Sure Signs...

...that you've been reading too much Patrick O'Brian (contributed by various members of The Gunroom):

You start wishing people joy. "Wish you joy of your new car."

You blame your recent bad luck on lack of any backstays nearby to scratch.

Your arguments with your spouse now involve phrases like "Which I already took the trash out, didn't I?"

You've taken to eating toasted cheese.

You use the phrase "brought by the lee" in every day situations.

You call cleaning your house "a clean sweep fore and aft".

You've ever heard "Roast Beef of Old England" and found yourself getting hungry.

When you see an unusual beetle, you feel guilty for not putting it in your pocket.

All the metal in your house is polished really, really well.

(Lissun Chris Hopkins)

Which you join the Gunroom, don't you?

(Lissun Rosemary Davis)

You find that your supply of port and porter has gotten almost out of hand, and you've embarrassed every one in your lunch group by calling for a capital Madeira as an aperitif.

(Lissun Alice Gomez)

You look at your children's guinea pigs, and wonder if they can be et.

(Lissun Naomi Lloyd)

Which you start every sentence with "which", now don't you? Because why? Because you've been reading the Canon too much.

(Lissun Jim Muller)

Which I was just remarking to my son Preserved...

(Lissun Kerry Webb)

Closed for Refocusing

So Starbucks is going to close for three hours tonight to train the staff in core values and the like. Gee...maybe they should listen to what the customer has had to say, instead?

I enjoyed Starbucks when I worked in NYC, it was several steps above the carts on the street. But lately, I'd rather pull my own espresso shot. I enjoyed Howard Shultz's book Pour Your Heart Into It, but I think the company that he was so passionate about is long, long gone.

That Sinking Feeling

From about this point the exact sequence of events escaped him: he was conscious of swallowing a great deal of seawater, and then of sinking for a while, and then of finding that he had lost his direction as well as his strength and what little buoyancy he ever had, but soon he seemed to be in a perpetual agitated present in which things happened not in a given order but on different planes. The enormous voice that cried 'Back the foretopsail' high above his head, the renewed sinking into the depths, dark now from the shadow of the hull, the rough hands that grasped his ear, elbow and left heel, dragging him over the gunwale of a boat, and the midshipman's anxious 'Are you all right, sir?' might all have been contemporary. It was not until he had pondered for a while, gasping in the sternsheets, that occurrences took to following one another...

(Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission)

What Might Have Been

A gallery of covers for plastic models that never were...but should have been! Aurora Models provided a lot of building entertainment for me: the Seaview and the Flying Sub (both from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), the UFO from The Invaders, the whole amazing classic creature line!

Engineering for the Future

The National Science Foundation has announced the (in their view) the fourteen greatest engineering challenges for the 21st century. No space elevators, but some pretty interesting stuff here.

Stepping Into Storage

I have books. Lots of books. My wife says way too many books. But, hey, it's better than some habits I could have!

Storage is always a problem. We have bookshelves throughout the house and a good chunk of the collection is in semi-permanent storage in boxes in the basement.

Via BoingBoing, something to make me wish for a house other than a ranch. Book storage in a staircase! Way cool!

Roy Scheider

Roy Scheider passed away yesterday at age 75. A lot of folks probably remember him best for Jaws, but my favorite film moments were his roles in Sorcerer (an underrated remake of The Wages of Fear) and as Dr. Heywood Floyd in the film version of 2010: Odyssey Two. Tons of other memorable roles such as All That Jazz, The French Connection and more.

Farnham's Freehold

Via the Wayback Machine, pictures of Robert A. Heinlein's bomb shelter! This was the model for the bomb shelter featured in Heinlein's novel, Farnham's Freehold (click on the link for several sample chapters).

Murray Leinster

Michael Swanwick tells the story of how science fiction writer Murray Leinster (Will Jenkins) worked to help protect our submarine forces in World War II.

It's Up!

The ever informative Ansible, Issue #247, is up!

Cory Doctorow announced the birth on 3 February of a daughter proudly named...Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.

Oh my. Tell me that kid ain't gonna catch heck in school.

I Can Haz Furburger?

Oh my. The horror. The horror.

Just in case the original is taken down...

i can has furburger? - 5 (inner sunset / UCSF)

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Reply to: pers-558418787@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-31, 9:59AM PST

oh hai. i r internets dating kitteh. luking for a nise gurl kitteh to snorgle. i like cheezburgers, bukkits, monorails, invisible stuf and surprises. iz liek emo mewsik too! mebbe we can have noms tugether and get to noe eech uther. if we get along mebbe we can go to mewseeum and luk at van goghs picshurs or i can upgrade ur ram cuz i r internets teknologee kitteh to. den if we reely get along we can goes bak to mai plase and i nom ur kitteh cuz it has a flavor. then we can has buttsecks. dat wud be teh awesum!!1

kittehs onlee pleez *NO LOLRUS - DO NOT WANT*

soon
kthxbai

ps - iv bin told i has nise harbls :)

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PostingID: 558418787