TI-99/4a

Ah, the memories of my first computer. I wish I still had some of my old cassette tapes of the programs I wrote back then so I could archive them.

Halo 2

A great first impression of Halo 2 from someone who played it at E3.

For Sale: Slightly Used Pacemaker

So I went to see my heart doctor yesterday and it turns out I don't necessarily need a pacemaker right now. My heart block has resolved. It could come back, and they never take pacemakers out once they put them in.

Everyone has told me I should be "thankful that I have the pacemaker." I realize that's true, but I really wish everyone would stop telling me that for now. It's hard to swallow that I'm stuck with a computer planted in my chest for the rest of my life.

Is His Foot as Big as His Tongue?

Despite what he claims, seeing as how Gene Simmons is Jewish I suspect he meant every word he said.

Scenic Route

I took an alternate route home yesterday evening to avoid some construction traffic and I drove by the Air National Guard portion of the Nashville Airport, where I saw Air Force One from about 150 yards away. I wish I had a camera with me at the time. I also saw the plane that made an emergency landing from a bomb threat sitting out on a runway far away from everything. I'm glad I didn't have to fly in or out of Nashville yesterday.

Where's Mo's Tavern

This a very cool guide to Springfield, home of the Simpsons. Check out the big map. I can't find Mo's Tavern yet, though.

Just Pay Hatch

This new diet device may be one of the dumbest things I've heard of in a long time. Using something like this is just admitting that you're a complete loser who has no hope of ever doing anything about being fat. I'm fat, but I know that I need to eat less and exercise more. If you're ever thinking about buying one of these, don't. Just pay me the $400.00, spend 8 weeks eating every meal with me, and if it looks like you're eating too much I'll punch you in the nuts. That should soon train you to eat smaller portions.

Why?

How do head-on train collisions still happen? Would it not be fairly inexpensive to mount multiple cheap sensors in the tracks that start broadcasting warnings when two trains are heading towards each other? Even with sensor failures the sheer number of them would be able to detect the problem well in advance. No reason to expect rail companies to have any more foresight than any other company these days. Everyone just wants to look at the results for next quarter.

41 Miles Up!

I guess I'm still a complete space geek at heart, because I still get shivers when I read about Burt Rutan and Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne, which was launched today for the third time and reached an altitude of almost 41 miles, which is 9 miles short of being considered space flight!

It's almost time to abandon NASA and have the government start paying for cargo to be launched into space from the lowest bidder. NASA has pretty much outlasted it's usefulness at this point and is just a colossal waste of money on an agency that has no pioneering spirit any longer. I mean they're too afraid to even service the Hubble telescope, so why would we entrust them with the effort to go back to the Moon or onwards to Mars? We need to put the space shuttles into museums and use some of the money saved to offer bounties similar to the X-Prize.

Raunch-a-Rama

Video games have finally come down to Jeff's level in this CNN report.

Van Helsing

Paul "Fatboy" Clemmons and the Evil Tennessee Tobacco Lobby are trying say that Van Helsing was a complete flop. I went to see it this past Sunday since my wife was merciful and didn't make me see the Olsen Twins movie. I thought it was fun but completely goofy and over the top. You can't expect too much from a summer action flick anyway. Buy a big popcorn, a box of peanut M&M's, a big ole diet coke, and sit back and enjoy it. Just seeing Kate Beckingsale in a corset was worth the admission price.

D.B.A.N. Wednesday

281 pounds, and I wasn't even trying hard.

What's In A Name?

See how common or rare your names are: The Name Statistics site. Alan came in at #91, but I'm sure that will keep dropping since I never see any kids named Alan anymore. Interestingly enough, "Jackass Falkner" came in as a mostly unique name, as did "Fatboy Clemmons."

D.B.A.N. Status

I haven't been too good on the diet this past week, but I haven't been too bad either. D.B.A.N. is 282 and hasn't changed since Friday. I've still been walking and cutting grass with a push mower, so I am burning more calories than normal. Hopefully it will get back on track this week.

A-ha!

Ok, I figured it out. You have to click on the top line of the post to leave a comment. This is not very intuitive, so hopefully they'll change that. Although maybe I have to change it with my template. I'll keep digging.

Edit: Cool, now you just click on the # Comments link after the posting time.

Let Hatch Have It

Blogger has recently added a ton of new features, including the ability for my loyal readers to leave comments for all my future postings. So feel free to tell me what you really think about anything I say. Try to keep it clean and civil, however.

Edit: Hmmm. For some reason I can't get the Comments option to work. I'll check it out and hopefully get it going soon.

New Job for Hatch

I start a new job on May 17. It's a longer term contract that could go permanent. I'll have more details once all the paperwork is signed and it's official.

Monday Update

The D.B.A.N. is still at 280 pounds today, even after an unfortunate BBQ binge yesterday. Marissa started her new job today as a part-time office manager at a non-profit organization and I know she's going to like it a lot.