( Mostly Harmless )

Poll #3857 Taepodingdong
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

The launch will be done because...

The North Korean missile will...

The missile will be carrying...

The reaction to the launch will be...

Not about North Korea at all: I know why the number 444 was used in the last poll.

Current Mood: curious

Considering the amount of coverage given some recent news, I find myself in even less of any hurry to do anything about television reception.

Poll #3855 Between Iraq and a hard place
Open to: All, results viewable to: None

Regarding, Iran the USA should:

Current Mood: curious

With only simple indoor antennas, digital TV is right out. Analog is almost out. Yes, analog. See, the primary TV transmitters (in the USA) have all gone digital now, but the low power translator or relay stations have not. Some are digital, some are analog. For how long is unknown. There is no set schedule I've seen for ending analog transmission for low power and translators.

There are three places that are nearby (in country terms of "near") and they're all about 30 miles away. I have joked that the surrounding areas all serve Fairmont "equally poorly" and it turns out it's not all that much of a joke. It's pretty much true. The tower to the north or northwest is effectively invisible. The tower to the east shows an occasional hint that something might just be there. The tower to the west, with a crude 4-element beam antenna (cut for channel 14), just manages to indicate that there is a channel 16 and 45. A lot of snow, no color, and sound breaks squelch if things are just right. Each tower carries all the networks, so getting reliable reception from any one of them would take care of about everything.

A nice big roof-mounted antenna with a pre-amp would likely turn 16 and 45 into at least reliable reception and might turn a few other stations into possibles. Given the state of broadcast television content this is more a technical challenge than a great desire to view the programming. I don't foresee installing an outdoor antenna anytime soon. I am considering trying a good antenna in the attic and then someday it could be mounted outside. But even an attic antenna is a pretty low priority.

I did watch some TV today yesterday, but that was on DVD.

Current Mood: calm

Shamelessly swiped from LJ:towyncoyote's post Species stereotypes..

In furry fandom foxes, deservedly or not, have a certain reputation. What of other animals/creatures? Naturally I am most curious about the ones close to me. Thus I am curious as to what folks might think of:

* Horses

* Centaurs

* Bovines (Ox/Bull)

* Warners (the species of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot)

And if there's anything else that comes to mind, especially that you might somehow associate with me, I'm curious about that too.

Current Mood: curious

Poll #3831 The Vast Wasteland
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

If you could only get one TV station, it would be an affiliate of

Current Mood: curious

"Instruments don't lie, but they can fib."

I got curious about TV channels the digital converter might detect as having signal but not have enough to be useful and so went through the channels listed for my location on AntennaWeb.org. It was promising. Each station I tried eventually switched from 'no program' to 'weak signal'. But the more I considered it, the less right that seemed. I then tried other channels and sure enough, every channel seemed to do the same thing. I tried channel 37, which is allocated to a protected frequency range and thus there are no stations transmitting on ch. 37. Even on ch. 37 I got 'weak signal' after a while.

The problem is one of poor indication. The "weak signal" includes effectively zero strength, which ought to be "no signal" but evidently that wasn't done. So that indication is useless for what I wanted to use it for: see if there was any signal just detected, but insufficient to display. There is a strength meter setup, but it requires some menu fiddling to get to. And it shows nothing at all, not even on ch. 12. That's not encouraging.

Current Mood: disappointed

The last reason I had for keeping cable went away, but that was a while ago. For how little I watch(ed) the expense was not justifiable (Jay watch{ed,es} even less) so a few days I ago I finally canceled the cable service.

Out of curiosity I set up a pair of rabbit ears and saw if anything had changed. Nothing had. The only signal was from channel 12 in Mankato and not very strong at that. Color, but snowy.

I do have a digital converter, for what it's worth. Right now, that isn't much. With just the rabbit ears channel 12 doesn't show at all and a box appears on the screen complaining either 'No Program' or 'Weak Signal' but shows nothing. Yep, that's digital. If you don't get it all, you get nothing.

I did make a point of watching when the final cutover happened. Channel 12 (KEYC) did it about 12:20 PM, during their noon news show. The newsreader announced that the analog signal would be ceasing in a moment and that folks might need to add the digital channel or have their converter re-scan, and then went on to the next story. A bit later the NTSC signal just disappeared and left things with the typical analog "snow" of the absence of signal.

It was sort of disappointing. Not that it happened, as that was known for some time. But there was nothing but a simple read announcement when it happened. No countdown or anything. I thought it would have neat if they had announced it as this post is titled, played the National Anthem, gone to a test pattern for a few seconds (maybe with a numeric countdown also shown) and then gone off-air. Ah well.

I suppose eventually I might set up a proper antenna (channel 12 is 204-210 MHz, so a little three-element beam shouldn't be a big deal.) and at least get channel 12 again. Though considering how much broadcast TV I've watched of late, I'm in no great hurry. I have tapes and DVDs. Radio (NPR/MPR) seems to cover news better and video can be had on the net.

Current Mood: calm

Wine is...

The best wines come from:

Non-grape wine?

Ideal wine container (NOT serving vessel):

Ideal serving vessel:

Worst wine:

The worst wine it was my misfortune to experience was:

A good, inexpensive (not cheap) wine is:

This wine is overrated:

Non-alcoholic wine?

[Unrelated] Name a crunchy snack:

I really only have one* and that is the ACME group. If you are not in that group and would like to be, let me know.

Someday I might have other groups, once I figure out what they should be and how best to deal with inclusion/exclusion from same.

So, want in on the ACME group so can either get an idea of what might be coming or help me conspire to fold bits of reality into more interesting shapes?

Current Mood: curious

I was never into sports and that's putting much of it mildly. There were things that did interest me, such as radio. The book that I first learned much of electronics and radio from was originally written in the days of vacuum tubes. The later revision I read mentioned transistors but a mention was about it.

Thus I knew of electron current (just try to explain, sanely, how a vacuum tube works using "conventional current") and of the heater, cathode, grid, anode or plate, and such. This has an impact on how I hear or interpret at least one phrase.

While I know full well the intended baseball-derived meaning of "step up to the plate," whenever I hear that phrase I wonder why someone should closely approach the anode.

Current Mood: contemplative

Have arrived home from RCFM and such. More later - probably much later. Rest now.

Current Mood: tired

I'd always heard or read (probably most often from the Hitchhiker's Guide series) "gin and tonic." This made some sense as the gin would suppress the bitterness of the tonic. A properly made gin and tonic doesn't taste much like anything.

But recently I'd been hearing "vodka and tonic" which was a bit puzzling as vodka is supposed to taste like... well, nothing. So it seemed odd to affect the tonic with something without any flavor beyond that of alcohol.

Ah, but what is gin? It is flavored vodka. Vodka flavored with juniper seeds. I've heard folks say it "tastes like pine needles" but that hasn't been my experience. Either I just plain don't register that flavor very well or else I've either had really good (or really bad) gin when I've sampled it. I've had gin and tonic and like such on occasion.

Maybe sometime I'll try simple vodka and tonic and see if it tastes much different.

The scotch and whisky responses to the last post puzzle me a bit, but I suppose anything that can is mixed with one liquor is eventually mixed with others. Also, if one really does taste gin as pine needles, I can certainly see going with something else.

Current Mood: sober

Fill in the blank:

_____ and tonic.


The reason I ask will be revealed later.

Current Mood: curious

( But gold isn't magnetic. )

Current Mood: sleepy

( I heard some folks attended panels, too. )

Current Mood: tired

That's my age for about a year now.

While looking about web/blog-space for Penguicon and ACME images and reports I encountered a jewelry blog. Normally I'd skip right over such a thing as it holds no interest. But not this time for the image that caught my attention looked rather familiar. I know it's not the same, but... well, have a look.

The third image down is of an ox carrying a big sack of stuff. A very happy ox. A bipedal ox wearing a short sleeved shirt and shorts. I'm not sure what all the stuff he is carrying is, but in a way that also fits.

No, I'm not buying the item, but I do find it amusing. And now, between Chinese mythology, an old Rexall slogan, and perhaps insufficient sleep I think of, "Good luck to thee... from ACME!"

Current Mood: amused

That's pretty much it right now. Made it home. Con report and such to follow. The following might not be all that immediate. There are photos to process (and to collect before that!) for ACME and such.

Now I get to start in on RCFM stuff and that's less than amonth a way. Eep!

Current Mood: tired