three blue teardrops, made with prison ink, below his left eye; each one denoting some grisly prison deed that needed doing, was done, and probably best not inquired about).

He's the first person she goes to in her quest, only to be advised that such poking around is, "a good way to get et by hogs", and that she should know better than that. (Her best friend, Gail, already fearing the worst, supposes "Either he stole, or he told; that's what they'll kill you for here.")

Teardrop has a reputation that precedes him when some local toughs (and they truly are tough) look out of a garage, see his truck approaching, and react "Oh, Sh*t!" and "Let me get something from the car; I don't want to be standing here naked if that motherf**ker's comin' in."

After he has pulled her out of a very tight situation, Ree confesses to him, "You've always scared me, Uncle Teardrop." To which he softly replies, "That's because you're smart".

Part III - And to play him...

John Hawkes as Teardrop - Photo from Winter's Bone website.

John Hawkes has appeared in an amazing number of movies I've seen, some of which I have, including From Dusk till Dawn  and The Perfect Storm.

He may be best known, at least to Deadwood fans, as Seth Bullock's partner Sol Star ("the hardware jew", as he was sometimes referred to there) whose best line may have been ONE word when Trixie (the whore he's been shacking up with) ends an argument with, "Well, do you want to get f**ked or not?".  To which he replies, "PLEASE!"

At first glance, he may seem a strange choice as he is not in the least imposing physically (sorry, Mr. Hawkes, but that's the way I see it), but there is steel there.

In his character, all he has to do is stand there, quietly looking at you with sad eyes, and the vibe you get (just rolling from him) is, "Son, you do not want to mess with me."

This may be one of the most under-rated actors in the business, because he doesn't work to steal scenes from other actors, but to get the job done. In other words, a professional.

As for the movie itself, it just may be the best of the year, so far. I personally think Hawkes deserves an Academy Award nomination but, since his work is so understated, I wont hold my breath.

As it is an independent film, with very little real support, some of you may not get a chance to see it until a DVD is eventually released, unless there is a local art house theater near you (I am so blessed with one within walking distance of where I live :-).

If you can find a showing within your reach, I promise you it is worth the effort. My only complaint is that the sound quality is not very good, so you really have to pay attention. With my less-than-perfect hearing, I recently devoured the book to better understand some of it (the movie is quite faithful to the book). Here's hoping the eventual DVD has subtitles or close-captioning; I confess to sometimes needing them.

UPDATE - 18 JUL 2010 - The movie has wider distribution than I thought. Check out the official website (linked under the photo). They list theaters where it is currently playing, or about to.

UPDATE - 23 JUL 2010 - This post was (and still is) primarily about John Hawkes, but at the end of the original post I had noted sound problems making much of the dialog inaudible.

After a few rounds here, and in comments on http://maridethsisco.com (blog of Marideth Sisco, music consultant and singer in the film) and on http://moonmooring.wordpress.com/ (blog of Sarah, who oversees Marideth's blog), I got this reply on Marideth's blog...

About the sound problem, I’m advised by the director that similar problems have occurred when the theater playing the film fails to notice the attached tag that says the movie is to be played at Dolby sound level 7.5 — Most films being shown these days are so full of explosions and very loud special effects that if played at 7.5 it would blow their speakers, so they play the audio set at Dolby 5. At that level the WB sound is very muddy.

I emailed this info to the customer service departments of the Landmark theater chain (which runs the theater I went to) and Roadshow Roadside Attractions (distributor of Winter's Bone).

The latter replied, thanking me for the heads up, and promised to get with the theater to see what was going on.

Apparently, they did. Tonight's showing was much better as far as audio goes; while I still had to strain in a few places to catch some of the dialog, it was infinitely better than before. The remaining part of my problems can probably be attributed to hearing I have already described as a bit "less than perfect". Because of that last caveat, I still hope for captioning on the DVD.

But, in the meantime, there is at least one theater in this area that is now playing it the way it was meant to. So, I feel I have managed to accomplish something worthwhile. :-)
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"That which does not kill me..."

"...makes me stronger". (Well, at least according to some guy named Nietzsche.)

I started this post, two days ago, in full "whine" mode. I was going to reply to Mr. Nietzsche's quote that I was still awaiting that second part.

This is a follow-up to Ready to hear God laugh? and Day Nine..., in which I publicly announced my intentions to begin and continue a regimen of walking to improve my very shaky health and then told about early results.

Two days ago (Day 44), I was suffering bitter disappointment and depression over the lack of any apparent progress, even though I had told myself that it would most likely take months (plural) to see such.

Today (Day 46) the situation changed, as must the general direction of this post.

"the bottom line"

(I repeat myself here. Well, so what? Wont be the first time.)

(24 Oct 2010 -This post was originally published 07 Jul 2010. By temporarily altering the date, I am sticking this one at or near the top of the page, until after the election when I will restore it to its rightful slot. The only other alteration is using Red to further emphasize some points.)

(03 Nov 2010 - Restored original publishing date, putting this post back where it belongs.)

The election this November will be nothing less than a fight for our very lives; this is absolutely no time for any conservative to throw a hissy fit (because his candidate may be less than perfect), and just decide to sit it out.

That’s already happened, and just look where that got us.

Blogger Robin of Berkeley, on the American Thinker blog site, nailed it in A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama?...

(The words are hers, the emphasis is mine; the first emphasized paragraph is really "the bottom line" about what needs to be done.)

"...and the sharks will come."

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There's a parable in this piece of dialog from Iron Man 2, in which Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) explains to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) just how effective his recent public intimidation of Iron Man/Tony Stark really was:

"If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him.
 There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come.
 All I have to do is sit here and watch, as the world will consume you..."

Barack Obama is bleeding over his handling of the Gulf oil spill; when you have devout worshipers such as Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews all but openly wondering, "Can't this jerk get anything right?!!!", there is definitely blood in the water.

(Updated at the end)

What's Wrong with Obama?

While I've often wondered, this time it's a question posed by blogger Robin of Berkeley on the American Thinker blog site: A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama?

UPDATE - 05 JUL 2010 - I hope she will forgive me for lifting two more paragraphs that immediately preceded the original quotes (as they now do here), because even though they precede, they are in fact the "bottom line" of what needs to be done. So much so that I have emphasized them in toto.

Priorities

Or, how an engineer and a politician approaches a problem...

"Let's work the problem, people.
  Let's not make things worse by guessing."
  (~NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, during the Apollo 13 crisis - 1970)

"I want to know whose ass to kick!"
  (~President Barack Hussein Obama, during the gulf oil spill - 2010)

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Day Nine...

...of my "Let's not drop dead just now, Ok?!!!" project.

In my previous post (Ready to hear God laugh?) I announced a regimen of walking to try to improve my current condition (which ain't so hot, right now).

Ready to hear God laugh?

I may be about to.

The title's inspired by this quotation, "Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh.", uttered by Ian McShane (as Al Swearengen) in "Deadwood". (Some may have noticed that I used that quote as the title of my second post here.)

I'm announcing some plans, hoping some of my friends will nag me about this, and maybe eventually save my life as a result.

The Return of Mickey Rourke

(Of course, if he ever saw this post, he'd probably refute my title with, "I never went anywhere; you just weren't paying attention.")

"Presence" is a not-easily defined quality, of an actor, that absolutely compels your attention when he shows up. Some have it, and some don't. For those who don't, it's not something you can just run over to Walmart to get.

In the 2002 movie of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears", Ben Affleck was tapped to take over the role of Jack Ryan (following Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford), and had the misfortune of having Liev Schreiber playing Mr. Clark in scenes with him, about which a Houston Press review noted, "We can't take our eyes off Schreiber, and we can't keep our eyes open when Affleck's around."

That's a very good example of what this "presence" business is about.

Japanese superstar Toshiro Mifune (of samurai movie fame) had it in spades, as did Sean Connery. American actors Lee Marvin and Robert Mitchum come to mind. It's not really so much how good actors they are, but how well they command your attention.

They were people for whom, if you looked into their eyes, very definitely "someone was home". There was always a feeling of things going on beneath the surface, and that they were capable of absolutely anything.

Now, we can add Mickey Rourke to the list.

He'd been down for awhile, in movies that few saw. His role of Marv in "Sin City" probably did more than anything to put him back on the map. Recently he was nominated for the Academy Award for "The Wrestler" (checking it out is on my "to do" list), losing to Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart".

He is easily the best thing about "Iron Man 2", which is a pretty decent show, with plenty of action (maybe too much actually) and really first class work by Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle, but Rourke is a truly worthwhile foe and is what makes it worth seeing.

And, he doesn't even seem to be doing anything special at all; with a twinkle in his eye and a quietly amused smile (as if all of creation is a joke to him, and he gets it), he dominates this movie so much in the scenes he's in that the other actors might as well have stayed home; I doubt you would have noticed their absence had they done so.

If you get the chance to see it, you will get a true demonstration of what "presence" is in a movie.

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New Junk in the Sidebar

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About 1 in 4 of my posts are ones I feel fairly good about, so I've decided to provide links to these in the sidebar, under "Posts I Feel Good about..."

Further down, I've added "Really Fine Posts by Others..." , linking posts by other bloggers that I really feel deserve a look.
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Today was a really, really good day...

...one of the best I've had in a long while.

Why?!!!

For the first time in 21 years, I can legally drive without any glasses or corrective lenses whatever. When you're closing in on 68, that's a pretty nice feeling.

The Adventure - Continued

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In which further attempts at attending launchings in person eventually led to a new career.

(This is a follow on to Adventure of a Lifetime, which should be read first.)

Oh, and special thanks to one of my favorite science and science-fiction writers, to whom I also sent that email notice of that post. He can be as verbose as necessary to get a point across, but with a sniper's precision, he emailed to me a single word, "Indeed", which told me that he actually read as far as the line it most applied to ("We had dreams, then."), and by sending it suggested that my writing may not be beyond redemption. I've not given the name here, as he sent it to me in an email instead of making the comment on my blog, so name-dropping just doesn't seem appropriate. Thank you, Sir, for giving my ego much-needed nourishment. :-)


That old Rambler of mine made it back to Houston after the Apollo 16 trip, but didn't survive the summer. After a certain age, some cars reach the stage on maintenance where the best thing to do is take it to an auto salvage yard and accept what they will give you for its' junk value ($50.00 in that case) and hope they will throw in a ride home (they did).

So, the rest of 1972 was spent without a car (except when I could borrow one from a friend) and otherwise I depended on a bike. Fortunately, most of the time I lived in Houston in apartments that weren't too far from my job. But this meant I wouldn't be driving to Florida for the night launch of Apollo 17, scheduled for the night of 06 Dec 1972.

I was able to borrow a car often enough to experiment some more with night shots of refineries, especially gas flares at some of them.

When Apollo 16 lifted off, there were huge plumes of water vapor (mentioned in the previous post) flaring out both sides for almost a couple of city blocks. White, of course, and very reflective. The exhaust from the rocket was brilliant white and I hoped that it would reflect off of those plumes enough to illuminate the vehicle as it was rising. That's why I was experimenting more with those exposures.

No longer possessing a car, I made arrangements to rent one at Orlando, Florida (I also planned on checking out Disney World after the launch), and took the bus from Houston to there.

Why a bus???

Partly, because I'm cheap.

But this was 1972.

We still had a few nutcases hijacking airplanes to be flown to Cuba. I had no idea of what the viewing conditions for the launch would be like at Havana airport, and had no wish to learn.

So, $59.00 bought a bus ticket from Houston to Orlando.

I'd made plenty of long distant bus trips when I was in the USAF a decade before, and they were usually pretty miserable and tiring affairs. This time, it was an express bus as far as Tallahassee, very comfortable and I thought "WOW. This is so GREAT".

From Tallahassee to Orlando, things reverted back to the "good old days" I remembered so well, changing buses about four times, even going up to Valdosta, Georgia before finally heading south to Orlando, and every bit as enjoyable as my Air Force experiences.

Another difference between bus travel and air travel. Car rental places don't cluster around bus stations. Needed a taxi to even find the place. Collected the car and headed out to Titusville, about 50 miles east.

Tighter schedule this time. Went straight to the space center for the tour again, but this was only ONE day before the launch, so the tour bus did NOT take us near the pad as they had already begun fueling the rocket (see what I said in the previous post).

Afterwards, went to the Titusville beach, cutting things really close, and dove into the first rental lot I saw that was still accepting cars. Absolutely EVERYBODY was here for this one. (And why not?!!! It's been almost 38 years now, and NO ONE has gone back yet. And God only knows when anyone ever will. Or if it will be an American when that happens.)

So, once again I'm set up at the beach, camping out again, just not in my car. No chess game this time; if those kids are back, they could be anywhere. Just a lot of waiting, as it was last time. It's now late at night, on 06 Dec 1972, and the rocket and pad are a gleaming jewel, even from 12 miles away. Managed to get a number of good exposures through the 300mm lens, bracketing my initial estimates a couple of stops either way.

Uh-oh! Clouds have been forming. The lift-off, scheduled for early evening, has been put on hold (countdown stopped) because of some rain and lightning aways off. This would really suck if the whole thing has to be rescheduled for the next launch window (by which time I would have to be on my way back). I cannot even imagine what the astronauts inside must feel.

We've now crept past midnight, into Pearl Harbor Day, and the countdown has resumed. A little over half an hour past midnight Apollo 17 fires up, and my head is bobbing between the viewfinder and looking with naked eye as this magnificent creature rises on a pillar of dazzling white fire that is NOT as bright as day (let's not get ridiculous here) but is bright enough for me read newspaper headlines from that source 12 miles away.

As I'd hoped, that light reflecting off of those water vapor plumes lights up the entire 30-story vehicle beautifully. The worrisome clouds have gone and the rocket can be followed unimaginably far, a brilliant star just going on forever. (Speaking metaphorically, of course; by the time it went to the second stage, it was effectively out of sight to the naked eye.)

Leaving the site, I wondered wistfully if I would ever get a chance to witness something like that again. At that time, I never thought to wonder if I would even live long enough to see another man go to the moon.

After returning the car, I flew back to Houston ($79.00 for Delta from Orlando; only $20.00 more than the bus); I've got my wish and seen it, so who cares if I make an unscheduled visit to Havana? :-)

In 1975, I revisited the Cape and Titusville, to watch the liftoff of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Not nearly as spectacular; it using the far smaller Saturn 1B launcher instead of the mighty Saturn V.

The career changer mentioned in the first line finally happened as result of the next launch I wanted to witness, and came about in this random way.

I left the Air Force early, but honorably, and had no contact with any of my former buddies there until 1975 (I think) when, in a department store here in Houston, a man stepping off the escalator behind me asked, "Excuse me.  Aren't you Paul *******?".

I was trying to remember if he was an architect client of ours when it hit me that he had addressed me by a last name I hadn't used in nine years (another story, probably never to be revealed). He was one of the bunch I had been with, and was now living just north of Houston and working as an exploration geophysicist for Shell Oil Company.

I got back together with him and his family. That was a bit of a miracle. Have you ever run into someone that you knew from long ago, only to find so much has changed that you no longer have anything in common anymore?

A couple of years later he and his family moved up to central Michigan, where he joined a seismic exploration company there. Another couple of years and he's broken off from them and started his own company (also seismic exploration).

In the meantime, several things have been going on. I'd been an electrical draftsman, evolved into an electrical designer (almost an engineer, but sans license and seal) and had been doing the same thing for almost two decades.

Into our engineering world arrived a micro-computer, in 1981, primarily for use by our secretary as a word-processor (A lot of her work was typing up engineering specifications, usually from existing boiler-plates; this made her job enormously easier.) and an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) program in Basic, that never worked properly.

But, it had a professional grade level of Basic included, and I had found me a new plaything. Soon I was teaching myself programming on it, and making programs to handle some of the calculations required in my work.

Hang on. we're really getting there. I promise.

I had made several trips to Michigan, to visit my friend, and we had talked several times about the possibility of me moving up there to join him. After nearly 20 years of drawing circles and home runs, one gets ready for something new. (Any reader who has done electrical drafting, design and/or engineering knows what I'm speaking of. As for the rest: Nyah, nan nan nan nyah! :-)

In September of 1983, one of the Space Shuttles was scheduled to go up at night. I could afford it, had plenty of vacation time available, and decided, "Let's do it!".

This time, it didn't go so well. When it was time to get rolling, I was asked to not go; our sometimes crazy work schedules had piled up too much (and this wasn't the first time by a long shot. Their recurrences was one of the reasons I had so much vacation time built up; I'd had several vacations aborted this way). So, I didn't go.

Watching the lift-off, on TV at home instead of the Titusville beach, I'd HAD it! I was feeling "G*D D*MM*T! I'm not the only one there!". After the lift-off, I made a long distance call to my friend in Michigan and told him that if he still thought I could do something up there, I was definitely interested.

As I noted above, he had started his own company. He was farming out the data to a data-processing company, was not real impressed with the results, and decided to set up his own data-processing center.

In early 1984, he called back and asked me if I would come up and manage it for him.

And so, because of what amounts to a hissy fit over not being able to go to that night shuttle launch, I was soon on my way to Michigan, a new career, and a whole new future.

(Damn little of my life has ever been carefully planned; most of the time I seem to drift up on whatever shoals the current takes me to and I go on from there. The career change noted above is the closest thing to careful planning, and it resulted from an impulse; the only planning involved was that, when I left the engineering company, at least I knew where I was going and what I would be trying to do. Most of my odyssey has been far more random and capricious. I'm seriously considering a post on the utterly random and unpredictable events that have led me to where I am today.)

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Adventure of a Lifetime

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38 years ago today, on April 16, 1972, the penultimate manned moon mission (Apollo 16) was launched.

In early 1972 (February, I think) I saw an article in the Houston Chronicle noting that the Apollo series of manned moon exploration missions (originally scheduled to go up to number 20) would be cut off at 17 (due to budget cuts and declining interest).

Apollo 17 would lift off on December 6, 1972, and it would go at night!!!

I decided right then that "I've GOT to see that!".

I noticed that Apollo 16 was scheduled for April 16th, two months away. I decided to aim for that one also, in case something happened to prevent Apollo 17.

At that time, I was an electrical draftsman, earning the princely sum of around $5.00 an hour (prices were much cheaper then) and possessed a 1964 Rambler that had over 100,000 miles on it and was on its' last legs. So, number one concern was whether I could even nurse it from Houston to the Cape and back.

I also wanted to get some good photos (now, sadly gone forever; that's another story), so I strained my credit at Sears (that was the only card I had besides a gas card; this was before VISA and MasterCard began flooding the market with unsolicited credit cards), and bought a Ricoh Singlex 35mm camera and a 300mm telephoto lens.

Among the shots I wanted to get would be night shots, not only of 17's launch itself, but also of the vehicles on their pads, lit up at night.

For that, I would need very fast film (the fastest color films at that time being color slide films such as Kodak High-Speed Ektachrome at 160 ASA and GAF 500 at 500 ASA).

Having seen, on TV, what they looked like at night, I roamed the outskirts of Pasadena to get shots of the refineries which were similarly lit in places, taking dozens of carefully documented exposures to see what would work best.

That resulted in GAF being taken out of consideration because it was so grainy as to be almost unusable, and so sensitive to exposure levels that you had to be within 1/2 stop for the result to be any good at all. On the other hand, Kodak's High-Speed Ektachrome delivered usable images even when two full stops away from correct exposure. That's what I went with.

A stop at Household Finance (pre VISA and MasterCard, remember; at least in MY case) provided a modest amount that I hoped would be sufficient (it wasn't, as things turned out).

I had enough vacation time available for this (and also for the December trip) so off I went.

That worn-out Rambler was doing Ok until, when approaching New Orleans, the engine started threatening to cut out and I could hear that pulsing hissing sound that announces a blown cylinder head gasket. By the time I found a place where I would consider stopping, I had made it to Bay St Louis, Mississippi where I pulled into a motel for the night. I would determine, the next morning, if that was the end of the line.

Next day, I got a recommendation from the motel operator for a mechanic who came over and checked it, agreed with my diagnosis, and said he could fix it for $75.00 (1972, remember. At that time, the cheap, crappy, but clean apartment I was living in went for $75.00/month).

This was more than I had figured on, so I phoned my boss and asked him if he would advance me the amount and wire the money to where I was. He did, the repairs were made, and I was on my way again (after being afraid that I would have to give up, abandon the car and the whole trip, and take the bus home).

In the early days of space launches, most onlookers (not among the select that watched from stands at the space center) viewed them from Cocoa Beach. As they progressed from Mercury thru Gemini and then to Apollo, new launch pads were built further north on Merritt Island. Launch Pads 39A and 39B are so far north on that island, the nearest city to watch them from is Titusville.

I reached Titusville on April 14 (two days before launch) and went over to the space center to take the tour. The tour took us to within 1/2 a mile of the rocket, sitting on the launch tower and pad. Something over 30 stories tall is quite a sight that close.

They hadn't begun fueling it yet, otherwise we never would have been anywhere near that close to it. The two pads are a bit over three miles from each other, and also at least that far from the Vehicle Assembly Building and the Mission* Launch Control Building.

There's a reason for that. Fully fueled, the Saturn V launch vehicle contains more than 3000 tons of fuel and oxidizer, packing a lot more energy than the same amount of TNT, but with not quite the shattering effect ("brisance" is the word, I think) of that much explosive. Nevertheless, it can make one hell of a bang if it goes off; hence the separation. The Russians are believed to have had such an incident, taking out a major portion of their launch complex, with quite a few casualties, a few weeks before Apollo 11 lifted off on its' historic mission in July 1969.

I had this insane notion that, after touring the space center, I would head up north to Daytona Beach or even Jacksonville, rest up in a motel, and then come back down on launch day.

BUT, with two days to go, it looked as if half the population of Florida was already crowding U.S Highway 1 alongside Titusville. Figuring that if I stuck to my original plan I wouldn't even get near the place on launch day, I dove into one of the places on the Titusville beach that were renting spaces for cars, knowing I would just have to camp there.

So, there I was on the beach on the Indian River (separating Titusville from Merritt Island), looking at what I came to see from a distance of a bit over twelve miles.

At that distance the curvature of the Earth would have cut off a portion, except for the fact that the launch pad is placed on top of a ramp that rises about four stories and the pad itself probably adds another 10 feet or so, making the whole thing visible.

Hold your thumb and forefinger over each other, a few millimeters (or 1/8th of an inch) apart, at arms length and imagine a skinny white splinter held vertically between them. That's what a Saturn V looks like at that distance to the naked eye. A pair of 7x50 binoculars, or a 300mm telephoto lens, does a decent job of showing it.

Now, nothing much to do except wait. A couple of kids from the car next to me set up a chess game and managed to teach some of it to me. Never got all that good at it; I'm mostly a tactical person, who can react very inventively to new situations, but the key word is "react", meaning I'm dead meat for a good strategist.

Finally, mid-day, April 16, 1972.

Apollo 16 fires up, huge white plumes flaring almost a couple of hundred yards to each side. They are almost pure steam; there is a deluge system that dumps God knows how many tons of water onto the lower pad at the moment of ignition, to prevent the rockets exhaust from scouring it away. The feeling of pure naked power is overwhelming, and we haven't even heard anything yet. It takes a full minute for the sound to reach you, and it's a low-pitched rumble that is felt as well as heard. That rumble continues until it is long out of sight.

Something I will remember until the day I die.

We had dreams, then.

(And, YES. I'm aware that I have not even touched on Apollo 17.)

Addendum - 09 May 2010 - When I originally wrote this, I believed that water deluge system was meant to protect the lower launch pad from the scouring effects of the rocket's exhaust at liftoff.  I've since learned that it is actually a sound suppression system to protect the entire structure from the effects of very intense sound pressure (Up to 235 decibels at liftoff; supposedly lethal at close range, but I've yet to search out more definite info on this.).

Addendum - 07 Dec 2010 - Six days after writing this post, I followed it up with The Adventure - Continued  (about Apollo 17 and beyond). This addenda is just the inclusion of the link.

* = Correction 11 Jan 2011 - That was the Launch Control Building.  Mission Control is at the Johnson Space Center, in Clear Lake, Texas -- now part of Houston.

Addendum - 19 Feb 2011 - This is ten months after I originally wrote this post. Now, suddenly my site meter shows hits from all over the world, with no referring link, as if someone found it moderately interesting and alerted others by email.

If you've read this far, I would love to know what brought you to this post.
A comment or email would be welcome.

Thanks. :-)

Addendum - 23 Feb 2011 - A commenter noted that it was a comment of mine on the Internet Movie Data Base's page on the upcoming (April 22, 2011) Apollo 18  that triggered the explosion of hits on this post.

Cool!

If I'm going to get so many visitors, I hope that among them will be someone who can confirm (or refute) my "supposedly lethal  at close range" comment (about the sound of the liftoff) I made in the addendum about the sound suppression system.

Would  be very curious to know, and to know how close.

Addendum - 29 Jun 2011 - This post is once again getting a lot of hits.  Contrary to my 16 Apr 2011 comment below, the release date for Apollo 18  has been moved up to Friday, 02 Sep 2011.   I guessing that is the source of the traffic.  (See There is a REASON why ... )
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On selling out our friends and allies

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Just recently, after spending months snubbing our best friends and allies (Israel in particular, but others as well), Obama announced, to friends and enemies alike, new policies on the use (or NON use) of weapons in our nuclear arsenal that practically screamed to people depending on us for their protection, "Hey, not OUR problem!!!".

Shortly after Obama's election, I posted this comment on many blogs...
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On Election Day, the Ace of Spades website posted a picture of two Iraqi women, with purple-stained fingers showing they had voted in an election.

It was a "Get Out The Vote" message, noting that whatever inconveniences YOU may experience by voting, "These women literally risked their lives to vote".

My first reaction was, "And THE ONE can hardly wait to sell them out".

Obama’s rhetoric on Iraq, and comments about Israel, showed a casual willingness to sell out allies when convenient.

A commenter asked, “Who appointed us to be their guardians? Why is it America’s job to make sure they are safe?”

Perhaps we'd rather not have the entire world as a nuclear-armed camp, figuring that the more countries with these things, the more risk that some will eventually be used.

Our alliances with these countries ain’t out of the goodness of our heart, but for our own best interests. Sell one out, and I’ll bet you the others will sure take notice.

The commenter seemed to be saying, “To hell with them; let them take care of themselves!”

Ok!  But, they might do exactly that, and we might be less than thrilled with the results.

If countries under threat (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan) think that our word is no longer any good, they’ll almost certainly feel the need for nuclear arms as the only real deterrent to someone like China. And note, those countries ALL have the necessary economic, industrial and technical wherewithal to go nuclear. All they need do is make the decision.

Others, in the Middle East, will want them to deter Iran. How about Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Maybe Libya decides that abandoning their efforts was a mistake. THOSE countries may lack the technology, but they can certainly afford to finance it.

It could just go on and on.

THAT could be a very likely consequence of us deciding to just disengage ourselves from these countries.

We’ve tried, for a long time, to convince others that they didn’t need them, because WE would provide the nuclear umbrella.

When they figure they can’t count on us, the whole thing unravels.

If the commenter gets his wish, and they DO take care of themselves, it could get real interesting for us as well.

As we also reside on the same planet, I think it almost impossible we would remain unaffected.

So, standing up for our allies is not just a nice thing to do; it makes the hardest kind of common sense.

Simply put, we protect others in order to protect ourselves.

Abandoning them, selling them out, would be an unbelievably short-sighted (as in STUPID) thing to do, and would hurt us more in the long run. No one would trust an agreement with us; and why should they, given such a record?

Instead of being worth a damn, our word would only be noise.

And that would be tragic, because WE set its' value, by our actions.
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Sadly, I see absolutely nothing in that comment that needs amending. Especially the paragraph about the Middle East, now that he seems determined that a nuclear-armed Iran would be no big deal.

:(

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