Roscoe’s Public Notes

What a mess! This shot taken this afternoon is what I see directly outside the front door of my hotel. It’s been like this for over a year now, and I understand this construction mess won’t be cleaned up before November at the earliest.

Yes, Main Plaza is now half-open, the other half still fenced off and under construction. It’s a nicer place now than when it was completely closed during the first year of the renovation project. However, in order to get there from my hotel we have to climb over big orange cones and wait for a policeman to stop traffic on Market Street because the sidewalks on both sides of the street are currently blocked by this construction.

No, this isn’t making Roscoe happy.

warmups:
light stretching, good mornings, trunk rotations, side bends

calf raises:
2 sets of 10 reps

squats:
2 sets of 10 reps

bench presses:
2 sets of 10 reps

seated lat pulls:
2 sets of 10 reps

And the bowflex workout is completed well before tipoff-time of tonight’s Spurs game. Good.

Due to yesterday’s low energy, the week’s final two workouts are moved from Wed. and Fri. to Thurs. and Sat. It’s nice to have flexibilty in scheduling.

Thursday afternoon
Originally uploaded by arellis49

UPS truck, seen on the street in my neighborhood while I was out doing chores this afternoon. This shot, moblogged up from my cellphone, can be viewed larger by clicking on the small image above.

• PRWeb :: Splashtop to Ship on Millions of ASUS Motherboards, Starting with P5Q Family
  

  San Jose, CA (PRWEB) May 14, 2008 — DeviceVM, the award-winning developer of Splashtop™, today announced the proliferation of their innovative software across four new models of ASUS motherboards. ASUS, the leading worldwide motherboard, components and notebook manufacturer, has integrated Splashtop onto the new P5Q family of products, bringing their offering of Splashtop-enabled motherboards to a total of twelve. The new models are: P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-WS, P5Q3 Deluxe, and P5Q-E.

  “We are excited to have expanded our partnership with ASUS across many product lines,” says Mark Lee, co-founder and CEO of DeviceVM. “ASUS is not only a leading innovator in computer hardware, but is actively improving the entire PC consumer experience through software. We are excited to jointly drive the market innovation with ASUS.”

  “In response to great user feedback, our plan is to proliferate Express Gate across our entire motherboard product portfolio, starting with over one million motherboards per month,” says Joe Hsieh, General Manager, ASUS Motherboard Business Unit. “Consumers want to turn their PCs on and off like any other appliance, and Express Gate has made that possible.” […]

• Reuters :: Russia and Europe may team up for moon flights
  

  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and Europe are teaming up to build a spaceship which will fly astronauts to the moon, Russia said on Wednesday, although the European Space Agency struck a more cautious note.

  The first test flight is set for 2015 and the first manned flight is planned for 2018, Russian space agency Roskosmos said.

  “The European Space Agency (ESA) and Roskosmos both have the technologies and unique experience in designing various space systems to be able to create jointly a hi-tech vehicle,” Roskosmos said on its website (www.roscosmos.ru). […]

• Wired :: Review: Asus Eee PC 900 Is Even Better Second Time Around
  

  Asus’s long-awaited 9-inch (well, 8.9-inch) version of its groundbreaking Eee PC 4G arrives with all the familiar trappings installed … only this time it’s a little bigger — in more ways than one. Not only is the screen bumped up from seven inches to nine, the RAM is doubled (from 512 MB to 1 GB), the solid state storage system jumps from 4 GB to 20 GB, and, of course, the price takes a leap, too, hitting the $550 mark. […]

• FOXNEWS.com :: ‘Crazy’ Ants Swarm Houston Area, Ruin Electronic Devices
  

  DALLAS — In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

  The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as “crazy rasberry ants” — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and “rasberry” after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

  “They’re itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they’re just running everywhere,” said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. “There’s just thousands and thousands of them. If you’ve seen a car racing, that’s how they are. They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy.” […]

A stream of notes left for myself during the day using the Tomboy note-taker.

• upgrade xubuntu to hardy heron - done

• having a quiet, relaxing day

• copy short box contents lists to Google Docs - done - final two contents lists have now been copied over. Tomorrow I begin archiving those three boxes of unorganized comic books

• wondering if any of the thunderstorms in the area will make it to the Riverwalk tonight.

• 9:27 PM Aha! upgrading to the latest Tomboy version (which happened when I upgraded the Xubuntu OS to Hardy Heron today) gave me access to the timestamp tool.

• 10:01 PM Have been low on energy all day, will reschedule today’s bowflex w/o for tomorrow.

• 11:25 PM Here it is almost Midnight and I haven’t gone downstairs to check my mail yet. That’s pretty pathetic.

This is a game which was well-fought over almost half a year. The first moves were made in Dec. of 2007, and the end came yesterday when my opponent playing the White pieces resigned to me with his 56th White move, giving me another Black FRC win.

We were assigned the following FRC starting board:

Please note how radically different from the standard chess board we began. The dynamic of the FRC game causes us to restructure our thought processes from the very first move. The peaceful progression from opening, to middle-game, to end-game is sometimes turned on its head in FRC. As seen in this game, vicious violence happens right away and continues to the bitter end.

Our move record and final board position is below:

1. f4 Nab6 2. Bh4 f6 3. Qd4 Qd5 4. Qxd5 Nxd5 5. g3 Bh5 6. Bh3 e6 7. Nd3 Nd6 8. g4 Bf7 9. Bg2 g5 10. fxg5 O-O-O 11. gxf6 Rg8 12. g5 Nf5 13. Bg3 Rxg5 14. e4 Bh5+ 15. Ke1 Nxf6 16. exf5 Rxf5 17. Nf2 Re8 18. Bh3 Ra5 19. a3 Bf3 20. Rg1 Nh5 21. Bg4 Nxg3 22. Bxf3 Re5+ 23. Kd1 Nf5 24. Bh5 Re7 25. Nd3 Re4 26. Nc5 Rh4 27. Bf3 c6 28. Rg8 Rf7 29. Be4 Rxh2 30. c3 Nh6 31. Kc2 Nxg8 32. Nab3 Kb8 33. Nd4 Bxc5 34. Nf3 Rf2 35. b4 Bd6 36. Ng5 Rg7 37. Nh3 Rh2 38. Ng1 Nf6 39. Bf3 Ng4 40. Rf1 Rf2 41. Re1 Bf4 42. Be2 a6 43. Nh3 Rf7 44. Nxf4 R7xf4 45. Bxg4 Rxg4 46. Kd1 h5 47. Rh1 h4 48. Ke1 Rf3 49. Ke2 Rfg3 50. Rf1 h3 51. Rh1 Rh4 52. Rh2 Rg2+ 53. Rxg2 hxg2 54. Kf2 Rg4 55. d4 g1=Q+
0-1

• Breitbart :: Etna volcano rumbles back to life in Sicily
  

  The Etna volcano in Sicily rumbled back to life on Tuesday with a “seismic event” followed by a burst of ash, volcanologists said three days after minor eruptions shook the cone. […]

  [I like volcanos; especially since I don’t live anywhere near one; unless, of course, you count the Yellowstone super-volcano, which I hope to God doesn’t pop during my lifetime. -R]

• Teamsters.org :: FedEx Refusing to Turn Over IRS Audit on Contractor Status to Drivers’ Lawyers
  

  (Washington, D.C.)—The International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday blasted FedEx Corporation [NYSE: FDX} subsidiary FedEx Ground for refusing to produce an Internal Revenue Service audit of FedEx Ground’s “contractor” drivers to lawyers representing drivers in a federal class action lawsuit challenging various unfair and unlawful employment practices.

  The IRS audit determined the drivers were wrongly classified as “contractors” and assessed FedEx $319 million in past taxes for 2002 and penalty fees. On May 9, the drivers’ lawyers in an unrelated class action lawsuit that challenges, among other things, FedEx’s violation of wage and hour laws with respect to its so-called “contractors,” filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana to gain access to the IRS audit notification. The motion was filed after negotiations between FedEx and the drivers’ lawyers for an agreement under which the document would have been produced voluntarily failed.

  “FedEx continues to avoid the reality that their illegal classification scheme doesn’t pass the legal tests under federal labor law or federal tax law,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Now FedEx is literally trying to hide evidence of an IRS audit from the courts and the drivers in their civil claims against the company.” […]

  [FedEx has ALWAYS treated their drivers like crap, and they’ve been able to do so by illegally classifying them as contractors rather than as employees. And they’ve paid off judges and politicians to keep the law off the company’s back. Good for Hoffa and the Teamsters for shining the light on this. -R]

• FOXNews.com :: Britain Opens Up Secret UFO Files
  

  LONDON — The men were air traffic controllers. Experienced, calm professionals. Nobody was drinking.

  What they saw has never been explained. And they were so worried about losing their jobs that they demanded their names be kept off the official reports.

  No one, they knew, would believe their claim that an unidentified flying object landed at the airfield they were overseeing in the east of England, touched down briefly, then took off again at tremendous speed.

  But that’s what they reported happening at four in the afternoon on April 19, 1984, at an unspecified small airport near the eastern coast of England.

  Their “Report of Unusual Aerial Phenomenon” is one of more than 1,000 pages of formerly secret UFO documents released Wednesday by Britain’s National Archives. […]

  [The truth is out there, folks. -R]

• AP :: West lifts Hornets to 3-2 lead
  

  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — David West and the New Orleans Hornets sure looked happy to be at home.

  West had career playoff highs of 38 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots, lifting New Orleans to a 101-79 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night and a 3-2 series lead. […]

  [Hey! If that gorram Joey Crwford is on the floor, as he was tonight, we’re outnumbered. It’s our five players against their six; one of whom is wearing the striped shirt! When it comes down to it, though, this was much more a Spurs loss than a Hornets win. WTF was up with our guys in the 2nd half?! This series is making me crazy, I kid you not! I don’t know WTF is going on! -R]

• http://twitpic.com/10nz <- Monday evening shopping carts #
• The IRS tells me I was economically stimulated last week. I never felt it. My bank statement is due next week, maybe it’ll show up there. #
• Watching eps of Drawn Together. #
• Foxy Love is Spelling Bee Champ of the World, and I’m headed to bed with a stack of books. G’nite, twitterverse. #
• Know what sounds good right now? A plate of liver and onions, and a tall glass buttermilk. Pity there’s none of that stuff here. #
• Starting the serious part of my day with "Till the Clouds Roll By" by Paul Desmond. #
• Working on the day’s chess games. #
• @acomicbookgirl Just had some myself. Perfect day for it in South TX, too! #
• Doing prep for tonight’s podcast. #
• http://twitpic.com/11mm <- Tuesday afternoon peach lemonade #

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A stream of notes left for myself during the day using the Tomboy note-taker.

• chess work - done - moved in all active games

• add Bob Barr ‘08 campaign button and widget to blog sidebar - done

• p/u new book of postage stamps - done

• p/u roll of laundry quarters - done

• verified that IRS “economic stimulus” money was actually deposited in my account - done

• shopping - done - one bag groceries in the neighborhood

• social - Charlene actually was friendly this afternoon and called me by my first name - WTF? - she’s never done that before in all the years she’s been here!

• broadcast webcam - done - had to reload webcam driver. God, I hate Microsoft Windows!

• podcast - done

• watch Spurs game - done - Damn! WTF is it with the 3rd qtr. in New Orleans?! Of course, Joey Crawford on the floor means our Spurs are playing against six guys rather than five. That S.O.B. ought to be drummed out of the league! Now we HAVE TO win the next two games!

 

 Talkin' on Tuesday: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In tonight’s very short podcast (less than 2 1/2 minutes of playing time, 2.23 MB worth of mp3 file), posted early again because Roscoe wants to have all his chores of the day done before tonight’s Spurs game, I mention:

1. the fact that I have been officially economically stimulated,
2. my happy support for the Bob Barr ‘08 Presidential Campaign, and,
3. oh yeah, my San Antonio Spurs have a basketball game tonight. Did I already mention that?