All week I have been looking forward to the launch of AMC-14, the newest satellite to be used by Dish Network to deliver more HD content. The launch went off with no problems, but the second burn did not go well.

AMC-14 has been lost. It never made the intended orbit. No word on if it actually went “blooey” or not, but it doesn’t appear to be recoverable.

This sucks, my friend.

Yes. I am really this big of a geek.

It appears that I have been tagged for something called a Meme. I am really unclear on the exact purpose of this exercise, but I suppose I shall oblige.

5 Quirky things about me:

1) I can’t burp. It’s horrid. I make this odd gurgling sound that sounds like I’m about to heave. Actually, I can burp, but not reliably. It’s also not predictable. I never know when I am going to burp until it is over. This rules out a physiological reason for my inability to burp I suppose, but it doesn’t make my life any easier.

2) I hate…absolutely despise … the sound of someone else using nail clippers. I can bear my own clipping, but hearing someone else clip their nails (toe or finger, I don’t discriminate) drives me batty. Something about the sound. It makes an odd high pitched crunching sound that i’m sure only me and the dog can hear. This leads me to number…

3) I can tell when a tube (CRT) TV is on anywhere within about 100 yards. This includes through walls. Tube TVs emit a VERY high pitched sound when they are on. Some are worse than others. I used to be able to sit in my living room with music playing and hear Ann turn on the TV in our bedroom. It doesn’t make me batty like the nail clipper thing.

4) I once sang in front of several thousand people. This is freaking embarrassing… So I was 3 years old and we were at a singing at the Goose Pond colony (which I think is like a park or something.. may even be a state park). We were there because a group from our church was singing later in the day. The Emcee walks up to the mic and asks the question “So who is going to start us off?” Before my parents knew what to do, I was on stage and asking for my piano player (she promptly responded and played the song I had sang in church before). Rumor has it that I rocked the house, for a 3 year old. I don’t actually remember doing it, but I can promise you I will never be allowed to forget it. 23 years later and this still comes up routinely at family gatherings.

5) I have used the word bloviate, correctly, in a sentence that had absolutely nothing to do with Bill O’Reilly. I used it in a letter to the editor of the paper from my alma mater. She didn’t know what the word meant. I was not surprised.

So I got tagged for this, and I must pass it along. Josh Hill and Grant English… you’re it!

Your Friday Funk: