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VODKA – p.i.n.k. Spirits – Vodka Infused With Caffeine and Guarana – Mixed Drinks – P.I.N.K. My shrink recommended I try a new beverage called “P.I.N.K.” Well, I think he was recommending it. I didn’t exactly get stern warning out of the conversation. I picked up a bottle today and brought a sip or two to enjoy while polishing up a couple blog entries for publication. Errrrr, well, it was actually more like a mug of the stuff. The mug shown in the picture is the Pendulum Resources mug available at the The Bipolar Planet® Manic Mall . So what the heck is P.I.N.K.? Well, it’s 80 proof vodka from the Nederlands pumped up with guarana and caffeine, the equivalent of 1/2 can of Red Bull per 1-1/2 oz. shot, but without the awful sweet vitamin-y taste. It is very expensive at $45 per bottle, very trendy, trés chic, and utterly unremarkable tastewise. The liquid isn’t colored pink, only the bottle. This stuff must hav...

I needed a 390pF 200V cap. I had 16 390pF 50V caps in 0603 size. Fun.

The Prius is a total loss. It was going to cost over $9000 to repair it.

Like many folks on psych meds, I’m obese. I make no excuses. I hate being fat and I’m doing what I can. The other weekend I decided to break my diet and have breakfast at a Perkins Pancake House on a Sunday morning with two family members who are also on psych meds for bipolar disorder. As the three of us were being led back to the table one of the wait staff looked me over then turned and called out to another staff member, “ We got three pork chops! ” There is simply no call for Perkins employees to verbally abuse their customers, not even the lard-asses. It was the low spot of the day, and it has totally dimmed my enthusiasm for Perkins restaurants. I most certainly won’t set foot in the Moorestown, NJ restaurant again. Too bad for them, because when I’m there I eat a lot .

The Clean Fuels and Energy Independence Act X-Originating-IP: [209.158.227.171] From: RepGerber@pahouse.net Reply-To: info@pahouse.net Subject: Energy crisis demands action now Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:00:13 -0400 Energy crisis demands action now As the war in Iraq continues, energy and fuel costs rise and America’s energy consumption continues to cause climate change, the need for a cleaner and more energy-independent Pennsylvania is paramount . The Clean Fuels and Energy Independence Act , as part of the House Democratic Caucus’s Energy Independence Strategy, would put Pennsylvania in the forefront of the alternative and renewable fuel economy. This legislation would mandate the blending of ethanol, soy and other clean energy sources in fuels. It would establish production and distribution standards to advance the shift to cleaner and cheaper domestic fuel sources. And it would help to stimulate the Pennsylvania economy with in-state production of renewable fuels. Our pro...

I worked late Thursday night because I’ve been having trouble getting there on time. Typically I leave at around 8, and it’s a 45 minute drive home. I’ve been in that place where… well, it’s as if I need to stop and let my mind catch its breath, if that makes sense. Instead, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and trudging onward in this death march we call life. Of course, my mind is taking this opportunity to slap me around. Self-defeating thoughts like: I’m a fraud, I’m only pretending to be an engineer. Everything I’ve ever done was stupid or hurtful or self-destructive. My husband only stays with me because he made a promise to my mother to take care of me when she was on her deathbed. (Nice dramatic touch.) Creationists don’t want their children to be more successful than they are, because that would support the theory of evolution. Pro-lifers love rapists almost as much as they hate women. Millenniali...

Early manifestations and first-contact incidence of schizophrenia in different cultures. A preliminary report on the initial evaluation phase of the WHO Collaborative Study on determinants of outcome of severe mental disorders . Psychol Med. 1986 Nov;16(4):909-28. Sartorius N, Jablensky A, Korten A, Ernberg G, Anker M, Cooper JE, Day R. The results provide strong support for the notion that schizophrenic illnesses occur with comparable frequency in different populations and support earlier findings that the prognosis is better in less industrialized societies.

Mr. X was asking about his favorite DOS-based Doubles Pinochle program again. I was unable to get it running under either Win2000 Pro or WinXP Pro SP2 – it looked as if it were grabbing the fonts with the wrong character size. I had given up on it, but Mr. X is really into pinochle. So here it is, 3AM, and DPIN is running under Windows 98 in a VMWare virtual machine. If I didn’t have bouts of insomnia I’d never get anything important done! Incidentally, Kubrick looks hideous in a 640x480x16 window. But it was usable enough to enable me to write the first draft of this post. Good deal.

New Hauppauge WinTV Products for Windows Vista – PVR Wire I was looking at TV tuners for my husband’s computer the other day and thought “who needs TV on a computer?” Shortly after that he sent me an email entitled “birthday” with a link to the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950 TV Tuner USB Stick Hybrid Video Recorder . Must have been reading my mind. It was on sale and had a rebate. At $59.99 I couldn’t turn it down. He doesn’t read this blog. I hope. The WinTV-HVR-950 plugs into a USB2 port on your computer and receives over-the-air High Definition TV broadcasts. You can view in realtime with a fast enough computer, or record them in MPEG2 format so that you can burn them to DVD later. The 950 receives the American standards, that is, standard NTSC broadcasts or ASCT over-the-air high definition digital. There is also a version for the European market. The WinTV-HVR-950 doesn’t require any batteries or recharging since it gets its pow...

According to an article in May 23, 2007 N.Y. Times, there will be a series of free folk festivals on Governor’s Island in July. Folk singer-songwriter Harry Chapin of “Cat’s Cradle” fame will be reanimated for the occasion. Thanks to Ted for the hard copy.