Category: Esoteric Studies

Excel-ing through life

Anil Dash asks:

Most of the people I know are geeks, and some large number of geeks are obsessive to one degree or another. (This can be verified by anyone who’s ever mumbled “Asperger’s…” under their breath while watching me arrange my Windows desktop.)

Perhaps the ultimate example of this sort of dorkiness is the fact that almost every one of my friends has, at one point or another, made at least one Excel spreadsheet to document some arcane aspect of their lives. The number of consecutive sunny days, the types and prices of the cups of coffee they drink, or just straightforward charts about their boss’s mood. There’s no end to the ways one can misuse desktop applications in one’s personal life.
…
Thus, it’s time for a bit of market research. Have you ever made a spreadsheet for your personal life? Talked to your kids using PowerPoint? Share your geekiness, and maybe it’ll justify the creation of an exciting new community of dorks.

As much as I would like to hop from one foot to another and whistle idly, I have to confirm that yes I’ve documented part of my life in Excel. To be precise, I calculated mileage and the total amount of money I spent on gasoline on my big 1994 “loop the USA” road trip to see the remaining states I hadn’t yet been to. For the record my trip looked like this:

Place Odometer Cost Miles Gallons Used M.P.G. Day # Date
Starting 3175 1 16-Mar-1994
29 Palms, CA 3481 $12.60 306 10.08 30.36 1 16-Mar-1994
Flagstaff, AZ 3829 $13.25 348 11.73 29.67 2 17-Mar-1994
Santa Fe, NM 4225 $12.25 396 11.14 35.55 2 17-Mar-1994
Trinidad, CO 4492 $9.50 267 7.99 33.42 3 18-Mar-1994
Elmwood, OK 4785 $10.00 293 9.70 30.21 3 18-Mar-1994
Eureka Springs, AR 5223 $13.01 438 12.52 34.98 4 19-Mar-1994
Lakeland, TN 5568 $12.10 345 11.64 29.64 4 19-Mar-1994
I-81/I-40 jct., TN 6015 $12.50 447 12.51 35.73 5 20-Mar-1994
Wheaton, MD 6491 $14.00 476 12.91 36.87 6 21-Mar-1994
Tuckerton, NJ 6731 $8.50 240 8.68 27.65 6 21-Mar-1994
Boston, MA 7098 $15.50 367 12.93 28.38 7 22-Mar-1994
Rumford, ME 7333 $8.00 235 7.85 29.94 8 23-Mar-1994
Keene, NH 7671 $10.50 338 10.70 31.59 9 24-Mar-1994
Ithaca, NY 8039 $13.50 368 12.50 29.44 11 26-Mar-1994
Sandusky County, OH 8447 $14.00 408 11.67 34.96 11 26-Mar-1994
Williams County, OH 8820 $13.00 373 12.63 29.53 13 28-Mar-1994
Marshall, MI 9205 $13.00 385 12.75 30.20 14 29-Mar-1994
Oak Park, IL 9535 $14.00 330 12.29 26.85 16 31-Mar-1994
St. Paul, MN 9982 $15.00 447 13.64 32.77 17 1-Apr-1994
Fargo, ND 10269 $12.50 287 10.60 27.08 17 1-Apr-1994
Minot, ND 10610 $13.00 341 11.82 28.85 18 2-Apr-1994
Glasgow, MT 10888 $11.50 278 9.90 28.08 18 2-Apr-1994
Shelby, MT 11160 $11.50 272 8.99 30.26 18 2-Apr-1994
Kalispell, MT 11396 $10.00 236 8.48 27.83 18 2-Apr-1994
Moses Lake, WA 11755 $14.50 359 12.09 29.69 19 3-Apr-1994
Salem, OR 12182 $15.60 427 12.38 34.49 20 4-Apr-1994
Yreka, CA 12464 $12.00 282 10.00 28.20 20 4-Apr-1994
Berkeley, CA 12832 $12.25 368 10.47 35.15 21 5-Apr-1994
Totals $347.06 9657 310.59 30.98

This was all done in a rented 1994 Buick Skylark.

Progress City – where the future begins yesterday!

progresscity

Back in the day, my favorite part of Disneyland wasn’t the Matterhorn, the Autopia, or even Pirates Of The Carribean – it was Progress City, a model “city of the future” at the end of the Carousel Of Progress attraction in Tomorrowland. Think of it as one part World’s Fair utopian propaganda and one part model railroad set. A short video clip on the construction of the model (from the Walt Disney Presents TV show in 1968) is online.

 

Beware The Blob!

Nothing cheers me more than a great cryptozoology story, and you really can’t go wrong with a “Giant blob baffles marine scientists”
 headline.

The 12-metre-wide remains of a sea creature found by the Chilean navy are puzzling marine scientists, who think it may be a new species.

The specimen was at first taken for a beached whale when it was washed up a week ago but experts who have seen it say it appears not to have a backbone.

“We’d never before seen such a strange specimen.”

Come for the desert, stay for the fantastic trailer kitsch

shadydell-bisbeeBlogging this so I don’t forget it. The Shady Dell in Bisbee, Arizona is a motel made up of 1950s-vintage camping trailers that are completely decked out in period decor from the bedspreads to the vintage televisions in each trailers. Not sure about the trailer? Then stay in the completely restored 1947 Chris Craft yacht that’s decorated with period boating memorabilia.

Not surprisingly, the motel’s restaurant is a 1957 Valentine 10 stool diner that has been completely restored.

No rides, just a lot of standing around in line

Communist chic hits mainstream.

Massine Productions GmbH hopes to recreate a 10,000-square metre (107,600 sq ft) replica of East Germany, complete with surly border guards, rigorous customs inspections, authentic East German mark notes, and restaurants with regulation bland East German food.

Back in 1991 I distinctly recall saying something about how there would eventually be a paintball knockoff game where one side is the East Germans, the other side are the guards with the object being to cross Checkpoint Charlier without getting hit.

[via Fark]