This is the general announcements item - the first of several 
announcement items.  Later items are more specific - announcements 
about Grex, Grex system problems, why you're happy, why you're 
bummed, etc. 

If you have something general to announce to Grexers, this is the 
place to put it!

335 responses total.

Okay here's my announcement. I've decided that if i don't find a job within
the next 4 weeks that i'm going to go back to school. I've decided to further
what i already know on culinary arts. I figured that since i already know alot
about culinary arts that i might as well further what i already know and
hopefully get a really good job that way.

I got a flyer at the Saturday Farmers' Market which announced that 
Wooden Spoon Books is liquidating (again.)  All books $2 or less.
The effort to keep the store going as a cooperative did not work out.

Awww....

We had an interesting time last night:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mconger/raccoons.html

Cool page Mark.

(There are better ways to wrap HTML text around pictures though - use the
ALIGN=LEFT flag in the <IMG> tag and possibly a <BR CLEAR=LEFT> a while
later.  See http://www.unixpapa.com/burn/ for example.)

I liked the way the flash reflected in their eyes.  Especially in the 
first pic.  LOOK OUT, IT'S THE MUTANT RACOONS!

(it sounds like maryeliz is ready to make the same decision I did a
couple of weeks ago.  good for her!)

<remmers zaps the raccoon monsters with his annointed flail>

Oops, I've been playing too much Wizardry.  :)

Nice pictures, Mark.

Thanks for the tip, Jan.  I modified the page to make it look better, and
put up Version 1.1.

I thought the page was cute, too.  :)

Fun stuff.  Especially when it's your neighbor's attic. ;-)

Indeed. :)

Especially when it's somebody's house far away.

I had raccoons living in my chimney for a while.  This was Not Good.  I
finally had to hire somebody to send my raccoons away in a barred cage
to Jackson.

This response has been erased.

Well, um, there's the wicker kind, the wire kind, the chain link kind,
the expanded metal mesh kind, the perforated plastic kind, the ceramic
kind, ...

we had raccoons living in our attic for several years.  eventually we
convinced our landlord (AA Realty) to do something about it, and they went
away.  I don't know what was actually done about it. . .

I imagine it was some sort of protection racket.  Your landlord just knew who
to pay off.

What do raccoons do in Jackson.  One time when we were at the vegetable
gardens behind the Lutheran Church on Liberty Rd., we watched someone get out
of a car with a caged raccoon and release it.  Kind of them to supply it with
a steady diet of fresh vegetables.  

For those of you who know Evan Corcoran (login: cme), this is from his
brother:

Hello all,

 I'm writing to let you know that Evan had a serious bicycle-car accident
last Wednesday night at 1am.( 18.June). while bicycling home from work with
a friend, an SUV collided with the two of them at a roundabout.  The friend
was knocked off his bicycle and Evan was knocked out when he collided
head-on with the side of the SUV.  He has a broken right collarbone
(clavicle), some stitches on his right arm, thwacked his head, and is
generally beaten up.  He's doing well considering the seriousness of the
accident, and is at home resting.  He could use your thoughts and contact.
All previous plans (including climing Mt. Rainier) are on indefinite hold.
The doc said he would probably heal fine, although there is nothing they can
do to set clavicles properly in place.  The doc suggested an 8-12 week
healing time for this.  So he'll be out of circulation for awhile.  On the
bright side he may end up ambidexterous since he has to use his left for
everything now.

Don't know him, but as bikers, we sympathize.  I have always steered clear
of cars but Jim got hit by one, and a small truck drove over him and then
backed up over him (he was not hurt, somehow).  Cars tend not to look at
anything smaller than they are, but how can you miss TWO?  I hope the driver
lost their license.  Best wishes for a relatively painless recovery.

Wow.  I'm glad it wasn't worse.  I didn't know Evan well, but please pass on
my best wishes.

cool page ...
  
 http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mconger/raccoons.html
  
no pics! newtscape 4.79 os 9.2.2 javascript on, java off
?????

Looks like Netscape has a problem with filenames that have spaces in them.
Try it again - I changed the filenames.

Re #4: Daww.  Baby raccoons are so cute. :>

Re #24: Technically, I think you have to escape spaces in URLs by
replacing them with "%20".  Most of the time you can get away with not
doing that, but not always.

I spoke to Evan last night.  He's not in a lot of pain, but does feel a bit
dull in the head.  I think his spirit is a bit broken as well.  I'll pass the
good wishes along when I speak to him next.

did anyone notice a news article on cnn.com titled
"Apple: New Macs world's fastest PCs"???

A few years back, I was verbally beaten up by some
of my geek friends for refering to an apple as a PC.

This response has been erased.

Re #20:  Geez, sorry to hear about the accident.  Best wishes to Evan
for a speedy recovery.

This response has been erased.

Re #21 re #20:
    Was the bike properly equipped with reflectors or lights?

I've broken my right collar bone too.  It's 3 months of annoyance, but
shouldn't leave any lasting signs (except for probably a crooked
collarbone with interesting "bumps").  At least in my case, it was never
very painful, the annoyance is mainly in terms of keeping things roughly
lined up and stationary while they knit up, then in getting the shoulder
joint to loosen up afterwards.  About the only thing the doctors are
good for is to give you a sort of shoulder harness that is supposed to
help keep things stretched out so they heal right, which is only
moderately helpful.

This response has been erased.

Did he lose any teeth?

Thanks for all the info and well wishes, I'll pass those along.

RE#31 -- I don't know about lights or reflectors, but given he's a fairly
hardcore biker, and his brother is a totally hardcore biker (coast to coast
a couple years ago) I'm fairly certain teh bike was properly equipped.

RE#34 -- No, he kept all his teeth

That's good. What a bummer.

i think i lost my pimp juice.

The web site that allows you to register your phone number
on the national "Do Not Call" list is up.  It's at:

http://www.donotcall.gov

(And probably overwhelmed. :)

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss