harpojaeger.com

I am here and we have our seats.

I am going to the midnight showing of the new James Bond movie on Thursday night (technically Friday morning) at 12:01 AM with a friend from school. I am PUMPED! Apparently it is the shortest Bond film ever, which is pretty cool. I really like Daniel Craig, the new actor, and I like the direction they went with the last film. From what I hear, this one’s similar.
Craig really plays Bond like a character, rather than just trying to be more manly than Sean Connery (which is not possible) like every other actor before him did. This makes the movies a lot more interesting, and very refreshing, especially when you are, like myself, a total Bond fanatic (I had seen every movie by the time I was 12).

I think my proposal will be directed to the NASA Ames Research Center, as they handle the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and solar system exploration. The proposal has to be delivered via snail mail, so it will take me some time to draft a letter to send them. It also has to include detailed cost data and the like. I think I will do some research on the space shuttle and how cargo is stored and deployed so my letter at least appears well thought-out, even if it is a complete practical joke.
I am very excited to see what NASA does in response. As far as I can tell, I am not doing anything illegal, but they probably won’t be very happy.

We just observed a miniature pony in someone’s backyard on the way to school. We discussed the possibility of getting one. My sister wanted to trade our chickens for one (it is no secret that she rather dislikes them), but my father and I wanted to just get one. Or a goat. Except that a goat would just eat our yard, and house, probably.

OK, stop everything. In the car on the way home today, I discovered the name of a town/region in Massachusetts that triumphs all others. Ever. Even ones I don’t know about yet. There is a place somewhat east of Wilbraham called Dingley Dell. This is not only a ridiculous name, but it is in a Monty Python sketch.
I am going to go there sometime soon.
I am not sure what I will do when I get there, but whatever it is will be AWESOME.
I am also thinking of trying to get a mailing address or P.O. box there, just so I can have people send me things addressed to Dingley Dell, and I can put it on my return address.
This is one of the most exciting moments of my life.
The Exquisite Corpse page has gone live, found in the projects section. So far it has had a lot of success with the help of a bunch of my friends and family who have started a whole lot of poems. I am hoping that it continues to flourish and becomes self-sufficient. It is my plan not to contribute to it at all; I am interested in the idea of my creating something that is not ultimately owned by me. Although I’ve enabled it, I want it to be more of a medium for others than a demonstration of my skills.

I was on the phone with a friend who knows Providence and they recommended the Meeting Street Cafe. It turned out that we were around the corner from it, so we are there now, splitting a pastrami sandwich, soup, and coleslaw. There are also, as my friend said, huge cookies, which I think I will sample later.

We are on our way to Brandeis. Just a minute ago I asked my iPwn for directions from I-90E (where we are) to Brandeis, to determine which exit to use, and was surprised to find the total distance given as 517 miles. It turns out that the Maps application calculated the driving directions from the beginning of I-90E, which is in Erie, PA.

I got another email back from NASA in response to my second letter.

Dear Harpo:

Thank you for your inquiry to NASA of September 15, 2008.

Under Federal regulation, NASA is authorized to accept technical proposals for evaluation only under one of two conditions: a proposal must either be (1) submitted in response to a formal competitive solicitation; or (2) presented as an unsolicited proposal. The procedure for submitting an unsolicited proposal is described in a NASA guidebook located at http://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/hq/library/unSol-Prop.html. The concept you describe is not structured as an unsolicited proposal as defined by the guidebook. Therefore, as submitted, it cannot be accepted for review. These rules are primarily intended to protect patent rights and copyright privileges of inventors.

Also, included in the above Web site are the respective NASA Centers and their particular technical areas of responsibility under the section entitled, “NASA Research areas and addresses for submission.” Perhaps you can address your questions directly to the respective NASA Center for an expedited response. After you review that information, should you continue to believe that your proposal would be more appropriately aligned with an area of research associated with a particular NASA Center, please forward a valid unsolicited proposal directly to that Center. You are strongly encouraged to follow the instructions as outlined in the “Guidance for the Preparations and Submission of Unsolicited Proposals,” Web site so that NASA Center personnel can process and fairly review your proposal.

NASA hopes that this information will be helpful to you as you pursue your goals.
Your interest in NASA and America’s space program is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Public Communications
Public Services and Protocol Division
Office of Public Affairs

I followed the link, and the page contains a lot of dense legal terminology and concepts, so it will take me a little while to parse it all and get this moving. I do intend to follow through and submit the theory. Further updates as I progress.

Let me begin by drawing your attention to the second category in this post: “random”. That us exactly what this is; an explanation of sheer randomness.
I am on the train; we’ve just passed through Stamford CT. The train is rather crowded, at least compared to the trip here. This is probably because on the way here, I was starting at the beginning of the route, rather than the middle. But anyway, I jokingly said to the conductor “What’re the chances of me finding an empty seat around here?”, meaning a seat with no one else in the one adjacent. He pointed to an empty seat next to someone else, where I then sat down. Upon conversation, it turned out that the man I was sitting next to is a friend of S. Bear Bergman, the artist-in-residence from the NHC Summer Institute this summer, and, like Bear, performs several one-man shows about queer theory, culture, and history. His name is Peterson Toscano, and he has a pretty cool story behind how he got to be doing what he is. I would recommend checking out his website. We talked about tech, blogging, college, and other such things. I think I may get the administration of my school involved with his agent and have him come speak or perform.

There is a man here jumping rope at incredibly high velocity. I estimate his jump frequency to be about 5 Hz, giving an angular velocity of 10pi rad/s. If the jumprope has a radius of about 4 feet, this gives a tangential velocity of about 125.663 ft/s. That’s pretty fast.