rant

Price trends

I don’t drive as much as I used to, but yowza, $54.87 to fill up my gas tank today.  For some historical perspective, the Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy who publishes weekly gasoline prices.  Here, they attempt to explain gas pricing, best summarized as: World crude oil prices reached record levels in […]

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Time capsule

Inspired by Spring being officially upon us in the northwest (while the rest of you in North America are having “summer”), I went on another cleaning rampage the weekend before CROC, this time focusing on the garage. For the most part, this involved coming to acceptance that the 17″ piece of baseboard, fractional container of

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Close, but no cigar

I felt great when I rolled into Greenwater, the point geographically farthest from the start of Saturday’s 200k brevet. I got my card stamped inside the store, reloaded my water bottles with the unnatural blue sports drink, and chomped away on a slab of vanilla ice cream surrounded by two, chewy chocolate chip cookies. I

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Don’t have a cow, man

Last week, I read a story about 143 million pounds of beef products from California-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company being retroactively recalled to February 1, 2006. Questions that came to mind: Does beef keep for two years? I’d always worked from the conventional cooking wisdom that meat could be stored for up to two months in

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Love is like Nitrogen

The high-level observations for today: “Invited” speakers tend to be better than those that are… not invited. I do not have enough data on quality of uninvited talks, but I see an opportunity for a great practical joke. If the invited speaker isn’t working, you can either wait it out or go to the alternate

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Trick question

Costco called last night to let me know the tires I ordered were in — not that I expected to wait long for a set of all-weather radials compatible a 2002 Subaru, especially in this neck of the woods. I drove today, anticipating I’d be able to escape work early and have them mounted. On

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Reality Entrepreneurship

Last Thursday I took a half day off from work to attend a seminar held by UW’s “Center for Innovation and Entreprenurship.” The seminar featured three presenters, a three-panel forum, and a reception. Below the fold are my notes and quick thoughts.

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Keeping score

As a numberphile, I often find amusement in tracking numbers and analyzing the results in different ways. For example, when I flew, I maintained a logbook of every landing, aircraft type and flight conditions. In the unlikely event I would be quizzed, I could rattle off a variety of facts like “the last night landing

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