All that and a bag of Snax-Mix.
With a full weekend comes a full Weekend Update. I've got two
stories related to me by friends a missive relations variety and
a few URL's that are a lot of fun. I'll be attending the Austin
show of a band called the Apples tonight, so expect to hear about
that next week.
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[ via an unwired friend comes "The Shame of My Frosh Brother" ]
"Chris"* is a frosh at Duke and was attending his first "mixer".
He was not feeling well earlier in the day but decided that
the night was too important to miss. This was one of those PC
affairs where they bus the party go-ers from location to location.
During the bus ride Chris graciouly gave his seat up to his date
and stood at the back of the bus. He began to feel a bit queasy
and asked for his seat back. Having a seat didn't help his problem
any and he jumped up and started to make his way to front of the
bus. He got as far as the steps and deposited a portion of his
dinner on the steps. The bus driver stopped the bus, opened the
door and Chris only made it a couple fo steps before he had to
do it all again. Each time his body revolted he could hear the
moans of the crowd on the bus he'd just left. The embarrassment
was over whelming. He made a dash for the nearest building and
got just around the corner when another huge wave of nausea hit.
Without the fear of peer disapproval he let it all out this time.
When he finished he looked up at the fully glass wall of the eating
establishment next to him to see everyone looking.
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[ my boss passed along this story ]
Greg was in his first accident that involved a car with all of the
recent advances in automobile saftey. He relates the story of how
he looked up from his CD player to see a car stopped in his lane
too close to be missed. He slammed on the brakes and could feel the
anit-lock braking system kick in. He saw the bumpers meet and then
everything went white. He was sure he'd died and was waiting for
someone to start calling him to the light when the airbag deflated
and he was left in silent self-embarrassment.
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[ From Jank, , who seems to be making ]
[ good on his goals of litereary acheivement comes this thought ]
[ provoking missive in two parts...he was having mailer probs. ]
[ part 1 ]
Howdy All,
Yes, it's late at night, and I'm sipping on a fine malt beverage,
but more on that in a moment. Hope this finds ya'll well, enjoying a
summer filled with frolicing, frivolity, and festivities. I'm
realizing how much a variety of people can make life interesting, and
how being around people much like yourself day in and day out can suck
the vim and vigor right out of life. Case in point, the United States
Navy. It's rare that you run into Naval personnel who are not
completely cynical. I've been doing a lot of thinking on this, mostly
to avoid thinking about splitting atoms, and I'm convinced that it's
due mostly to a lack of variety in encounters with people. The
students at the reactor I'm qualifing on work a minimum of 56 hours a
week, per some Naval Reactors guideline. Almost two and a half (whole
24 hour) days out of each week are required to be spent on the job, and
typically we're putting in more time than that. Right now, the nuclear
power program is mostly guys like myself: bright (mostly far more
learned than me), white, middle class, conservative, sort of ambitious
but wanting some security.
(But this is changing; women are coming in the next class. Tabitha
Soren did a cool special on Generation X Jobs in the 90's interviewing
some women in Boot Camp in Orlando going into Nuc Power for MTV. Also,
charges of fraternization and sexual Harassment have cost at least
three senior enlisted (over 15 years in the navy) chiefs their jobs at
Nuc Power school since the women started going through. I've kind of
got mixed feelings)
And it's kind of grating on me. Diversity (and I hate to use that
word) is the spice of life. I know I've hit on this before, but Tom
Robbins, in _Still Life with Woodpecker_ dwelled on the concept of
Neotony (I think I spelled it right, couldn't find my high school
graduation dictionary), the fact that humans stay as children longer
than any other animal, and it's done good for us. It's the whole being
able to see the world through the eyes of a child thing, and having a
continous new perspective on the world. Think about it ...
When you're a kid, you don't have a tremendous experience base to
draw from. So everything that comes in is new, and gives your mind
something new to chew on. More computing cycles are occupied. So much
new, unforseen information is coming in that your mind does not sit
idle for long. Maybe that's why time seems to creep by when you're
young. Because your mind is stimulated with new thoughts and new
ideas, and gets frusturated when it has nothing new to think about.
But eventually, the world you live in, not to imply mental problems,
but the paradigm through which you view the world becomes so ingrained
in your mind that you are not able to process information in any other
way. Your mind becomes bored, days fade into each other, and you find
soon enough that you've grown up. This is a bad thing.
Humans have spent millions of years evolving, or were created with
(as I believe) the ability to remain open to ideas for a reason. It
gives us an advantage over the other lifeforms on the planet, or we
wouldn't have it. Diversity gives us the mental stimulation that we
need to retain our child like view of the world. Meeting people who
think differently than we do provides the unusual, provides the out of
the ordinary experiece that the entire world did when we were young.
[ part 2 ]
join the Navy, deciding to serve your country, and think that meeting
all kinds of people from all around the vast land that is the United
States will provide enough of a varied experience base that you could
keep the neotony thing going for the five years I'm in for. But for
the most part, most of the guys I meet (Officer and Enlisted)are
basically like me: Upper middle class, worked kind of [hard] through
high school, went to college (Regular, ROTC, or Academy) to study
engineering, science, etc, thought that they were doing the good
American thing by joining the Navy, ad infinitum. The only difference
I've found, for the most part, is that the enlisted guys either failed
out of college because they had too good of a time, or didn't go
because they realized that they would have too good of a time. And
spending all my time with people just like me is making me realize how
lucky I am to have acquired many friends along the way who are unlike
me, who have kept my uniquely human neotony feature humming. It's one
of the things that I loved about Magnet, Trinity, and KKD. So remember
ya'll: Give people with other opinions a chance; it's your special God
given (Evolutionary) advantage.
On to the Malt Beverage section of the evening:
While I will always have a complete and utter inner craving in the
depths of my soul for a cold Shiner Bock or a Lone Star tallboy fished
out of a cooler filled with ice water, I have come to the conclusion
that wherever you live, you must seek out breweries in the local area
to patronize. Stay away from the big national breweries (or if you
must, drink Coors), and find places from the areas surrounding your
place of residence. I say place of residence, because home does not
always fit. The place I would probably call home right now is my
grandparent's house, since my folks moved while I was in college. I'm
residing about as far from there as I ever hope to. Anyways, if you're
drinking local beer, chances are it will be fresher, and it will be
brewed by folks who are accustomed to the quirks of the area you live
in. Lone Star and Shiner fit Texas so well because the people who brew
them understand the importance of cold beer on hot summer nights, and
the necessity to meld the taste with Tex Mex food or Barbeque.
So tonight, I feature Sarnac beers, brewed way the heck up here in
Utica, New York (and it pains me to admit to living in New York). The
Sarnac company is a fairly large regional brewing company, on the level
of the Spoetzl brewery, or the Lone Star brewery, and the beers they
put out, while of higher quality than Lone Star (but not nearly as much
soul) are not on par with a good run of Celis beers (out of Austin, try
it if you haven't). This evening I'm sipping on a bottle of their pale
ale, and will admit that it's one of the best beers I've ever had.
Their golden is not that great, but their Black and Tan is amazing, and
a unique concept as far as I'm concerned. It is a mix of their Stout
and golden, and goes down real smooth. If you find a Sarnac beer, give
it a whirl. I'm sure being in the foothills of the Adirondacks where
it's brewed gives it an advantage, but trying it would not be a waste.
The second beer I'd like to plug this evening is Pete's Wicked
Summer Brew. It's basically an ale, but a light colored ale that
enhances the charicteristic fruity overtones that an ale yeast provides
and leaves a very satisfying beer in keeping with the summer season.
Besides, the bottles have a baseball field on them, and having recently
been to Cooperstown, it's kind of cool. Nolan Ryan is a shoe in in
about five years. They've already got a whole exhibit about him. If
someone's got access to a color scanner, I've got some photos I'd love
to get digitized. Please email if you have such access.
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Here's a cool site. The first page focuses on using Liquid Oxygen
to have a barbecue...or to destroy a bargecue. The next page focuses
on a variety of topics: solar eclipses, CFC-12 replacement, a radio
interview, and various other EE geek subjects. This page has several
LARGE pictures and links to MPG movie files. Either have a fast
connection or have patience to check this one out.
http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu
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Tim (spike@io.com) has proposed to Lisa (his s.o.) and wants everyone
to send him email congratulating him. The wedding is tentatively
planned for Fall 1996.
Let's try and give him a "cyber" bachelor/roasting !!
[ So what if you don't know him. Everyone needs support after ]
[ making a decision of this import. (Amazing that I said all ]
[ that and didn't even once mention how evil women are and ]
[ marriage is the final proof of a brain washed men. ]
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Well that's all folks. Write me!