Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Asymptomatic Backlog
January 22, 2003

I was considering the number of articles that I have posted on the site so far this year when it ocurred to me that I really have been doing this for a long time.  Maybe not as consistently in the past as I do now, but I certainly have a lot of material archived.

So I went back to take a look at the database from the second incarnation of Asymptomatic.  There aren't really a whole lot of records there (I wasn't on the NT platform for very long, and it didn't work very well when I was), but there are some significant entries.  For example, everything that I've written for Sundown is in that archived database.  That amounts to pages and pages of content.

Morimoto Trip
January 20, 2003

On Friday, a bunch of us went to Morimoto, the restaurant of  Masaharu Morimoto, the Japanese chef of Iron Chef fame.  Berta, Adam, Dave, Jen and I took off right after work to visit the restaurant in Philly.  Thanks to Adam for upping his original reservation to include Berta and me.

It turns out that like many good places to hang out, Morimoto is a hole in the Philadelphia facade.  Amongst graphitti-riddled garage doors and tattoo parlors isn't where I expected to find this upscale restaurant, but it wasn't unusual amongst many of the more chic places we have dined.

Racial Bias
January 16, 2003

Ever more these days I feel a growing trend toward conservatism that chills me.  As scary as the potential of a baseless war is, I don't think Bush can do too much to devalue our image in the world community simply because everyone already hates americans.

On the other hand, Bush seems to want to involve himself in any issue that can get him re-elected or put his name in the history books for future generations to read.  In his recent ponderings about upcoming supreme court cases, he seems to be trying to appear as if he is taking a side on the issue yet walking the middle line.  This particular topic, race bias on college admission, is one that I can't fathom needing a discussion.

Pinochle Challenge
January 15, 2003

This isn't exactly what it sounds like.  A co-worker thought that this might be an interesting puzzle to solve.  Monthly, he plays pinochle with a bunch of other couples.  Recently his group size increased by one more couple, giving them a total of 14 couples.  Prior to now, they had a schedule for games using only 12 partner pairs, but they need a new game schedule to include the new players.  Since there are only 3 tables in the setup, only three pairs of partners can play at once, leaving two people on the sidelines.

Here is the challenge, in a nutshell: