Back in March of last year, Mom sent me a newspaper clipping about one of my High School classmates, Donna Rorabaugh. It turned out that somewhere along the line, Donna had taken on the hobby of building gingerbread houses and in December of 2005, she’d managed to win a nation-wide competition. Very cool.
A funny thing happened this past December. I was looking through the web site statistics for Dactyl Manor and recognized a name in the list of search terms that had brought people to my web site. Along with the usual list of people coming to my site looking for the convention list, a lot of people were coming in to look for Donna.
I did a few quick web searches. It turned out that Donna had won another competition. I also discovered that Dividing by Zero was one of the top ten resources Yahoo and Google were directing people to when they looked for her. (My guess is that her family members were looking for online newspaper clippings about the latest win and some of them looked at my site.)
It’s only March right now. I haven’t seen Donna in 16 years and it won’t be gingerbread season for another nine months. But I’ll bet she wins this year too.
Category Archives: Mischief
Cat in the Hat Construction Zone
Some years ago I read a Peanuts strip in which Charlie Brown and Linus were talking about a list of family contact information they had to fill out at school. In the final panel, Linus admits that he wasn’t sure what to write in the space for “Doctor”, so he’d written the name “Seuss.” Years later, I still remember that strip and I keep waiting for someone to ask me who my family doctor is.
Doctor Seuss – or, as his mother called him, Theodor Giesel (and no, I didn’t misspell either half of his name) – was born on March 2, 1904. And in 1957 he wrote The Cat in the Hat. So not only would this Friday have been Dr’s Seuss’ 103rd birthday, it can also be viewed as the Cat’s 50th.
I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but a few years ago I learned that March 2nd is celebrated as “Cat in the Hat Day.” This weekend, on March 3rd, my Jaycees chapter is going to participate in a Dr Seuss-inspired event called “Read Across America” (we’d have gone for the 2nd except that’s a Friday and everyone has jobs).
The big project for Tuesday evening was preparing a bunch of books that Nicole had convinced the Germantown Kohl’s to donate to the event, and then putting together a collection of “Cat in the Hat” hats that will be used as decorations for Saturday’s event. On the spur of the moment, I got out my cell phone and took a few photos of the result. In real life, the hats are red and white. But the cell phone camera, when combined with the fluorescent lights, results in photos that have the hats looking like we’re in a construction zone. 🙂
The Gaithersburg edition of “Read Across America” is Saturday, March 3rd at the Gaithersburg Library on Montgomery Village Avenue. The event starts at 9:30 and continues until 11:00. Approximately 200 kids will receive books donated by the Germantown Kohl’s, approximately 90 will receive the kit and instructions for making their own Cat in the Hat hats.
Gunfight at the Farpoint Corral
Say what you will about Peter David, but the man is anything but boring. My own choice of words usually includes things such as “entertaining” and “quick-witted.” I sincerely believe he’s one of those fortunate people who’ve managed to avoid growing up any more than absolutely necessary.
I had the fortune to be seated at the same table as Peter for the banquet at this year’s Farpoint convention. Peter was his usual self, entertaining us with such stories as his discovery that the Enterprise’s warp core is shaped like a coffee percolator (I don’t see it myself, but have no reason to doubt Peter when he says that Mike Okuda confirmed it).
Because this is the year 2007, the theme for this year’s banquet was 007, James Bond. The tables were decorated with a variety of James Bond themed knickknacks such as playing cards and poker chips (after all, James Bond does visit a lot of casinos). At one point Peter and Lew were exchanging stories of visits to various Star Trek sets (and I was wishing I had that kind of connections), when Peter looked up and realized there was a gun on the table. Continue reading Gunfight at the Farpoint Corral
Polygamous Wombats
Did you know that wombats are polygamous? I had no idea one way or the other but for some reason that phrase popped into my mind today. A quick Google search for polygamous wombats however reveals an extract from the Australian Journal of Zoology which says that yes, wombats are polygamous.
Who knew?
So that’s the useless fact of the day, but it really has nothing to do with anything. Today’s goal is best summed up as, “I’m just messing with Google.”
Back before she fell off the planet, Z. would send the occasional email to bring me up to date on what sort of ads Google was currently displaying on my site. (Everyone needs a hobby.) For example, when I wrote about the evil Ice Cream store, Google reacted by displaying an ad for the very same chain. (Currently, reading about my war against the Red Cross reveals ads for various donor banks, histories of the American Revolution, and companies offering to trace any phone number.)
So I’m curious what Google do when confronted with the wombat situation. My guess is they’ll do what they usually do in these situations. But is there really a market for Wombat Ringtones?
The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 5)
Three months after we “sleighed” the shuttle, it became clear that folks thought we were still a going concern. So, it was time to enter another status report. I still wanted to have some fun with it though, so returning to form, I looked up the dialogue for the “Dead Parrot” sketch. I started off trying to rewrite the entire thing, but eventually decided to go with something a bit shorter. Continue reading The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 5)
The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 4)
By September, we’d decided to disband the Shuttle Schweitzer as a Starfleet chapter. Normally it takes a group about nine months to go from a shuttle (a chapter in training) to a full-blown chapter. We were coming up on three years and still hadn’t completed the process. What we’d realized was that we were friends anyhow and didn’t need the framework of a Starfleet chapter for that to happen.
So, we announced our decision to Starfleet via the monthly status report. Given the previous three months worth of status reports, there was only one way to do it.
Shuttle Schweitzer has had a change of command.
Our new CO is Charles Foster Kane.
Rosebud.
And with that, Shuttle Schweitzer was “sleighed.”
The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 3)
Going into the August status report (my third in a row), I decided to take a break from the Monty Python references. Of course, after the previous two months, I couldn’t jump straight into the new gag. I’d like to believe that the transition worked out well enough that the new gag took everyone by surprise.
Having made his purchase, Matt headed out of the cheese shop, pausing to hold the door for a gentleman he’d seen coming out of the library while he was on his own way into the cheese shop. Nibbling on a chunk of Venezualan beaver cheese, Matt looked around to get his bearings. The sales clerk had confirmed that this was indeed San Francisco and Matt had decided to file his MSR in-person at headquarters. Continue reading The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 3)
The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 2)
Having already taken care of the Shuttle Schweitzer’s monthly report for June, I volunteered to write the July report as well. Not having learned from the previous month’s experience, Matt decided to take me up on it. The Monty Python gags continued.
Having been tossed into the Gorge of Infinite Peril at the end of last month’s MSR, Matt drew a deep breath for what he was certain would be a long drawn out “Noooooooooooooooooooooo!” worthy of Wile E. Coyote falling off the cliff for the fifth time in three minutes. Much to his surprise though, he’d barely started drawing his breath, much less yelling, when he was quite startled to hit bottom, letting out a deep “WHUMPF!” instead. Continue reading The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 2)
The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 1)
When Matt had problems filing the Monthly Status Report (aka the “MSR”) for the Shuttle Schweitzer (a chapter of the Starfleet science fiction club to which we both belonged), he asked me to take over for him. Matt’s known me for about ten years. You’d think he’d know better.
Our CO daringly attempted to file the chapter’s MSR via the SFI database site which, as everyone knows, is located in the fifth level sub-basement of Area 51. Upon Matt’s arrival, he was greeted by armed guards who denied that any such base existed. When asked why they were guarding a base that didn’t exist, the guards disappeared in a puff of logic and Matt proceeded to enter the top secret access codes. Continue reading The Schweitzer Chronicles (pt 1)
Entering a transition
A number of my friends are aware that I’ve been open to the idea of a new job for a while. Not all of them knew, some are co-workers, and some have friends who are co-workers, but I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears open for a while. Back in the June/July timeframe, I started looking in earnest. Continue reading Entering a transition