Ms. Mae's

One of the most New Orleans of New Orleans bars is Ms. Mae's. Ms. Mae's is located at the corner of Magazine St. and Napoleon. Ms. Mae's used to be located down the street at what is now St. Joe's Bar. If you don't like the crowd just wait a few minutes and it will change: College kids, frat boys and sorority girls, bikers, neighborhood folks, senior citizens, professionals, and drinkers alike. It is one of the cheapest places to get a drink as well and is an awesome choice for Mardi Gras drinking as all the Uptown parades line up in front of it. Cash only though.

The reason for this story is here. Ms. Mae's was damaged in a fire last night. Hopefully it will reopen soon. Ms. Mae herself could often be spotted sitting at the bar in college, but I have not seen her in awhile.

Work is an amazing place

When meeting with a trade group that is a major source of soft money (grants!) is it okay when asked to talk about your work to reply "I am not sure what I am working on right now?". No? Are you sure? Hmmm my colleague must have missed the memo.

This really happened today. The boss kept prodding him and spoon feeding topics to him, in the end did most of the talking for him. I have only been here for a few months but was able to talk intelligently about my work on several topics for 15 minutes or so.

I did manage to get a tour of where I work, which was nice since I had never really been shown completely around.

John Force

I enjoy NHRA drag racing. From an engineering standpoint it is truly phenomenal. The idea of a Nitro-Methane powered Funny Car pumping 8000 horsepower out of an 8 cylinder engine is unbelievable. Undoubtedly the best Funny Car driver ever is John Force. John has won 14 national championships from 1990 through last year. He won the national championship every year from 1993 through 2003, he owned the winning team in 2004 and came back to win in 2006. This year has a new format for the points and although he had the worst start to a season he has ever had through the half way point, including the death of a team mate (Eric Medlen) from a wreck in practice he had worked himself into position to challenge for the championship again this year. He won his 2nd round elimination race yesterday before an accident caused his car to rip in two and shatter and tumble. John had surgery today for a compound ankle fracture, extremely dislocated wrist, and lacerated knee. He is standing already. He is likely out for the year, although he has inquired to his doctors as to what it would take to be back in the car in 2 weeks. The man is a machine, best of luck to he and his family.

View the crash here. Notice, the chunk of car they follow is not John, his front wheels and enjoy are what they follow, not realizing the rear wheels and John were left at the point of impact. The thought is the foam marker that Kenny Bernstein hit, went under John's car and exploded his tire at the same time his chutes deployed, ripping the car apart. Oh yeah, that is 300 MPH and John won.

Ramblings of a Government Worker

Boss is back after almost 2 weeks....damn. Off to a wonderful start. He ordered a new device and it did not come with instructions, whatever should we do? Apparently bring it to me and tell me to figure it out. Then, rather then ask me what I have been doing we had to schedule a meeting for tomorrow for me to tell him what I have been doing and what my plans are. I love scheduling meetings for stuff that we could just take care of on the spot.....c'est la vie.

I had to participate in a teleconference phone interview today for an attempt to hire a replacement employee for the old job. HR dumbed down all of the requirements and the list of candidates was woefully unqualified. Today's victim said he was very familar with Linux and used it for all of his work in one of his labs unless they had to modify a picture, then they had to switch to windows. Anyone who is fairly familiar with Linux should know about the GIMP. The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program and is one of the most popular Linux applications. There is a Windows version which I highly recommend. It is a great replacement for Adobe Photoshop and is free and Open Source.
Ok, I can forgive him for that (barely). The final straw was my asking if he understood what it was to accept a job and move to New Orleans right now (he is in the midwest). He said yes, he understood it would be hot. Ummmm, OK, what about the little Katrina thing down there? Cost of housing? Crime rate? Job located in a partial ghost-town? Nope! Just that it is hot!

Talk Like a Pirate

The day be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Pirate jokes and other booty may be found where X marks the spot, to assist in celebrating the day. A bottle of rum and a wench or two would be better.

On a Pirate related note, please examine the chart closely. I think Al Gore needs to be notified. I must attribute the chart to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Also, anyone who wants a new and interesting job should check this out. I think NASA might be a bit desperate for good publicity.

Chinese Food in Greenville

Another restaurant review from lovely Greenville, Mississippi. Tonight's special was Hunan Restaurant. There are a handful of Chinese restaurants in town and I thought I would try one tonight since after some very yummy Vietnamese food at both Pho Tau Bay and Tan Dinh in New Orleans.
I am pretty sure the place has not been redecorated since the early 1980s. It was a stereotypical sea of red and a bit of gold asian motif everywhere with a giant oversize wristwatch on the wall (similar to one my sister had in bedroom in the early 80s).
The service was friendly but slow. The prices were a bit high for Chinese food but not out of line and the quantity was impressive so if you consider it two meals (maybe more) it was worth it. The quality was good, but not great. The fried rice was ok, soy sauce made it better. The Hunan Chicken was good but hardly spicy.

On the other hand I was finally able to get new tires for my truck today. Apparently 275/70R17 tires can be a bit tricky to find. The Goodyear Tire store in Greenville was quite friendly and got the job done in less then an hour. 4 new Goodyear Eagle GT II tires for less then $650. Score 1 for Greenville.

Just say no to K-Ville

If you watched the premier of the new Fox series K-Ville tonight I think you will agree with me that the rest of the episodes should not see the light of day. It was bad. Really bad. Words defy me bad. Forget the couple of idiot actors trying to do a "New Orleans accent", forget the bad geography, the idiotic escape by boat from "the docks" (where might one go? how would one get in a small boat at the Mississippi River docks?), forget the evil white "Dubois" family that owns the casinos and lives on a plantation, it is just bad. The 9th Ward is referred to throughout, including the Upper 9th, I guess trying to show the producers know something about the real New Orleans. The premise is just bad, especially the stereotypical white cop/black cop partner/buddy theme. Of course the black cop is a veteran cop who stayed through the storm and his partner left him during the storm. The white cop has a secret too, he is actually an escaped prisoner from OPP, but the cop he is partnered with does not mind when he finds out. The truly bad moment was when they referenced "neutral ground" but never explained what it was. Another truly stunningly bad moment was the reference to a "Gumbo party". Fox....listen to me.....KILL IT NOW!