Spaceship One pt. 2

Spaceship One took passed the first part of the X-Prize challenge today. Now they have to repeat the feat within two weeks.

The pilot, Mike Melvill, probably has fights crime at night under an alias or something. The ship did 40 barrel rolls during the burn phase! I'm guessing the intended leisure cruises on Spaceship One are probably a few years away, huh?

It's exciting to see real developments in space technology. NASA was one an amazing place, churning out new technologies at a fantastic pace. Now, they've been stuck with the Space Shuttle for over twenty years. It took less than 10 years to go from Mercury to the moon. I'm hoping the X-Prize gives them a real kick in the ass.

Another Day, Another Hurricane

Hurricane Jeanne blew through my hometown last weekend, knocking out the pussycatassassins.com server again. It's been a bad year for storms. Mom and Dad are ok. Lots of flooding, but no damage to the house. They lost a palm tree, but they were really lucky compared to others in town. I'm thanking our lucky stars again.

Equinox

I should start carrying my digital camera around with me again. I've been spotting some really weird things on the street in the last few days. Maybe it's the change in seasons. After all, today is the first day of autumn.

Yesterday, I saw some guys dressed as Star Wars characters in front of the Virgin Megastore, promoting the new DVD box set. It's disturbing to see Boba Fett and a Jawa on Newbury Street.

Today at the same corner, someone had locked up their Segway with a simple bike lock. It looked like it was a Kryptonite lock like the ones that can be picked with a Bic pen. Personally, I think Segway owners are spectacular fools. Why pay thousands of dollars for a such a silly thing. Save your money and buy 4 Vespas, dude.

Son, your single sucks...

OK, how many of you knew that Jackie Chan has a son? How many of you knew that he looks exactly like his dad? Certainly not me. It turns out that Jackie's son, Jaycee is riding some coattails to a movie and music career, and the guy wearing the coat doesn't much care for Junior's music. Wow, my dad never rags on my work via the media!

Damn Buick Ad

Our friend Rita was up for the weekend. Last night we were watching the end of the Emmys. (Hey, we all enjoy making catty comments about Botox suspects and bad fashion choices.) Approximately every 11.3 seconds, they showed an ad for the new Buick G6 with a cover of the Beatles' "Paperback Writer". I thought it was either Johnny Rotten singing, or a guy who sounded a hell of a lot like Johnny. Jen figured, "He's big enough of a sellout to do this." But alas, Rita wins the gold star, because it turns out that it's the B-52s and Fred Schneider covering it.

Poetry 365: Work of Body

Tearing down the day
into one thousand
shreads of night
is harder work
than you think.

First Lines

My buddy Will and I decided it might be fun to start writing first lines for short stories. I'll post my attempts on this site from time to time. So here's my first entry:

There might be something uglier than a turnpike Stuckey's in a 3AM storm, but I wouldn't know.

Poetry 365: Memoir

I was a lion painter
I was an equitable spy
I was the fire escape
I was the teenaged FBI

NFL Opening Night

I went to the opening game of the NFL season last night. I watched the Patriots hang on to beat the Colts.

Before the game, there was lots of crazy hoopla. Elton John was there! Beyonce was there! Lenny Kravitz jumped out of a huge inflatible replica of the Super Bowl trophy. Seriously. Very weird.

The game was hard fought and very close. I'm told it was one of the loudest crowds in New England history. I suppose I'm jaded. I went to 4 years worth of Florida Gators' home games. It wasn't nearly as loud as Florida Field. At no point did my ears shut down as a defense mechanism. At no point did I feel the sound of the crowd vibrating in my breastbone. But it was loud enough to confuse the Colts' offense.

Strangest moment of the night was riding home on the commuter rail.

-Hey, is that Michael Dukakis?

-Nah, it must be a celebrity impersonator.

-I'm guessing you might starve trying to make a living as a Dukakis impersonator, dude.

-Good point.

It turns out that it really was Dukakis. He's a big fan of public transportation and he puts his money where his mouth is. Good work, Duke.

Back from the storm

So, this site went down for a few days. The pussycatassassins.com server is in Florida, so all the outages were hurricane related. We're back to normal now.

My parents are ok, or so it seems. Power and electric are still out, and I have a few voice mails from my dad's cell phone. He has an uncanny ability to call when I'm not around. That, and an uncanny ability to not have his phone on either, but I'm guessing he doesn't have much juice in that phone at this point.

I wonder if they have any leftover ham?

Frances

The current forecast states that Hurricane Frances has slowed to 110MPH. Still very powerful and very large.

I spent about an hour on the phone with my parents last night trying to convince them to evacuate. They're planning to stay in an interior room with no windows. (According to my sister, their preparations include dragging a mattress into the bathroom, filling the bathtub with water and baking a ham. A ham?) I keep telling them that this won't matter when the roof goes. I was horribly frustrated. Mom kept saying that she was practical and they'd be ok. I haven't the slightest idea what the hell practicality will do against a tree flying over 100 miles per hour.

I kept asking why they couldn't go to a shelter. "I don't feel comfortable there." There you have it. Personally, I can't imagine you'd be more comfortable huddled in a bathroom closet for 4 days, but obviously I'm not convincing anyone of anything.

After all these years, I'm still metaphorically at the kids' table.

I wonder if it's an attachment for the house that keeps them there. They've lived there longer than any other place in the world. This is the house they raised their children in. This is the house that means nothing to me if they are not safe.

Is it faith that keeps them there. Faith in the sturdiness of the house? Faith in God? Faith in the crazy luck that seems to run in the family? (There needs to be a post about this, but this is not the time.) As for me, I have faith in my martial arts training: "The best way to avoid a hit is to not be there."

At this point, there is nothing to do but hope for the best.

Hurricane Watch

I am a native Floridian, and it looks like Hurricane Frances is headed directly for my hometown. I still haven't gotten hold of my parents to see what they're planning to do. There's really no place to evacuate to. I'm going to try to talk them into going to one of the local shelters. If anything happens to the house so be it. That's what insurance is for.