Tagged! Ragged! Bagged! But not Shagged...

[altivo]

Since I can't say no to a zebra.



1.Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.
[She is sometimes called Phoebe (as] Apollo is Phoebus), though the name Phoebe is originally that of their Titan [grandmother, mother of Leto.]

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you reach?
HP flat bed scanner, clock set for UTC/GMT, and a digital book reader.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Actual broadcast or cable TV? No idea. That would have been so long ago that I couldn't possibly remember. (No, we're not concerned about the stupid digital conversion deadline.)

4. Without looking, guess what time it is:
06:35

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?
06:38

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Water bubbling in the aquarium next to my desk. Hum of the desuperheater recovering excess energy from the heat pump and putting it into the hot water tank. (We use a geothermal heat pump system.)

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
20:30 yesterday, arriving home from work.

8. Before you started this survey,
I was trying to catch up on LJ posts I've missed in the last couple of days.

9. What are you wearing?
Gray sweatpants, lavender sweatshirt with a golden pegasus embroidered on it, and blue socks.

10. Did you dream last night?
Yes, but nothing significant.

11. When did you last laugh?
Yesterday several times.

12. What are on the walls of the room you are in?
Bookcases; a selection of QSL cards; a framed poster from the silent film The Thief of Baghdad showing Douglas Fairbanks riding a flying horse; another framed poster of the 60s comic book character The Black Knight who also rode a flying horse; analog clock; framed cross stitch done by my mother; small bulletin board with a calendar and junk on it; some framed amateur radio award certificates; and some smaller framed furry art prints.

13. Seen anything weird lately?
I see weird things every day. They're called library users.

14. What do you think of this quiz?
Sort of run of the mill as these things go.

15. What is the last film you saw?
In the theatre or on DVD? Last theatre film was Wall-E I'm pretty sure. Last DVD film was Bravestarr: the Legend.

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
Good question. What's worth buying today? I'd probably give a fair amount of money away, but every gift would have strings attached as to how it could be used. After all, multi-millionaires can afford sharp lawyers, right?

17. Tell me something about you that I don't know about
I once attended theological seminary and thought I was going to become a priest?

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Firearms and explosive weapons no longer function. At all. Ever again. None of them. Nowhere.

19. Do you like to dance?
Not particularly.

20. George Bush:
Obscene language has no place in a meme.

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Moot question. I will not bring children into this world.

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
See previous answer.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
I've thought about Canada many times, though of late they seem to be just as messed up as the US.

24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
I'd expect him to apologize profusely for doing such a lousy job, and I do mean lousy.

25.Tag six people who might also do this in THEIR journal:
Nope. I don't tag anyone. If you read this and feel like doing it, be my guest.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

2. Why is your clock set to GMT?
17. I never would have guessed in my wildest dreams.
18. That's why the navy is developing rail gun technology.

I hope you have a good morning, and warm up. It's cold here too, and it's not fun to arrive home from.

By the way, how does your geothermal system work?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

2. Amateur radio activities are all scheduled and recorded in UTC. I have problems shifting time zones in my head (AU and NZ drive me batty) so I keep a little digital clock set to UTC. The nine inch analog clock on the wall, like a standard office or kitchen clock, has local time.

17. I've mentioned it in the past, but not recently. It was the church's loss, as far as I'm concerned (Anglican in fact) because they would have gotten a good deal, but in the end I'd have been miserable I think.

18. Doesn't that still involve explosives?

The geothermal system is more or less a standard heat pump. You know how refrigeration works, I'm sure. One end of the device is hot, the other is cold. A heat pump is reversible, allowing you to swap which end gets the heat. In milder climates, like the southern US, heat pumps are often used for cooling in summer and heating in winter. The problem is, thermal exchange with air on the waste heat or heat attracting end is inefficient. So the geothermal system uses ground water for the heat exchange. We have three wells put down near the house, and closed thermal conducting loops that carry an antifreeze solution descend down into the wells and back up. The temperature 100 feet down is a reliable 55F or so year round. So in summer the excess heat removed from the house is dumped into the ground and in winter we draw heat from down there and use it to heat the house. The difference in electrical consumption between this system and the conventional one it replaced is substantial, especially in summer when we are cooling. In winter it's not exactly warm and toasty. It will hold the house at around 65F and we use the woodstove to reach a more comfortable 70F or so.

We could probably improve that. The house was built in the mid-1970s, during the first US energy crisis. So it is well insulated and has thermal glass windows. However, the unheated crawl space underneath is a heat sink that could be improved by adding insulation. Also, the forced air ducts that circulate the conditioned air are not insulated, which was stupid, but will be a mess to correct. It would be worth it if we did it ourselves, but we don't like the idea of the effort. We're too lazy.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Nah. Rail guns use magenets to accelerate sabots to mach 2 and beyond. There are some rather depressing clips on YT about it. Still too big to be viable at the moment luckily.

I love the idea of the geothermal pump. It's such a simple idea, but sounds quite effective.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The two main problems with this type of geothermal system, other than the fact that most people insist on "toasty warm" in the winter and "ice cold" in the summer:

1. Installation costs are about double the cost of a conventional air-to-air system. I spent about ten thousand instead of five thousand, ten years ago. The system has now more than paid for itself in savings, but most people don't have that kind of long term appreciation. We've only had about three maintenance calls.

2. In this less temperate part of the country, it was really hard to find someone who even knew what we wanted, let alone could supply and install it. The installation team were brought up from Kentucky, IIRC.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Can anyone really resist a zebra? Of course in my case it was a deer but it's hard to resist either one of them. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Depends, I suppose, on what the deer or zebra are trying to do, no?

[soanos.livejournal.com]

*blushes*

No, I am not thinking about naughty things, nuh-uh. o.o

Tagged! Ragged! Bagged! But not Shagged...

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Hey... We are both married stallions so I am afraid shagging is out of question... :)

And I didn't know I am that resistable. :)

6. Geothermal is a practical and cheap heating solution, yes. Glad to see some sensible horsies. ^^

9. I like your outfit. I am wearing gray sweatpants, too, with Atlanta 1996-logo on the left leg. And my zebra-striped bathrobe. And felt slippers. Kind of my standard outfit on a lazy day.

15. I have to say you have a good taste what it comes to DVD's ;) Still haven't had the chance to see Wall-E.

17. YOu might have done a good one, but then again, I can imagine you wouldn't have been happy long-term. And if you had, we would probably never have aquainted.

24. If you hold him down... I'll make sure he will remember the lesson for the rest of his life. :)

*nuzzles*

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Cool meme!

Ah Leto, I knew you well...

^.~

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not that Leto. This one was mother of Apollo and Artemis, not the Atreides duke. ;p

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I'd expect him to apologize profusely for doing such a lousy job, and I do mean lousy.

Maybe his reply would be something along these lines: http://www.spamusement.com/index.php/comics/view/137 :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

If that's the best he can do, he deserves to be beaten up. Though I rather like the way Philip Pullman described it in his Dark Materials series. He described an ongoing war in the heavens, with angels and archangels taking sides and a big fight over a sort of coup. God himself was senile and helpless, living in a glass box that was carried about by angel servants. In the end, when the box was broken open by well meaning characters who wanted to "let God out before he suffocates" the touch of fresh air caused God to crumble into dust and ashes. ;p

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Okay, let me help him get some fresh air... *evil grin*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Would you believe that time you answered was almost correct at the time of me reading this O.O