Monthly Archives: May 2006

So my buddy was in a train crash yesterday…

Clickondetroit.Com.TrainSo yesterday I knew Mark was on a train home from Battle Creek and gave him a ring just to see if he was home yet. He was still in Jackson. Turns out they hit a dump truck crossing the tracks on a private drive (the driver was likely killed instantly). He said a few of them got thrown to the ground as they stopped (which took about a 1/2 mile). They were in the car directly behind the engine (remember that if you watch the videos) and he said the windows turned black with smoke. Fifteen people had minor injuries and went to the hospital. They were then emergency bussed to the train station (city and school busses) and waited for hours to get another bus back home (I think he was supposed to get back around 2 and got back around 6:30…

He’s fine (mostly fine, today he’s complaining about his back) so that’s a good thing. This WLNS news report has 3 different videos (all with a little more info) if you’re interested. I don’t know how long they’ll keep the story/videos (which I never did get to play on my Mac, does yours play it).

I could be wrong but I don’t think they gave any of these people a free train trip or anywhere to call if they had problems after or anything. He did say the Red Croos showed up at the train station to hand out water and check on people.

Things I don’t understand…

These are things that (to me) save time and money and I don’t understand why people who have the option don’t use them…

Use Mail In Prescriptions
We have a prescription plan at work and it’s a great one. It’s $5 an order of a prescription (generally a month’s worth) but if you mail it in they send you about 3 months worth for $2. $2 vs. $15 and I don’t have to go back to the pharmacy, this isn’t a complicated decision.
Using the ATM Machine
I go to the back, they’ve got two drive through lines backed up and I generally pull right up the the ATM machine (or wait for one person) and get my cash (maybe make a deposit) and go and the same people are still at the back of the line. I’m not sure why all those people are in line, are they getting better cash? Do they really like using the pneumatic tubes that much? It’s pretty much the same issue using the walk up bank vs. walk up ATM, except you don’t get to use the tubes…
Automatic bill payment
Many (most?) utility companies will automatically charge your bill to your checking account, these are generally done the day the bill is due and it’s generally free. Did you get this: you don’t have to use a check, take the time to write it out, use a 39 cent stamp and then mail it (where it’s probably going to get there early or late, not the day it’s due, right?), they’ll just do it automatically for you! My gas, electric, cable and cell phone company will do this. Plus my mortgage, my association fees, car insurance, homeowners insurance and several of my charge cards will do this too (all on the exact day it’s due). This isn’t on-line banking, they just do it (for free). That’s about 8 checks and envelopes a month plus over $3 in stamps.

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Today I Spent Money…

So with the sales today I bought a few things.

Digtial Picture Frame
I Saw these the other week at Target and said when they go on sale I’m gonna get one. It’s medium quality, it might go back the the store, but for $99 I didn’t really expect much. What I want to see is how it looks if I scale the photos first…
Frequency
These movies are for my 50 excellent movies item on my 101 in 1001 days list. Frequency is a great and slightly different time travel movie (for everyone, not just geeks). I considered putting this on the list, but when it hit $5.99 (at CC) it was a no brainer.
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Gena Davis as an action heroine.
The Chronicles of Narnia
It’s just plain great, I think anyone would like this even if they don’t know where Narnia is.
Digital Thermometer
This was on the clearance rack at Target for cheap and it’s got the humidity sensor, the outdoor connector (wireless), moon phase and syncs to the atomic clock. All this for only $12.50, I should have got two!

I’ll do reviews for the movies when I watch them. It seems like I bought more but I’m not going downstairs to check…

So there was a parade…

Unimemorialday1754-1So it’s Memorial Day and Dearborn is having a parade today. Usually I don’t even notice until it’s over and their walking by my place (it ends at the end of my block). So I wandered on by late this morning.
Unimemorialday1755-1
One of the first things I saw was the Redford Township Unicycle club, they were pretty good, I wish I had gotten some better pictures. It was interesting, lots of people, in lots of heat, I wandered around and notice my around the corner bar was open, they’re never open on a holiday, it turns out they were just open for the parade so I got a Coca-Cola, said hello and wandered back outside. Another odd hit was the Downriver Remote Control club, they had cars and they towed a ramp and drove around and jumped the ramp. They seemed to get more daring as they neared the end so there were more jumps and crashes…

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Computers should be more like real life

Nonsequitur060528So I really liked today’s edition of Non Sequitor. It really shows what technology should and could do and how people could relate to it better (sarcasm inserted all over the place).

I just thought this cartoon was hysterical and wanted to share it. You can see this comic every day at the Non Sequitor site. (If the above link breaks you can see the comic by clicking on the image).

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What a beautiful day at MSU

It’s such a great day I went up to Michigan State University to wander around. It’s a great day, it was a little hot for rollerblading though. Campus seems pretty covered with WiFi, I like that :)

I’m off to Charlie Kangs for dinner. That would be “beef with broccoli, with no vegetables, but I want the broccoli (just not the other ones)”…

Orbit by John J. Nance – Review

I read a great book yesterday. Please note I didn’t say I finished it, I read the whole thing! Orbit, by John J. Nance, is a novel about a man who wins a day trip into space. An accident causes the vacation to end abruptly and the adventure begins. After determining the ship will not fly and he has no radio contact with Earth he figures eventually someone will find his body either in the near future or the far future so in-between sleeping and watching sunsets and sunrises he starts to write his life story. From his current (disastrous) marriage to his first love (and first time) he blogs writes about it.

What the heck, he’ll be dead by the time someone sees it, right? And if he’s rescued, he just has to delete it. Here’s the catch: keystrokes are recorded and sent back (one way) to Earth. He’s a hit, in essence it’s the most popular thing (blog?) ever, everyone is reading it and he doesn’t know it, everyone is talking about it (commenting) but he doesn’t know it. Since it’s keystrokes, they even see what he deletes. With nothing to lose he writes about everything: good, bad, regrets, just about everything.

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Pandora Music

The other day Dawn mentioned Pandora Music so I checked it out. You tell it a few things you like (and it seems the fewer the better, just try one or two) and it does some calculations with the Music Genome Project and creates your own radio station and it streams the station to you. It then shows you cover art with links to Amazon and iTunes and you can then give songs a thumbs up or down and it fine tunes it. what are you waiting for? Go try it out!

Things to know:

  • Two thumbs down for an artist and you never hear them again (a little harsh IMHO).
  • You can only skip a few songs per hour before it won’t let you any more.
  • It’s free for now (and has been for a while) but they will eventually start charging or add advertisements.
  • It’s not just genre it really seems to be a bit of a song by song comparison, it’s been pull individual songs off of some soundtracks and I’m liking them (a little bit too much bubble-gum though).