It is time for me to make another foray into the world of RSS aggregators. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m happy to take them. My only requirement is that it absolutely must run under Linux.

I know you’re all waiting for pictures of me and the space shuttle, and I can assure you they’re coming, we just had a little media failure and are going to need some forensics assistance from the guy accross the hall to recover them. In the mean time, I have pictures from the wedding this past Sunday. Amonst them is one which may be my greatest photographic achievement ever. A disembodied American flag floats in front of Andrew as he gazes thoughtfully upward.

I honestly have no idea who is holding onto the flag, or if it is in freefall or what. Both of Andrew’s hand are visible, and yet neither are holding onto the American flag. Rebecca suggested that I was holding it, however I don’t remember ever holding an American flag, and I usually hold the camera with 2 hands.

update: All of the pictures from several photographers have been uploaded.

Shuttle launch pad

Space Shuttle Discovery

More details (and real pictures) when I have time.

Why is it that hotel gyms suck so much? And not just a little, but seriously suck. I don’t expect a full weight rack or a smith machine, but would a single barbell be too much to ask? I’ve even stayed in some really freaking fancy hotels in the past, but the gym always blows. Most of the time the gym in a hotel consists of a television, a water fountain, a treadmill and a matt. (The one here also has a decline bench for sit-ups, and that’s actually better than my last hotel in Alabama. Now I realize that excersie equipment isn’t high on a hotel’s priorities, but just a couple of barbells would make it so much better for so little space and money.

Now that I’ve moaned about hotel gyms, I come to my main purpose for posting – the Kosher Gym! Separate rooms for men and women (even separate hours since as we all know, women have ot get home earlier on Friday to make shabbat), childcare facilities, and tinted windows for aerobics and yoga classes are going on so members of the opposite sex can’t see in. They also have the following notice on the hours of operation page:

Note to men: We open at 6:00 AM to accommodate those who are unable to work out at any other time. It is important to note that according to the Mishnah Berurah, it is prohibited to participate in any other activity before davening . Therefore, we ask that you speak with a Rabbi before proceeding to work out before davening.

And oh yes, the kosher gym is about a million times better than even the best hotel gym I’ve ever seen, which belonged to the Marriott in Biscayne Bay which I mentioned a while ago.

Personal realization of the moment: I complain a lot when I travel don’t I?

So I had to fly to Hunstville AL today for work. This is the second time I’ve been here, and believe it or not it’s actually starting out worse than last time. I misread my ticket so I ended up getting to the airport at the wrong time and missing my flight entirely. That part was my fault, however government travelers are allowed a wide leeway, and within 15 minutes I had a new ticket booked on a later Delta flight thatc onnected through Atlanta. However when I arrived in Huntsville at 11:00PM (12:00AM EST), I found that my luggage had not.

Now for the record, when I travel to places like this I bring my food with me because I know I can’t find any kosher food here, and it was all in my checked bag. That means i have no food, no clothes, and a meeting in 9 hours. To make matters worse, the airport is actually closing in 30 minutes, and the next flight from Atlanta is coming in at 8AM, so even if my luggage is on it, it still means I’ll be going to my meetings in the same jeans and dirty shirt I’m wearing right now.

In summary, this means that after a long day instead of going straight to sleep like I was hoping to, I’m going to a Walmart super center at midnight to buy pants, a shirt, underwear, and granola bars. The kicker of course is that the prices were so low, I ended up buying two pairs of pants. (I actually needed a new pair anyway). I don’t know why, but for some reason I found this so ironic, that when I got back I had to blog about it immediately rather than go to sleep.

I was looking over the very funny parody site onlytzuras.com when I saw the ad which is to the right. At first I assumed it was a joke too (the real site, onlysimchas.com, has lots of ads for wedding related services), however then I clicked on the ad. Turns out it’s real. And no, they won’t insure you against a significant other who changes their mind at the last minute – they only insure against things like sudden illness, acts of god, catastrophies, etc.

I just discovered a relatively recent blog called Midnight in Iraq. It’s a US marine who has been deployed since the beginning of February. Now, how cool is he? Let’s see – he writes for the NY Times (alas I do not have Times Select so I can’t read his posts there), he modded his X-Box, and he has a long post about electrical power problems. As if that weren’t enough, he also writes about how he was tempted to buy women’s underwear, simply because it was such a good deal. Wow – I feel like I’ve known this guy forever….

This straddles the line between hilarious and sad. It gets funnier as it gets going, so read the second half too.

Dating Master, a new blog from a man who is less then satisfied with his marriage.
Dating Mistress, his wife’s blog once she discovers her husband’s blog. She has some hilarious comments.

My latest electronic toy is this: The Kanguru Bio Slider. It’s a 2 GB pendrive with a biometric fingerprint sensor. The data on the drive itself is encrypted, and can only be accessed with a valid fingerprint. I personally fell in love with pen drives the minute I first got one a few years ago. The main security concern with it though is that it’s easy to lose, and if you’re like me and keep everything important on it, you don’t necesarilly want that info falling into the wrong hands. You can also add up to ten fingerprints so that other people can access it.

When you plug in the drive, it first loads a CD-ROM drive as read only. This drive contains the fingerprint recognition software and authentication side of things, and only once a valid fingeprint has been swiped does the flash drive itself get mounted separately. I haven’t had a chance to try and hack it yet – if I do I’ll be sure to post the results.