Wearing NASA spacesuits and flying along the crest of the Andes, pilot Steve Fossett (USA b. 1944) and co-pilot Einar Enevoldson (USA b. 1932) took their ‘Perlan’ high performance research glider on the world’s first stratrospheric glider flight yesterday – surfing the Andean ‘mountain wave’ to a height of 50,699 feet (15,453 m) * – while breaking the previous record by 1,662 ft (507m). The old record 49,009 ft (14,940 m) by Robert Harris was set in 1986 in California.
Who da man? You da man.
I’m sore as hell. I went to play Whirlyball last night with some friends and am feeling the after effects. For those who don’t know, Whirlyball is like bumper cars + lacrosse. Generally the games are after some time drinking, which makes for sloppy games. My quads are all sore from the impacts and my hands and arms have cuts on them from slapping of the sticks. After a while, you quit going after the ball and going for carnage against the other team. It was quite fun though.
This also marks the last weekend I’ll be home for a while. Next weekend I am being drafted to go to Orlando over Labor Day weekend. Yes, I know – it totally sucks to be in the land of Mickey, but I’ll manage to make due. The following weekend is a trip to San Jose, California, where I’m sure being stupid will be on the agenda. And the last two weekends involves me and my birthday trip to Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.
Sucks to be me, rite?
1) Being excited about the arrival of new camera equipment is quite normal and is ok. If you rationalize it as a birthday present, then all is good.
2) When your doctor prescribes you new medication and it says don’t take with alcohol – it’s not a dare.
3) And when you find out your new medication might cause priapism, the proper response is not “boners lol!” to your doctor.
4) My friend Jon makes the best damned homebrew beer bar none.
5) The loss of Pluto as a planet messes with your mind. It’ll always be a planet in my heart.
6) I’m more excited about future trips than my upcoming birthday.
7) I get to have Pizza Hut in two weeks at DFW. Bring it!
My back feels like crap. It’s a combination of stress, not sleeping (at all/well) and general fatigue. Anyone know any places around here that I can get a 30 minute chair massage and then go home and get a proper nap for once? Since I’m never really relaxed, I figured that I would try to fight insomnia by being relaxed and proper medication.
You know you’re boring when the highlight of your week involves Veronica Mars, season 2 – arriving on DVD.
So I had dinner with a friend of mine last night and he’s at the crazy point in a 4 year relationship with this chick who I think is a leech. I’ve been saying that for at least the last 2+ years. She’s almost 30, has never had a real job, has been doing the part time college thing for a long damn time. Then you have my friend: works 2 full time jobs (he did that to pay for his sister to go to Loyola) and pays for pretty much everything. It seems like he can’t do anything without her being brought along and him having to pay for the both of them.
Apparently he got a phone call from her mom a few weeks back saying that the mom is owed money by the leech and hinted at the fact that if they get hitched, it’s not her problem, it’s “their” problem (in the spirit of togetherness). Maybe it’s just me – but that’s totally not cool.
They just got back from vacation and she’s been hinting at a ring in somewhat of an obnoxious manner. Never mind that they’ve never had a real discussion on getting married – they seem like they’re wanting to get engaged out of lack of something else to do. So he bought a ring (he hocked a lot of his personal gear to do so) and is thinking that’s probably unwise that he did so and will consquentally have to rehock the ring.
So, what’s the best way to help him realize that there are better fish in the sea?
7 beers plus one mixed drink = $17.
This is why you tip heavily at your local drinking hole.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=153054
Eight-year-old Hailey Manduca says she needs her loyal dog Independence in school to help her keep her balance.
But Scituate school officials are saying the dog doesn’t know how to behave himself in class.
School officials have barred the girl, who has a rare bone disorder, from bringing the service dog to school.
A lawyer for the School Department said yesterday officials don’t oppose the use of service dogs in schools, but claimed that Hailey’s yellow Labrador-golden retriever mix poses a potential safety and liability risk.
“A well-trained service dog can be a wonderful aid, but this dog presents a safety threat,” said Mary Ellen Sowyrda of the Quincy law firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane.
Sowyrda said Independence barked and growled the few times she was allowed at Hatherly Elementary School over the past year.
But Hailey’s mother said the dog reacted that way only once, when a teacher she had never met before rushed forward to meet her.
“It startled Independence and my daughter,” said Cheryl Manduca. “The dog has never barked again at anybody.”
Manduca noted that in the year the family has had Independence, the dog has accompanied her daughter to church, to Girl Scout meetings, to the hospital and to Disney World – all without incident.
The family bought the dog last August at the recommendation of Hailey’s doctor, who said that her muscles were becoming weaker because of her reliance on a walker.
Hailey has osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder commonly known as brittle-bone disease that has caused her to break a bone 60 times.
“Every day with her is a miracle,” Cheryl Manduca said.
Hailey is already assigned an aide in school, but that has not prevented her from being hurt.
In June, she broke her leg after the aide stepped away to talk to someone and a boy pushed her, Manduca said.
“I’m scared to death to send her to school,” the girl’s mother said.
The dog helps Hailey keep her balance as she holds his harness. Independence also is trained to bark for help if Hailey falls, on her signal of squeezing her fingers.
This article pisses me off. Here’s a poor kid with a debilitating illness which more or less fucks her chance at a normal life. And she goes to a school district that is inhabited by morons who are worried that her service dog will somehow eat her fellow classmates or something lame like that. Instead of dealing with the issue and making her feel part of the class, they exclude her – which further alienates her.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure that the boy who pushed her and caused her to break more bones didn’t get in trouble at all because that is how moronic school districts work. “Let’s punish the helpless instead of protecting them.” Assholes.
So I’m sitting around reading and it occurred to me – 28 days until I leave for Melbourne on what’s sure to be a longass flight. I had my birthday 2 years ago in Sydney – now it’ll be Melbourne. But regardless, I’m looking forward to going. It’ll be nice to be 9000+ miles away from home and being a stranger. I’m worried about the length of the flight and being able to function when I get off the plane. Landing at around 8am totally throws things into disarray. I suspect I’ll be running on coffee and other caffeine products.
The new security crackdown at the airport is an asskicker. No liquids or gels totally blows. I always bring a bigass bottle of water since I tend to get easily dehydrated. But that’s not the lame part – it’s the toiletries. I go with a gel deodorant normally but that’s now forbidden. So, that requires me to get a stick deodorant. No hair gel, no toothpaste, no aerosols. And don’t even get me started on what’s going on in the UK. It’s making me not want to transit there, let alone go to the UK. I’m finally getting to the point where I can do carryon for a few days with zero problems and now I have new rules to contend with. I’m worried because I sure as hell am not going to check $5k worth of camera gear and a laptop. I just hope it gets cleared up by Dubai come December.
On an awesome note, the Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Hut’s parent company emailed me in response to my #1 Pizza Hut Superfan letter I wrote a few months back. It was cool to get an email response, although I’m not sure what’s happening next. I will keep people up to date. Somehow, I don’t see myself in some cage match involving Jared from Subway and the Burger King mascot (that creepy King guy) in a last man standing competition. Although, that would be awesome.
So I got super excited that Madeleine Peyroux is coming to Chicago in October. I don’t know what the attraction I have for this woman is. She’s got an amazing voice that can make you shiver. She plays the guitar, which is hawt. And she’s got Rory forehead, which is odd but I like it. And she’s the sort of woman I’d love to meet while in Paris and drink wine and smoke Gitanes with while at a cafe in Saint Germain.
I’ll be in the front row on October 14th. Hurray for me!