![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nolawitch58These misguided creatures seem to have all the same bad instincts as characters in horror movies who blithely wander into the haunted house to "investigate" after seeing something scary. Not knowing whale culture, I would hesitate to blame their lack of direction on the type of poor upbringing evident in young people these days. A better hypothesis would be that some human technology is screwing with their wetware systems. Why else would a being deliberately go down the equivalent of a dark alley in a bad neighborhood?
Now that I've weighed in on that particular matter, I can properly update.
Crossing the Mississippi River every day is a throbbing hemorrhoid. Traffic, which was crappy before Katrina, sucks even worse now. I've actually been sitting at a dead stop in the middle of the Huey P. Long Bridge on a couple of occasions. The worst was when a train was also passing at the same time. The car disconcertingly bobbed up and down slightly. That's not a very pleasant sensation while the water flows impassively so far below. That bridge is awful. Any time you get stuck behind a vehicle wider than a car or regular truck, you can't pass. Then there are the frequent trailers full of debris still being hauled to who knows where.
The out of state drivers are the worst. They don't seem to have a clue where the hell they're going and they're going to do it in the most irrational manner they can. Not using turn signals is another indicator of either idiocy or arrogance. Invariably when some vehicle pulls a boneheaded maneuver, either its plates are out of state or the driver is yakking away on a cell phone. Judging from the religious bumper stickers and fish medallions, they're usually already intellectually impaired.
Work is driving me crazy. I don't like being in the middle of minor dramas. I don't do my best work when people wait until the last minute to revise stuff and then change it a bazillion times before they walk out the door with it. I prefer a more focused approach and am stuck with a scattershot deal. I'm slowly digging out and organizing. I've gotten quite of bit of archiving done of old files cluttering up the cabinets. We're getting more residential jobs and a couple of big commercial jobs are in the pipeline.
Do any of you who read my journal know anything about patents? My boss wants to patent something or other annd wants to do it very quietly so no one else steals his idea. I'm going to Google it as well, but if you would have first-hand information, it would be much more helpful. Thanks.
Now that I've weighed in on that particular matter, I can properly update.
Crossing the Mississippi River every day is a throbbing hemorrhoid. Traffic, which was crappy before Katrina, sucks even worse now. I've actually been sitting at a dead stop in the middle of the Huey P. Long Bridge on a couple of occasions. The worst was when a train was also passing at the same time. The car disconcertingly bobbed up and down slightly. That's not a very pleasant sensation while the water flows impassively so far below. That bridge is awful. Any time you get stuck behind a vehicle wider than a car or regular truck, you can't pass. Then there are the frequent trailers full of debris still being hauled to who knows where.
The out of state drivers are the worst. They don't seem to have a clue where the hell they're going and they're going to do it in the most irrational manner they can. Not using turn signals is another indicator of either idiocy or arrogance. Invariably when some vehicle pulls a boneheaded maneuver, either its plates are out of state or the driver is yakking away on a cell phone. Judging from the religious bumper stickers and fish medallions, they're usually already intellectually impaired.
Work is driving me crazy. I don't like being in the middle of minor dramas. I don't do my best work when people wait until the last minute to revise stuff and then change it a bazillion times before they walk out the door with it. I prefer a more focused approach and am stuck with a scattershot deal. I'm slowly digging out and organizing. I've gotten quite of bit of archiving done of old files cluttering up the cabinets. We're getting more residential jobs and a couple of big commercial jobs are in the pipeline.
Do any of you who read my journal know anything about patents? My boss wants to patent something or other annd wants to do it very quietly so no one else steals his idea. I'm going to Google it as well, but if you would have first-hand information, it would be much more helpful. Thanks.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
On the whale,
Date: 2006-01-21 03:58 pm (UTC)Technology (ultrasound communications by submarines and such) *does* screw with whale communication, but then there are usually more of them affected...
Poor him. His chances are not good.
Sorry to hear about your job and transport hassle. One sounds sadly familiar, the other rather scary. How safe *is* this bridge?! No chance avoiding it? Any ferry or something? I'd probably start carrying a life vest :-).
(When car drops in water, remember to wait until it is almost full of it before opening doors :-P. Survival chances are excellent, if you keep your nerve, and the water isn't awfully cold. But no, I haven't tried this out myself.)
The bridge.
Date: 2006-01-21 04:26 pm (UTC)I've actually given a lot of thought to what I'd do if I ended up in the drink. On a dry day, the city is very wet. There's Lake Pontchartrain to the north, the river roughly to the south and all manner of canals snake through sections of town. You can't really plan a route that doesn't pass water at some point. For that reason, the windows on my car are aren't electric. They are hand-crank up and down. I don't want to ever be in a situation where I'm in my car in a body of water and the electrical system shorts out leaving my windows stuck. I rehearse the scenario in my mind occasionally as that's the best way to plan for something you don't want to try in reality. Although I would hope I'd be rational, part of the scenario involves telling myself not to freak out, waiting until the vehicle stops moving, reaching with one hand to unbuckle the seat belt and opening the window or door with the other while holding my breath. Drowning is an awful way to die. The river water is cold this time of year since it's coming from up north pre-chilled. I don't think I'd like that very much either.
Re: The bridge.
Date: 2006-01-21 04:58 pm (UTC)And good planning about the electrical windows! We have a lot of water around too, and so get told things like this in driving school - but mine was before the age of automation :-).
The thing to absolutely avoid is opening anything before there is enough water in. Because that will create a rush, take all your sight away, tip the vehicle, and possibly result in you not knowing which side is up :-). Of course, if your windshield breaks on impact... Bad luck, I guess.
People can survive a long time in cold water. Much longer than one would guess. As long as it is above 5°. For some (circulatory) reason, this seems to be a limit.
We have folks breaking though ice all the time in winter. Most survive! Even if they have to climb out themselves. Just last week, a young mom rescued her two children with a long shawl she had on :-).
Re: The bridge.
Date: 2006-01-21 08:27 pm (UTC)I so love the Huey P. It is great fun to drive really fast and pass 8 wheelers when you have an out of town guest in the car. Trains are merely value added fun.
Stay well little nolawitch.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 04:11 pm (UTC)Merde.
Date: 2006-01-21 07:16 pm (UTC)Re: Merde.
Date: 2006-01-21 09:53 pm (UTC)Agreed.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 04:12 pm (UTC)On another note, I wrote to your gmail account last week, did you get it?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 04:30 pm (UTC)Whoa!
Date: 2006-01-21 05:00 pm (UTC)Re: Whoa!
Date: 2006-01-21 05:17 pm (UTC)Re: Whoa!
Date: 2006-01-21 05:27 pm (UTC)See, I just started to worry last week, because I use it for the job so much, sending fat attachments. And it's still only on 19%! Have fun with the mail, then :-P.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 05:59 pm (UTC)I'm going to have to break down and peel the skin off of one of them.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:20 pm (UTC)That'll work, sort of
Date: 2006-01-21 06:28 pm (UTC)I also need a larger than 10GB ATA33 HDD (not ATA66 like I said in the email). Almost anything will do.
I'm peeling the skins off in my morning, about your midnight.
Re: That'll work, sort of
Date: 2006-01-21 06:38 pm (UTC)Let me know exactly what you've currently got in there and I'll see if I've got anything compatible. RAM-wise.
Re: That'll work, sort of
Date: 2006-01-21 08:31 pm (UTC)The real problem here is that I don't know SIM/DIMM markings and there are so many variants that it's more than a mite confusing.
For the HDD, I have two 2.5GB and a 1.2GB (ATA33). Getting something of 6-10GB would be sufficient but I'd be willing to pay for larger.
An alternative; I've found some stuff on Pricewatch.Com but they wont ship internationally. So if you don't have the parts I would be willing to pay you to forward ship the order. My baby bro's a hash-head so I can't trust him to do it for me.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 05:49 pm (UTC)You shouldn't believe anything you hear on PBS.
Date: 2006-01-21 10:33 pm (UTC)Ah, Yes...
Date: 2006-01-21 10:43 pm (UTC)Re: You shouldn't believe anything you hear on PBS.
Date: 2006-01-22 08:05 am (UTC)I'm not so sure about that
Date: 2006-01-30 09:43 pm (UTC)About 20 pigeons died, and my ship lost all satellite communication as it burned out the antenna complex.
Thankfully I was well buried inside the ship, so I'm fairly confident that all the steel made a good Faraday cage.
I do wonder what damage was done to the crew on deck.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:26 pm (UTC)http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/howtopat.htm
http://www.patentcafe.com/inventors_cafe/4_how_to_patent.asp
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/patents/patents.shtml
As for the whales though they are curious the most common reasons for them going where they shouldn't is they are ill or depressed and feeling suicidal. Most commonly they are just ill though. Being sick often screws with their sonar. But in some spots also military screws with their sonar. Some Navey boats and subs have been known to adversly affect them. Sometimes though they get lost because they weren't well or were disoriented or were even crowded in a certain direction. But then they can't figure out how to get out. Imagine a bird trapped in a house. It has some ideas of where to fly too but it's frightened and it keeps hitting the glass and resisting peoples attempts to help it because it's scared.
Anyways whales having problems here are uncommon. It happens but not often. Certain breeds of whales it's rather rare to find them beaching or getting stuck in a bad spot. Last two major events like that were babies who got cut off from their pod somehow(maybe their parent got ill and died and the followed them then didn't know how to get back). These orphans stayed in deep safe waters but they need to follow their pod migrations. Usually people or indian tribes in the affected areas would go watch over the young whales and in one case they had the whale taken by the government and physically lifted to it's pod where it reintegrated.(it was a young orca the other young orca is being stubborn and not going but the tribe near it essentially turned it into a pet as they believe it's their prior cheif reincarnated)
Btw I hate bridges that move. We have several suspension bridges but most have minimal movement. The one that doesn't is skytrain. So you'll be going across it on a train and feel the bloody thing swinging.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 07:49 pm (UTC)Thanks for the patent links. I'm going to check them out a little later.
a cure for acrophobia
Date: 2006-01-21 08:30 pm (UTC)Re: a cure for acrophobia
Date: 2006-01-21 08:41 pm (UTC)Re: a cure for acrophobia
Date: 2006-01-21 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:26 pm (UTC)*cell phone rings*
*character answers it, makes a mock "shocked" face* "Is it...is it you???"
-During the funeral scene in Schultze Gets the Blues
Patent info
Date: 2006-01-21 10:04 pm (UTC)Having been stuck on several bridges
Date: 2006-01-22 03:23 am (UTC)Re: Having been stuck on several bridges
Date: 2006-01-22 03:34 am (UTC)Yup.
Date: 2006-01-22 11:52 am (UTC)The Mississippi is just a pain in the ass.
Date: 2006-01-23 03:25 pm (UTC)