I've Got No Sorts

I am completely out of sorts, thanks to traveling for various work-related and visiting-type things.

Four factoids about Ball State University/Muncie, Indiana:
#1, Ball State is named after the Ball jar canning people
#2, It's most well-known alumnus is David Letterman
#3, Muncie is the home of Garfield the Cat
#4, Scotty's Brewhouse serves Bell's Oberon beer and an acceptable chicken tortilla soup

I am spending FAR too much time in Indiana these days. Muncie last week for an extra-special, most fascinating conference on copyright in libraries (okay, actually it was a pretty good conference and I learned a lot about sections 107 & 108 of the copyright code). And then Indianapolis this week for an extra-special, not-really-fascinating, mostly-annoying-because-I-have-to-present meeting on the CONTENTdm DAMS (Digital Asset Management System). Ah, such is the life of your friendly, neighborhood information professional. I'm not a librarian, I just play one on t.v.

Current Formula 1 Standings

Not that you couldn't have gotten these numbers off myriad web sites...but here's the current F1 points standings for both the drivers' and constructors' championships. There are current as of the last race (Bahrain).

Drivers' championship
Driver's Name (Team) and Points
1 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari): 19
2 Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber): 16
3 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes): 14
4 Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber): 14
5 Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes): 14
6 Felipe Massa (Ferrari): 10
7 Jarno Trulli (Toyota): 8
8 Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota): 7
9 Fernando Alonso (Renault): 6
10 Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault): 4
11 Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota): 3
12 Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso-Ferrari): 2
13 David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault): 0
14 Jenson Button (Honda): 0
15 Nelson Piquet, Jr (Renault):0
16 Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Ferrari):0
17 Rubens Barrichello (Honda):0
18 Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri-Hond):0
19 Takuma Sato (Super Aguri-Honda): 0

Constructors' championship
Team and Points
1 BMW Sauber: 30
2 Ferrari: 29
3 McLaren-Mercedes: 28
4 Williams-Toyota: 10
5 Toyota: 8
6 Renault: 6
7 Red Bull-Renault: 4
8 Toro Rosso-Ferrari: 2
9 Honda: 0
10 Force-India Ferrari: 0
11 Super Aguri-Honda: 0

It's been a few years since I've actively followed F1. Michael Schumacher's reign (well, once Ferrari started making cars that actually worked) just made it boring. When the drivers' championship is wrapped up by the 9th race of the season, what's the point? But I caught the the final race of last season and saw the end of the Bahrain race this season; things are looking interesting again, what with good drivers spread over several teams. Now, if we could just get Ferrari to replace Felipe Massa with Fernando Alonso. Or an Alonso/Hamilton Ferrari team. Honestly I'd much rather see Alonso in the #1 Ferrari car than Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari might be paying Kimi over $50 million a year, but as we all know: he's no Senna.

Apropos to Nothing...

...except a debate held between myself and Dr. Nate, while watching Metal Mania:

Ian Astbury: lead singer of The Cult.

Glenn Danzig: lead singer of Danzig; formerly of the Misfits.

Note: the first drummer for Danzig, Chuck Biscuits, was formerly with both Black Flag and Circle Jerks.

Who's Not Your Mommy?

Behold the taxonomy of people:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: Sapien

An example of this particular taxonomy would be Kimi Räikkönen (see below):

Behold the taxonomy of the domesticated house cat:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Felis
Species: Catus

An example of this taxonomy would be the common tabby cat (see below):

Yes, both examples are Unikonts. Even Euteleostomes. But the similarities end in the class Mammalia.

I will admit freely that I do consider our felis cata part of the family. We miss them when we are out of town, we converse with them when we are at home, we immediately seek help and have been known to miss work when they don't feel well. We spend far too much money on them; they have more toys than I do. We take them into consideration in various household decisions. They yell, we come running.

But I did not birth them and, as such, I am not their mother. So please do not refer to me (who, like Kimi Raikkonen, is a homo sapien), as the mother of my felis cata. Nor are they my "furkids" or "fur-babies."

New Toy!

When he knows he's about to get treats or something good, our little black cat (Bit) gets something we call "shaky tail" - his tail perks up and just kind of trembles back and forth with anticipation of whatever tasty thing he's getting. Total excitement reflex.

I've got to admit that I have a severe case of shaky tail this afternoon, since I just talked Dr. Nate into buying a GPS thing for our car. Or, more accurately, I whined all during lunch about needing one and he acquiesced and let me buy it. Woot!

We've been lusting after them ever since seeing one in action last year in the luxury ride of the Cyberninja and Dr. Girlfriend. But we couldn't justify one since we know our way around our town and tend not to travel to unknown remote places that often. But I printed out 1/2 a ream of paper this morning, digging up mapquest directions for a work thing I need to attend in Chicago this Friday. And I have to go to Muncie, IN, in another week or so and then Indianapolis after that. And we have other travel stuff that might be coming up. Plus, Dr. Nate and I have no sense of direction. At all.

So, thanks to Amazon.com, a brand-new Garmin Nuvi 260 is on its way to us. The cool thing about this version is it actually tells you the name of the street on which you have to turn, rather than "turn left in 500 yards."


And, since zombies don't have the intelligence to zap satellites out of the sky, we can chalk this purchase up further supplies for the impending zombie-riddled Trek to a Safe Haven.

Best of the Edwin Street Zombie Group Leaving

Thanks to knowing folks like Cyberninja and Max Brooks, Dr. Nate and I thought it best to form a plan and compose what we thought was a reasonably good group of people to have around in a zombie apocalypse. Namely, ourselves, our neighbors (yet to be informed of their zombie group status), and my sister.

Our neighbors are hunters and, therefore, have guns, various and sundry munitions, trucks, and mad huntin' skillz--all very useful in a zombie apocalypse situation. And they're really nice and probably won't use our cats as zombie bait if we ask them not to.

The "fifth" in the group is my sister, for several good reasons: #1, she is about as badass as Gregg Allman, if not a bit more so; #2, she works out all the time and is in very good shape, so stamina for travel won't be a problem; #3, she would have no scruples about dispatching zombies; #4, she would have no scruples about dispatching weak links in the zombie group; #5 she comes standard with LASER eyeballs.

So, what with zombie apocalypse surely imminent, I find out that my sister is moving to Montana. Damn. My only hope is to convince her to set up an outpost for us there in the wilderness and stock it with provisions. It seems that any zombie apocalypse should come standard with one group's trek across Regions Unknown to reach a Safe Haven. I suppose Montana is as acceptable a Safe Haven as any.