Tag Archives: Spacely Sprockets

Itsy Bitsy Spider

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Phidippus audax the Jumping Spider

Phidippus audax the Jumping Spider

Today, the Perma Bear celebrated his 25th anniversary at Spacely Sprockets. The company sprung for a luncheon at Maggiano’s. Almost a dozen of us attended. Mrs. Bear was there too. They are going to Hawaii this summer. The last time that they went was in 2009, when I had to substitute for the Perma Bear and give his briefing. I mentioned this, because last week Jason, the IT guy, had come by and announced out of the blue that I had been in his dream the night before. Innocently, I asked him if there had been any sex in the dream. He made a face and said no. It turns out that his dream was about that briefing that I had given in 2009. Apparently, I had stupidly yelled at him that the overhead projector was not working, when in reality I had just neglected to turn it on. I hate it when I behave badly in other people’s subconscious. Can you really have reality in a dream? I don’t think that I have ever yelled at Jason and least of all at that briefing. All in all, it seems like a relatively inconsequential bit of emotional baggage to carry in one’s mind for all of these years. I wonder if I’ll haunt Jason’s dreams in the future.

In other news, the odometer in the Prius turned over 50,000 today and then Dan called to consult on problems with his car. It keeps stalling. He had just finished the end of school fashion show at Otis and was still rather pumped about that. In addition to his normal job of model wrangling, he also ran the fashion auction this year. The photo with this post is a portrait of an adult male Phidippus audax showing his iridescent chelicerae. Here is a much better photograph from Wiki.

I can’t resist it any longer. May the fourth be with you. It was new to me today.

Picked Last Again

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Neanderthals

Neanderthals

In string theory, all particles are vibrations on a tiny rubber band; physics is the harmonies on the string; chemistry is the melodies we play on vibrating strings; the universe is a symphony of strings, and the ‘Mind of God’ is cosmic music resonating in 11-dimensional hyperspace. – Michio Kaku

Thanks to Joanie and the misfortune of another of her friends, I got to hear Michio Kaku speak last night at Powell. Dr. Kaku is a theoretical physicist and co-founder of the string field theory. This is a branch of string theory, which seeks to explain and unify the four fundamental forces of nature, the strong force, the weak force, gravity and electromagnetism. His talk deviated from his physicist background and seemed more like a futurist’s speech. Kaku talked about the coming Internet of things, robots and other possible advances in science over the next fifty years. After his speech, the curated Q&A session gave him the opportunity to revisit his physicist background.

As uplifting as Michio Kaku’s talk last night was, life at Spacely Sprockets this morning again ground me back down to base reality. Our quarterly report was good, we sold lots of sprockets and my name finally made it onto the org chart. I should be happy about that last part, but I am not. Years ago, when I went out for little league, the initial session was a tryout. All the boys and we were all boys back then, practiced our hitting, fielding and throwing for the spectating little league’s coaches. After we had demonstrated our skills, we were lined up around the dirt at the outer edge of the infield and one-by-one the coaches took turns picking their teams. I was picked last. That was a humiliating start to my one-and-only little league season. Flash-forward to today. The org charts have been out on a public drive for some time. Those whose names were already on it have been lording this fact over those whose names were not. I suppose that I should be happy that I was eventually picked, but I’m not.

In other Sprocket news, Rene, Alice and Chris’s son wants to come work for Mr. Spacely. I will try to help him navigate the Byzantium Spacely bureaucracy. I cannot think of a person that I would be happier with replacing me. I looked at his resume and it is impressive, way more than mine was when I got hired.