Author: Rob

  • How Madoff did it? Cake futures.

    So by now, everyone knows about Bernie Madoff, the most successful con man in history. His Ponzi scheme has left countless investors bankrupt as he stole about $65 billion dollars. Billion. So just how in the world Madoff made off with all your money? He’s a child and so are we. Here’s the perfect analogy.

  • The pinnacle of achievment

    Fact: I invented brakes.  With my own two burly man-hands.  I climbed Mount Everest barefoot to forge brake pads in the lava pools of the mountain’s inner molten core. I drank fire and breathed madness in the heart of the abyss’s blazing belly.  And I made them for my woman. Translation: I replaced Sarah’s brake…

  • What is manhood?

    Julie posted a response to my review of Gran Torino and  I began writing a response.  But the comment became too big, so I turned it into a full post.  Let the discussion begin!

  • O great mystery

    Last week our choir sang Morten Lauridsen’s composition of O Magnum Mysterium. To say it was moving puts it lightly. It was ethereal.

  • The way men talk to each other

    Gran Torino is a fine film, but it’s as deeply flawed as some of its characters.  I can forgive its characters for their foibles, but not its filmmakers.

  • Star Wars according to Sarah

    … or at least probably how Sarah would summarize the original Star Wars trilogy.  Have a look, this is genius:

  • Bernstein’s Mass

    For my church choir’s annual Christmas concert two weeks ago, one of the solos was a piece from Bernstein’s Mass, titled “Hymn and Psalm: A Simple Song.”  It’s a very modern sounding song, not at all like traditional requiem masses.  At times, it was very dissonant and haunting, other times similar to big band Broadway. …

  • I have OCD… not the one you’re thinking

    I have OCD… not the one you’re thinking

    This one required some knee surgery.  Have a look…

  • Lamp repair project

    Lamp repair project

    My electronics inspection lamp died and I wasn’t sure why.  So I set out to fix it.  Check out the pictures below.  Click on them for fuller descriptions of each step. Full Project Gallery:

  • Aluminum trigonometry

    I ran into an interesting trigonometry problem a few weeks ago, when I was working on the cable pole installation.  The problem was simple enough: extend the pole such that the trash trucks wouldn’t snag it, thus ripping it down.  But the real question was: how tall must I extend it to get adequate clearance? …