One Step Closer (Or We Would Be If Anyone Cared)

This is an artist rendering of the system that contains the first "Goldilocks" planet we've found outside our own system. Why isn't this on the front page instead of Vol State's football program? This is what's wrong with this country. Where's the fascination with our universe and the urge to explore? NASA whithers on the vine while Albert Haynesworth complains about his 21 million bonus check.

Read THIS for the details.

Here's my favorite part:

"But perhaps the most interesting and exciting aspect of all this is what it implies. The Milky Way galaxy is composed of about 200 billion stars, and is 100,000 light years across. The fact that we found a planet that is even anything like the Earth at all orbiting another star only 20 light years away makes me extremely optimistic that earthlike planets are everywhere in our galaxy. 20 light years is practically in our lap compared to the vast size of our galaxy, so statistically speaking, it seems very likely it’s not unique. I don’t want to extrapolate from a data set of two (us and them), but if this is typical, there could be millions of such planets in the galaxy. Millions."

Tree Topper

I wish I had taken some before pictures to show the extreme difference, but Kurt does good work. He cut back both trees and even hauled away all the debris.

Sad Balloon Monday

Back to work after a week away for both of us. My birthday balloon is on it's last leg.

Recoup

Theme for the weekend. Just Relax. Started Bioshock 2. Good stuff.

Virtually Educated

Class is over, passed all my labs, I'm now a VMware Certified Professional.

Oreback

Mari is back home!

Watchdog

Looks like they decided to take turns insuring my class attendance.

Student

Mystic for the second half of today's class.

Poor

Mystic for the first half of today's class.

Virtual Virtualization Classroom

I have a week long VMware vSphere class this week, taught remotely in a virtual classroom. They're letting me do it from home, as staying at work would have no doubt meant people trying to pull me into things regardless of how clear I made the "I'm learnin' here" sign.

Reminded

Yep, it worked. Mad is obviously thinking of Mari right now.

Reminder

With Mom away a little reminder "from her" to give to the puppies. Because of course they will understand the significance of all this. Do not question animal owner logic.

Gone Wild

With Mari out of town it's time to do all that stuff I normally don't do when she's around. So I set out to do those things. Only. I couldn't really think of anything. Be a bum and play video games all day? Well, I can already do that. Eat weird food? Migraine allergies pretty much shot that down. Watch stupid movies she doesn't want to see? Tivo and Netflix streaming took care of that a long time ago. So I ended up pouring out two bottles of this nasty orange cream soda we bought and both hated but she didn't want me to throw it out because it was expensive. That's right. Right in the sink. I didn't even use a bottle opener, I just ripped the caps off with my teeth. (Ok, so that part's a lie. Dental health is nothing to fool around with.) I think I might leave the toilet seat up next. Oh. Wait. I already do that too dammit...

Airegon

Mari is off to Oregon for her brother's wedding.

Centaur Sayings

Mars was bright tonight (in Spain. And actually it's Venus. The bright dot to the right of the moon.) Just really liked this picture, and I take no credit for making it.

Instant Gratification

Had an "I love technology moment" today. Finished the first book in an engrossing series, wanted to start the second right away...and I could, in mere minutes.

Out In Force

Again, no ASU to be found but I got watch my Dad's alma mater stomp BYU even though they were big underdogs.

Cat Bowling

As seen on Saturday. For some reason I found this hilarious. Maybe it's that it was invented by "Doogie". Maybe the fact it clarifies it only works on "human toilets". Maybe it's the slogan on the bottom of the box "Ready, Steady, Go-Hooray!". Maybe I'm just weird.

Ruthless

Another lunch presentation, this time at Ruth's Chris so HP can sell us their version of the SAN we already bought from someone else. Well, not just us, there were a lot of people there. We in no way went just for free food.

Flashing

The long promised Flash has been released to android. Very cool.

Getting High

Weather wise, today was the first really enjoyable one in a long time. Hopefully signaling a trend into fall. Unfortunately, I had to go into work yet again as the A/C unit in our server room crapped out. Something good came of it though, I got to go up on the roof of our 22 story building with the repair man and check out the views of Nashville, in the afore mentioned nice weather.

Proxy

Enjoyed the Oregon State vs TCU game even though the Beavers lost. Of course watching ASU would be even better, but since they aren't even ranked this year I doubt there'll be much television time outside of Arizona.

Inspiration Constipation

It's been hard to find photoworthy items lately. I like my new job, but it doesn't lend itself to as many interesting moments.

Potter Light

Been taking a break from "hard core" games and playing a lot of this. It's fairly easy but still entertaining, and mostly it's just good relaxing fun.

September

Your wolf of the month.