Dale Miller

At some point after the dawn of time but before accurate dating of history, some man decided that long hair and a long beard were impractical and/or uncomfortable. He decided to hack off the hair somewhat, probably using a flake of obsidian to do so. At some later point a daring and rather foolhardy soul decided that it would be cool to take one of the knives that were used to kill and skin animals and run it across the skin of his face. I can just see that now — the prehistoric redneck calling out “Hey y’all, watch this!”. I suspect the first shave did not come without bloodletting. Later on, knives were made from metal, and had more even edges. However, these knives were expensive, so many couldn’t afford them. Thus was born the trade of barber. It’s no coincidence that barbers were often doctors (bloodletters) in the early days. At still a later point came the straight razor and the ability for most men to own one. Thus began the wars for the closest shave, and determining whose blade was better.

I remember watching television as I was growing up and hearing the snick-snick of the “Wilkinson Sword” blade ads, the “Take it off, take it all off.” from a sexy-voiced woman in Noxema shaving cream ads, and of course the ubiquitous Burma-Shave highway signs. When I was young, my father used a Gillette safety razor. While the razor was certainly safer than a straight razor, the blades were anything but safe. If you handled them wrong they were likely to slice you. By the time I began shaving, he had changed that one out for a Schick injector razor. That one had only a single edge, but the blades came in a box that allowed you to change them out without risking removing a finger at the same time. Being a wimp, when I started needing to shave I opted to take the electric route. I continued that for several years until circumstances found me needing a shave and without my electric. I risked a blade, and have used one much of the time since.

What is this leading up to, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. I have become amused by the antics of Gillette and Schick (among others) in trying to find a “better” product. For centuries one blade was considered sufficient. Then in 1972, Gillette introduced the “Trac II”. I remember the TV ads for that one also. The close-up drawing of a face with the first blade pulling on the hair and the second cutting it off closer. That should do it, right? Apparently not. My current shaver of choice is a “Mach 3″, with not one, not two, but three blades. If the second blade cuts, I’m not quite sure what the third one does, but maybe someone decided that the second blade pulls a bit too.

Since I no longer watch television, I have not seen any ads for the Schick Quattro which I first saw in stores this weekend, but I’m sure there have been some. What caught my eye was not only have we graduated to four blades (those hairs must really be able to pull a long way out of the skin), but that they now come with a battery to vibrate the shaver while you shave. Okay, I’m a gadget junkie, I had to buy one. I will know for sure when I shave in the morning, but from what I can tell so far the vibration is just a gimmick. I suspect the women’s models might be well-received, though. What better thing to have in the bathtub than a small, waterproof vibrator?

Not to be outdone, Gillette has announced a five-blade razor due to ship early next year.

Where will it all end? I have no idea, but I have been considering calling up the local Sona LASER hair-removal place and having them just get rid of my facial hair permanently.

Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is just around the corner, and I am completely failing to get into a holiday mood. That’s both good and bad. The “holiday mood” that is usually assumed is one which is full of shopping, entertainments, get-togethers, etc. My usual holiday mood is one of depression. I’m not going either way at the moment. I’m moderately looking forward to Christmazs, because it means two weeks off from work, but I have no idea what I’m going to do for those two weeks. I have thought about some sort of trip, but I can’t come up with anywhere I just really want to go. I might visit Mark for a couple of days, but I think he’s planning on spending at least part of that time in Little Rock. We shall see.

I have only two more dance classes before the end of the term. I have no idea what my grade will be in there, but I suspect I will pass. I have not written the two reviews of dance performances that I am supposed to, but I haven’t been to any. Oops.

Today certainly hasn’t gone as expected. My phone rang about 7:45 this morning. It was Guil. He said that he was supposed to leave for the airport in half an hour, and he had just taken his wife in to the emergency room. He asked if I could come in to town and stay until they were done with her (or admitted her as the case might be). I agreed, slashed some water on my face, threw on some clothes and drove in to UAMS. Some seven hours later I took Mary home. Most of her time was spent waiting. There were a couple of bad cases that came in after her, and apparently most of the staff was pulled away to deal with them. While I understand that hospitals have to deal with more severe cases right away, you would think there would be sufficient staff to keep the somewhat less-critical cases moving along as well. Maybe it was the fact that it was Sunday morning. In any case, I spent most of the day reading a book in the UAMS emergency waiting room. I must say that as waiting rooms go, it wasn’t bad. The chairs were comfortable and there was a section where no television could be heard.

I ended last night footsore and mad at myself. Otherwise, rehearsal went well. We were in concert attire for photos, and the tux shoes I have aren’t very comfortable. In fact, I have heels which don’t hurt my feet that much. I’m hoping adding arch supports will help a bit. I certainly need to do something before the concert.

I’m mad at myself because I’m a wimp. As people were talking before rehearsal started, one of the women made a comment that too many southern men are wimps about asking women out. That was a perfect cue for me to ask her out, but did I do so? Of course not, I simply proved her argument by my silence.

In other news, the text of today’s Sore Thumbs seemed strangely familiar.

vlcsnap-4404466
Originally uploaded by Dale Miller.

I was watching Fullmetal Alchemist (episode 37) and saw this telephone. Now this just seems wrong to me. Why would you need both a dial and a crank?

Okay, I have too much time on my hands.

[edit] Oh, and the finger-stop is in the wrong position unless the dial is supposed to turn counterclockwise. I don’t remember seeing any dialing up until now, so I can’t be sure.

It’s Wednesday evening, and I’m ready for the week to be over. Unfortunately, I really need to go to work tomorrow. Not so much because of work, but because choir is tomorrow night, and because I am supposed to teach water aerobics at lunch. I think it’s a bad thing that the main reason I feel I need to go to work is because of the activities surrounding my work day, and not because of my job. I’ve kept reasonably busy this week, and actually done a few things that were useful, but I just can’t find anything I really want to work on. I need a good project to keep me busy for a while. The things I have worked on recently have been fun, but none has lasted very long. The identity management project has potential, but that’s mostly Jay’s baby rather than mine. I only supply small pieces. I need something I can dig into for a while. I think I will be doing a rewrite of the card access system once identity management is going well, but I can’t really do much on it until we determine what all is going into the directory server.

Tomorrow night in choir we’re having pictures made for programs/web/etc. I have been meaning to hem my tuxedo pants for months now, but haven’t done it. That means that I really should quit typing this and go hem my pants. Knowing me I’ll take needle and thread with me tomorrow and do it between work and practice. Yes, I’m a procrastinator.

I have spent entirely too much money the past few days.

Since my computer died, I decided to go buy a new one. Yes, I should have bought pieces online and put it together, but I wasn’t in the mood. I found one at Best Buy that looked okay, and set out to get it. On the way there I managed to drop my right front wheel into a drain and shred the tire along with ruining the wheel. This didn’t make my day at all. But, since I was out, I changed the tire and headed on. While there, I also picked up an Epson scanner/printer to replace my ancient SCSI scanner and failing laser printer. And, so I could make use of one of my existing hard drives, a USB-IDE enclosure.

I arrived back home, set up the new system, and mounted my 120GB drive in its new case. As soon as I turned it on there was a popping and a smell of smoke. That didn’t bode well. My 120GB drive now has a burned chip and the enclosure no longer powers on. Grrrr…

So yesterday I bought a replacement wheel for the car, had a new tire put on, and returned the defective enclosure since I no longer had a drive that I needed to house.

The fun never stops.

How to make traffic stop forever:

Arkansas code:

27-51-1004. Passing when stopped prohibited.

(a) When a school bus vehicle stops and displays its alternating red warning lights for the purpose of loading or unloading passengers, every operator of a motor vehicle or motorcycle meeting or overtaking the school bus from any direction shall bring the motor vehicle or motorcycle to a complete stop before reaching the school bus.
(b) The operator of the motor vehicle or motorcycle shall not start up or attempt to pass in any direction until the school bus vehicle has finished receiving or discharging its passengers and is in motion again.

27-51-901. Operation of vehicles and streetcars on approach of authorized emergency vehicles.

(a) Upon the immediate approach of an authorized emergency vehicle, when the driver is giving audible signal by siren, exhaust whistle, or bell, the driver of every other vehicle shall yield the right-of-way and shall immediately drive to a position parallel to, and as close as possible to, the right-hand edge or curb of the highway clear of any intersection and shall stop and remain in such position until the authorized emergency vehicle has passed, except when otherwise directed by a police officer.

So, if an ambulance or fire truck with lights and siren approaches a school bus discharging passengers the emergency vehicle must stop until the school bus resumes motion, but the school bus must remain stopped until the emergency vehicle passes.

Okay, I think about strange things during my morning commute.

People cannot gain anything without sacrificing something.
You must present something of equal value to gain something.
That is the principle of equivalent trade in alchemy.
We believed that was the truth of the world when we were young.

I’m sure it has made the rounds already, but I found panexa somewhat humorous.