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Last weekend I took a roadtrip with my parents and got to meet maker-elite named Paul Boyer at his museum in Belleville, KS. 

Paul, who will be 78 this year, has been carving since he was a boy.  His museum showcases his art from the past 30 years, which includes many incredible animatronic pieces like this display of a horseshoe factory. 

Paul dropped out of grade school and later served in the military in Korea where he was known for carving and making art with whatever supplies he could get his hands on.

When he was 35, he lost one leg in an accident and contracted Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion.  The doctors gave him just 5 years to live.

Paul didn’t go back to work after the accident, and instead focused on his art to keep his mind busy.

When he starts a new project, he comes up with the concept and thinks it through, but never does any blue prints – he just uses his instincts to guide him.

He’s made many interesting kinetic art sculptures, but his talent isn’t limited to that.  He sketches caricatures, paints, and even mined diamonds in the rough then created a machine to grind them according to their crystal structure into a beautiful necklace for his lucky wife.

I asked Paul where his artwork was showcased, thinking “Smithsonian” would be an appropriate answer.  He said that there was some here and there in some towns around, but that was all!

I also asked him if he ever made anything like a pinball machine (my passion), but he said he hadn’t – maybe he will now though!

He was such a pleasant and humble man to talk with and I’m really glad my parents took me on the road trip down to see his museum.

This museum is a must-see if you can make it:  1205 M St. Belleville, KS  66935 (785.527.5884)

 

Somm and John fly their RC Jet Turbine Airplanes at the Lincoln Sky Knights club.

Happy 9th anniversary, Dana! 

Which way is it to the Office of Renouncing my Citizenship?

Our last hope?  “The Al-Haramain case is likely to become the last — the only remaining hope for a determination of the legality of the president’s extrajudical spying program and for Supreme Court review of the “unitary executive” theory.”

We just spent a week in Ireland.  We stayed in Dingle, Kilkenny, and Dublin - here are some of the photos from the trip.

The 4th Amendment reads:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Well, the House and now the Senate are poised to throw that out the window in the name of some formless boogey man that has them culled like sheep.

I have a dream, declared Driftglass…<<cut to Driftglass post />>

The house passed the FISA “Compromise” bill last week that not only grants immunity to the Telecom companies who let the Whitehouse illegally eavesdrop on all Americans, it legalizes eavesdropping by the executive branch in the future.

Furthermore, it nullifies all lawsuits currently filed against that Telecom industry that are our only chance and finding the truth about the Bush Administration’s participation in illegally listening in on our phone calls.

Did you grow up in the 80’s?  Because I did, and if you’re like me you’re just waiting for this movie to turn around and for the good guys to fight back. 

We need a Real Genius to thwart and humiliate the villains.

We need a Rocky Balboa to get up off the mat and fight for America with every last ounce of strength.

If we had someone like that running for president, you can bet that my generation would rock the vote.  But our great hope is Obama, who has flipped on his promise to stand up for American’s rights against illegal wire taps. 

Obama’s naieve position is basically, “Trust me with this power.”  He is going to vote for the Fisa bill: “My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people.”

I wish we would have asked Dodd or Feingold to run for president <<cut to speeches />>

Thank you Senators for you passionate defense of our constitution.  And thank you for dropping in on What Happened Now.

HOT DICE

This incarnation of Hot Dice was invented in the mid-1990’s by Kelly V. Muller and friends while living in Minnesota. Hot Dice is very similar to other dice games, such as Farkle and Cosmic Wimpoout.

The game is played with 5 dice. Points are awarded for rolling ones, fives, multiples (3 or more) of any number, or five-straight (e.g., 1,2,3,4,5).

To begin a game, each player rolls one die and the player with the highest rolled die goes first; any ties result in roll-offs.

After a roll, a player must separate out a scoring die or dice combination and roll the remaining dice. If no score is made from a roll, then the player’s turn is over and no points are awarded. If all five dice are separated out as points, the player must pick up all five and roll again before their turn is finished. The player can pass the in-play dice to the next player to end the turn and collect their points. If the next player has a non-zero score, the in-play dice can be rolled and scoring will start at the previous player’s turn total; or the player can roll all five dice and start from zero points.

One-thousand points are required to initially “get on the board”, i.e. a player must earn at least that many points in a single turn before their score can be recorded on the score card.

Once any player reaches ten-thousand points, each other player will take one more turn to see if any can tie or beat the player. If successful, each player gets another chance to tie or beat that score. The game ends when the player who has scored more than ten-thousand is not tied or beaten after each other player gets one turn’s attempt – the player is then dubbed “The Hot Dice Master”.

Scoring

Individual dice values

For each roll, 1s are worth one-hundred points and 5s are worth 50 points. All other individual dice values are worth nothing.

Multiples

Three or more of a kind rolled at once (not combined with previously rolled dice) count as a multiple. Generally, three of a kind are worth 100 * dice value, except three 1s are worth 1000 whereas three 2s are worth 200, three 3s worth 300, etc.

Four-of-a-kind is worth twice what three-of-a-kind is worth (four 1s: 2000, four 3s: 600).

Five-of-a-kind is worth twice of what four-of-a-kind is worth (five 1s: 4000, five 6s: 2400).

Straights

A string of dice rolled all at once that are in order (1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6) count as a straight. A straight is worth 1,500 points.

Examples

Roll 1: 1, 1, 2, 3, 4 – Each 1 is worth 100 points and the player can separate out one or both of them and roll the remaining dice.

Roll 2: Holding one of the 1s from first roll and rolling the other 4 dice: 2, 4, 5, 6 – The 5 is worth 50 points, so the player separates that die out and now has 150 points.

Roll 3: The player rolls the three in-play dice: 4, 4, 4 – A multiple is rolled worth 400, now the player’s score is 550 and all dice are out-of-play. The player must pick up all 5 and roll at least one more time before the turn can be ended.

Roll 4: 1, 3, 4, 4, 6: The player separates out the 1 and has a score of 650. At this point, the player can end the turn and collect the points if he or she is already on-the-board (has at least 1,000 points on the score card), or continue rolling. (As an aside, if the player hadn’t scored any points on this roll, his or her turn would be over and no points would be awarded – a “cosmic wimp-out”)

Let’s assume the player is on the board and takes the 650 points. The points are added to the player’s total on the scorecard and it is now the next player’s turn. If this player is on-the-board, he or she can optionally pick up the remaining 4 dice that are in-play and roll them adding to the 650 points from the previous player. Otherwise, all 5 dice can be rolled and turn’s points start from zero.

Roll 1: Assuming the player decides to build on the 650 points: 1, 1, 5, 6: The player can take up to the full 250 points and add it to the 650 for 900 points. He or she can then pass to the next player or roll again. Let’s assume the 250 points are taken and the player rolls again.

Roll 2: 4 – The player did not have any scoring dice on this roll, so the turn is over and no points are awarded or recorded on the scorecard for the turn. The next player’s turn begins with all five dice and at zero points for the turn.

The cyclist pushes his way through the morning light

like an Osprey inches above still water.

His powerful legs alternating: strain and relax

in harmony with breath and heart.

 

On the deck of a lake tying east to west

commuters in still life stare jealously.

 

That’s my submission for the 50-word Biketown USA contest that chose two of the towns I call home (Seattle and Lincoln) for the best biking cities in America.

 

***UPDATE 6/25/08***  I won!  I can get a free K2 bike at REI tomorrow at 11.  Unfortunately, I’ll be leaving for vacation and asked them if my brother could participate in my stead.

 

“I want a news service that tells me what no one knows, but is true nonetheless. That’s what I would value.” - Michael Crichton, interview with Slate.

Couldn’t agree more, Michael - that’s what I love about This American Life.  I’ve stopped watching the local/national news and get my news from subscribing to blogs including Fark.com and listening to NPR. 

Scott Adams recently posted on the difference in headlines between newspapers and the internet; read more on his blog.

<Disclaimer>If you are considering quitting smoking, talk to your doctor.  Don’t take the advice of anyone from the Internet, including myself.  The following relates my own experience, and I have no medical background or other authority to be giving advice.</Disclaimer>

I was never a heavy smoker.  In fact, there’s a term for the type of smoker like I was who smoked fewer than 5 cigarettes a day, a chipper.  I still smoke a pipe; sometimes daily, sometimes going without for weeks at a time.  Smoking a pipe can lead to cancer just as using any form of tobacco can, but I find it less addictive than cigarettes. 

During the decade that I smoked cigarettes, I tried a few techniques to kick the habit.  I had some success with each of these:

Rule 1:  My best and only rule for quitting smoking is to never smoke indoors, including inside a car.   I forced myself to smoke outside, which immediately cut down on the amount I smoked, not to mention improving the air quality indoors and eliminating second-hand smoke.

Technique 1:  Smoke partial cigarettes.

I rarely really needed the whole cigarette, just a few puffs.  I found that relighting a cigarette tasted bad though, until I learned this trick: If you do smoke half a cigarette and put it out for later, make sure to blow back through the filter after the cigarette is extinguished to get the smoke out of it, otherwise the smoke will get stale and make the cigarette taste terrible.

Technique 2: Switch to another form of tobacco to break the physical habit. 

I learned from some football players in high school that you can put chewing tobacco between your big toe and second toe and absorb the nicotine through your feet (they would then tape their toes together).  Your feet are really good at absorbing chemicals, and you have to be careful because you can get nauseous from the nicotine.  (On a side note, if you ever get your boots or shoes immersed into a chemical like fertilizer, throw them out - I’ve known of farmers who died of cancer for wearing their old fertilizer-dipped boots.  This also suggests one can get cancer from putting tobacco between one’s toes, much like any chewing tobacco cancer of the mouth.)  This technique worked pretty well for me; I didn’t like putting the stuff in my mouth and spitting constantly, and it gave me the nicotine I craved without the habit of smoking.  This was all before nicotine patches and gums, which I’ve never tried.

I made the switch from cigarettes to pipe tobacco and found that it was so much cheaper to smoke pipe tobacco than cigarettes; I think partly because it isn’t as heavily taxed (?).  For example, 2 ounces of pipe tobacco costs me around $4 and lasts me two months.  Pipe tobacco doesn’t have any chemicals in it to keep it burning like a cigarette does.  While I still inhale some pipe tobacco smoke, I inhale less and often just blow it back out.  When I smoke a pipe, I usually just put a pinch of tobacco in and smoke a few puffs then set it back down; relighting it later works fine without giving hardly any stale smoke flavor.  I’ve used traditional pipes and water pipes, but I like the traditional pipes more because a water pipe forces one to inhale the smoke.

Technique 3:  Learn to satisfy a craving with something other than nicotene

When I was most addicted to nicotene, I noticed a strange mix-up of signals in my body.  For instance, if I was actually thirsty I would crave a cigarette.  If I was anxious, I would crave a cigarette.  So, I learned to feel a craving and then ask myself if my body was actually trying to tell me something else.  I found that drinking ice water would satiate the craving a lot of times.  Other times I’d notice that I had an excess of energy, so I’d go for a jog or do some push-ups.  I think this same reaction is why some people gain weight after quitting smoking; their body is telling them it needs something, and eating probably does quiet that signal, but so would a glass of ice water or some exercise, most likely.

Technique 4:  Never smoke your last cigarette

There was nothing more challenging to my cessation than telling myself that I had quit forever.  The more you are told you can’t do something, the more your inner child, your Id, wants to do it!  I still will bum a cigarette from people occasionally, and even buy a pack about once a year.  And when it comes up, I say I don’t smoke because although it may not be precicesly true, the impression left anwsering yes to that question would be even less true.

I swear right now after writing this, I am going to have to go smoke my pipe!  It was worth it though to get my story out so that it gets other folks to see what it’s like to quit and maybe inspires some who would like to quit to try some new techniques.