bengt-erik norum

trying to convince my disbelieving wife that "galactic wash" jeans existed as a (misguided) fashion statement in 1986-87, i searched google for "galactic wash" (quoted string). get this: 3 hits. that's it. i'm shocked.

this was a product made by levi's. during the jr. high "acid wash" jeans phase, levi's tried to extend their success, but only succeeded in punishing a couple kids who's parents shopped for school clothes without them. these were dark denim jeans with little bright white bleach dots (they had to have used dry chlorine to get that effect) scattered throughout.

acid wash jeans quickly became lackluster in the face of the ultracool hypercolor clothes (aka. "that girl with the pink shirt and bright blue armpits").

anyway, the most clear proof is some (circa 1987) "anarchy text" at http://nightmare.org/.

disappointing. maybe it was just an "idaho thing."

hell yeah. someone took the python filesystem driver idea to its logical windows concluson. witness the gmail drive shell extension.

is there still a market for the xdrive/.mac style "drive in the sky"?

see also:
http://bengt.org/archives/2004/08/gmailfs.php
http://bengt.org/archives/2004/07/my_best_hopes_i.php
http://bengt.org/archives/2004/07/my_worst_fears.php

what's with the asian women wearing blast-shields? they've become very popular over on this side of the bay.

christian science monitor has an article on this "craze" but no explanation.

made the change to moveable type 3.11.

nicole's considering blogging. there are lots of knitting blogs and she's inspired. figured i'd get this all up-to-snuff before she delves in.

not 802.11 and not 88Mhz to 108Mhz FM... i'm using 75Mhz FM, now, thanks to the JR XS3.

i now own:

a traxxas e-maxx
a team losi mini-t
and my newest toy a traxxas revo

more later...

barney shakur (via memepool) reminds me that mr. rogers "sang" the guns and roses song "used to love her" pretty well.

what ever happened to the barney actimates? they seem like they could do the teddy ruxpin tricks even more convincingly.

see also:
Hacking Microsoft Barney
40 support.microsoft.com articles on barney
(including "ActiMates Barney: How to Play with Barney" and "ActiMates Barney doesn't Play Peekaboo when His Eyes are Covered"

in a messenger conversation with reeves about an rss reader he's trying that does favorites as an rss feed (and let's you access them from a toolbar), i got inspired and started rooting around trying to find something to fill the "syncronized favorites" void in my life.

it appears that others are looking for the same thing.

i looked at a pile of 'services' and decided against them on the basis that 90% had popups and the other 10% timed out...

i looked at sourceforge and uncovered sitebar. it looks like it'll serve my purpose well.

i imported an old (read unclean) bookmarks.htm from my work machines instance of ie. it renders nicely and after a reg hack to add a "sitebar" button to ie in lieu of the "favorites" star, i'm happy.

http://bengt.norum.org/sb/sitebar.php

by the time you read this, hopefully it won't be a mangy old list of outdated rc stuff. ;)

radrc turnbuckles and pushrods
lunsford racing products including pushrods, turnbuckles, hinge pins, rocker arm screws, pivot posts (for rockers), and pivot balls.
hardcore racing has Ti skidplates, rollbar/handles, bumpers, their 'mutant head', pillow balls, and rockers (in blue, green, silver or blue Ti).
appearantly, the standard t-maxx motor saver will fit, but given the clearance between flywheel and filter body, i'm not sure how comfortable i'd be with anything other than stock.
pro-line has introduced a 23mm heavy duty hex hub to accomodate their 40-series heavy duty velocity dish wheels. they've also finally produced extended body mounts to allow all those weirdos put the escalade body on their revos (huh!?). pro-lines most exciting news is the release of the crowd pleazer 2.0 body for the revo. they've also released one for the LST, MGT, TNX and another couple specifically for the hyper7 and mbx-5.

the big scoop here comes in the form of a random towerhobbies query. i'm sure others have seen it, i just haven't seen it reported. it would appear that trinity is releasing a .28 (for the revo?!)
MIP is coming out with their golden shock shafts, cvds (front, rear and center), clutchs, and a boost bottle for the revo.

i got a catalog in the mail, on saturday. it was filled with professional greeting cards, open house postcards, and a pile of other crap targetted at realtors. this isn't suprising, as the previous owner of this house is a realtor.

curious, i flipped through it and ran across a "happy birthday" card with a serene photo of a dinghy. i'm 99% sure that this is a boat that my late grandfather, henry "grubby" douglass built. the picture in the catalog is quite small (~1"x1") and the picture on their website is also tiny (127x176), but it really looks like the "grub tubs" that he built.

trying to find some better pictures, i located these , one of which shows at least one grub tub (foreground, white hull, blue interior, wood seats).

i also found a reference a two to my grandfather the most interesting of which is an excerpt from "multitudes: the unauthorized memoirs of sam smith":

During these years, Harry Parker set the sailing standard towards which I strove. So it was with alacrity that I accepted his invitation to crew in the New England men's sailing championships. Harry, Grubby Douglass and Gardner Brown -- the three best sailors I had ever known -- had won the Maine championship, but the New England races were in boats that required a four man crew.

the rec room in my grandparent's house in south freeport had trophies stashed in cabinets, but i can't remember what was engraved on them.

maybe i'll order a box of these horrible cards, just to see if it really is a grub tub. then again, maybe not.

so, i'm driving to work and the most amazing religious postcard scene breaks through the clouds. just as it does, ac/dc's 'who made who' reaches it's first crescendo. conclusion? angus young is god.

"i found god on the butt rock station."

mock-up of emoticon we're getting!

we'll be famous.

microsoft has a giving campaign once a year in which they encourage employees to donate time and money to charities. they match employees donations to tax-deductable organizations throughout the year, but make a concerted effort during the 'give' campaign and provide (albeit minor) incentives. banners in the hallways, placards on the tables in the cafeteria, email from executives, and reminders from managers are standard fare.

this year, ms sponsored a unique fund-raising activity. employees auctioned 'gifts' with the proceeds benefitting local charities. highest bid fetching items included tours of bill gates' house (guided by bill), a guitar jam session with jim allchin, and basketball with ballmer. there were a few hundred auctions in all, most not as high profile as the '...with an exec' ones. some of the most creative ones i saw:

• pick my hair color
• i'll be the president of your fan club (and send you fan mail)
• fly on my personal plane, anywhere within 2 hours of seattle
• music lessons, learn to improv
• day sail on my boat

...you get the idea.

the msn messenger client team put up an item of particular interest to me. "create the next msn messenger emoticon." the text of the auction (paraphrased) said, "you're excited about messenger, etc etc. work with our developer to put the only new emoticon in the v7 client."

so, i sent mail to a fairly wide swath of co-workers soliciting contributions to get a goat into the client.

there's an inside joke at hotmail about the "hotmail grumpy goat." a number of years ago (5?), a goat was drawn on a whiteboard in the ops office with the old hotmail logo (the red "stamp" one) painted on it's side.

anyway, we've had a perennial battle to get a goat emoticon into the messenger client. we got close with the sheep, but never more than custom emoticons for the goat.

i managed to round up $1435 and we'll have a goat in the new client! with the 11th highest bid fetching auction, i'm suprised at how much people were willing to pitch in on this.

when the final artwork is finished, i'll "leak" it here. i'll also figure out a $/pixel figure, as that'll assuredly be absurd.

buying halloween candy at the grocery store, last night, i noticed an almost entire aisle of candy canes. dept. stores and "christmas" stores, sure... start in july. but grocery stores?!

no wonder we have a hard time finding dried cherries for thanksgiving.