Advanced Doodles

Back by popular demand, these doodles are back, mainly because of popular demand. If you do not understand who demanded these, it might comfort you to know that I don't either. I spent some time in the Google Docs area thinking of things to create with a computer and this is what I came up with. As for the title, I was thinking that I have somewhat improved from when I first started drawing things on Google Docs. Some of you may disagree, that is okay. I might jump on your bandwagon later, leave room for me. Anyway, here are the latest creations by me:

So you have seen my various doodles for this post. Now, if you wouldn't mind, would fill out this form that I have set up to ask about the doodles that I just created?

The Daumenator has drawn... your attention to the rest of this line

What's Rocket Mail? Well according to a survey of 1, that is the most asked question when it comes to the meaning of Rocket Mail. A Wikipedia article can tell you more about it than I can:

Rocket mail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the webmail service that became Yahoo! Mail, see Rocketmail.

The collection of philatelic material ("stamps") used for (and depicting) rocket mail is a specialist branch ofaerophilately known as astrophilately.

Rocket mail is the delivery of mail by rocket or missile. The rocket would land by deploying an internal parachute upon arrival. It has been attempted by various organizations in many different countries, with varying levels of success. It has never become widely seen as being a viable option for delivering mail, due to the cost of the schemes and numerous failures.

The SSM-N-8 Regulus cruise missilewas used for one attempt to deliver mail.

Pioneers

Friedrich Schmiedl launched the first rocket mail (V-7, Experimental Rocket 7) with 102 pieces of mail between Schöckl and St. Radegund, Austria. Schmiedl also launched rockets on 21 April 1931 from the Austrian town of Schöckl to Kaite Rinne with mail and a spectrograph. After the April flight, 79 specially printed postcards marked in German with "Flown in Instrument Rocket" bear stamps from the flights.^[1]

Gerhard Zucker experimented in the 1930s with powder rockets similar to fireworks. Between 1931 and 1933, he travelled throughout Germany displaying his rocket and claiming that it could be used to deliver mail. After moving to the United Kingdom, Zucker attempted to convince the General Post Office that postal delivery by rocket was viable. After initial demonstrations on the Sussex Downs in southern England, rockets were launched on 28 and 31 July 1934 over a 1600-metre flight path between the Hebridean islands of Harris and Scarp in Scotland. Around 1.07 m long with a diameter of 18 cm, the fuselage was packed with 1,200 envelopes.^[2] Unfortunately for Zucker both rockets exploded, though most of the smaller second cargo, which included survivors of the first, was saved.^[3][4]

Stephen Smith, a Secretary of the Indian Airmail Society, combined his work with his interest in rocketry. His first launch was on 30 September 1934, and he experimented with 270 more by 4 December 1944. 80 of these contained mail, and his achievements include the first successful rocket mail sent over a river and the first rocket to carry a parcel. The Oriental Fireworks Company supplied Smith with 16 rockets between 23 March 1935 and 29 June 1935. Between them, these "Silver Jubilee" flights carried over a thousand covers. In 1992 the Indian government issued a stamp to celebrate the centenary of Smith's birth, calling him "the originator of rocket mail in India".^[5][6]

United States Postal Service

The first successful delivery of mail by a rocket in the United States was made on 23 February 1936, when two rockets that were launched from the New Jersey shore of Greenwood Lake landed on the New York shore, some 300 metres away.^[7][8]

In 1959 the U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero assisted the Post Office Department, predecessor to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in its search for faster mail transportation with the only delivery of "Missile Mail". On 8 June 1959, Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile — its nuclear warhead having earlier been replaced by two Post Office Department mail containers — at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. Twenty-two minutes later, the missile struck its target. The Regulus cruise missile was launched with a pair of Aerojet-General 3KS-33,000 [3 sec duration, 33,000 lbf (150 kN) thrust] solid-propellant boosters. A turbojet engine sustained the long-range cruise flight after the boosters were dropped.

USS Barbero first day commemorative cover. The return address is thePostmaster General.

The USPS had officially established a branch post office on Barbero and delivered some 3000 pieces of mail to it before Barbero left Norfolk, Virginia. The mail consisted entirely of commemorative postal covers addressed to President of the United StatesDwight Eisenhower, other government officials, the Postmasters General of all members of the Universal Postal Union, and so on. They contained letters from United States Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield. Their postage (four cents domestic, eight cents international) had been cancelled "USS Barbero Jun 8 9.30am 1959" before the boat put to sea. In Mayport, the Regulus was opened and the mail forwarded to the post office in Jacksonville, Florida, for sorting and routing.

Upon witnessing the missile's landing, Summerfield stated, "This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation."^[9] Summerfield proclaimed the event to be "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world",^[10] and predicted that "before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."^[11]

Notwithstanding the Postmaster General's enthusiasm, in reality the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities. Experts believe that the cost of using missile mail could never be justified.^[12]

[edit]Russian submarine launches

Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has made a few experimental rocket mail launches from nuclear submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk toward western Russia, using now-surplus missiles.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]Reusable launch vehicles

Technologists like Robert Zubrin, of Mars Society fame, think that rocket mail, or at least ultra-elite business package delivery, may become commercially viable with the development of fully reusable launch systems, particularly single-stage to orbit vehicles. Such systems would allow package delivery anywhere in the world in 30–45 minutes. This idea has been forwarded by Zubrin and was the original business plan behind Pioneer Rocketplane (now Rocketplane Limited, Inc.), which he co-founded. Zubrin has since left the company, which is now focused on pursuing a somewhat more conventional space tourismstrategy. The potential of package delivery with reusable launch vehicles is discussed in Zubrin's book Entering Space.^[13]

On 3 December 2005, XCOR Aerospace flew its EZ-Rocket (a rocket-powered Long-EZ aircraft the company built as a demonstrator for its reusable rocket engines) from Mojave, California to California City, California, both in Kern County. Test pilot Dick Rutan made the flight which lasted about 9 minutes and carried US mail from the post office in Mojave to addresses in California City onboard. This was the first time that a manned, rocket-powered aircraft was used to carry US Mail.^[14]

Occurrences in popular culture

During the mid-1950s, "amateur" rocketeers flew a number of zinc dust / sulfur "micrograin" solid propellant mail-carrying rockets interstate, from California, across the Colorado River, and into Arizona. The postal covers were printed for each occasion, and franked at the nearest destination post office.

Mail is delivered by rocket in an early chapter of Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Specifically, Roger Mexico receives orders from A.C.H.T.U.N.G. this way.

Ethan Hunt's computerized sunglasses (for a mission briefing) are delivered by a missile with a ground-piercing spike on the nose, fired from a shoulder-mounted tube, at the start of the John Woo film Mission: Impossible II.

Bill Bryson mentions missile mail in his 2006 memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.

RocketMail was the name for one of the first major, free webmail services. For a brief time, RocketMail battled with Hotmail for the number-one spot among free webmail services. Yahoo! acquired RocketMail in 1997, and assimilated it into Yahoo! Mail, which is essentially the old RocketMail Webmail system.

See also

• XCOR EZ-Rocket delivered mail in 2005

Some of you may be disappointed in the sense that it is not as fast as email. I wish it was. I am expecting a package soon, I have high hopes for it, but I don't think Amazon® will ship it that way when they say, "Express Mail."

The Daumenator has looked it up

Bogarting the Microphone

I recently snuck onto a stage and spoke into the idle microphone that was located there. The stage had been empty for quite some time and most of the audience was gone or just there for any purpose other than what the original audience was there for. I know that sounded really confusing, but how else are you going to say that people were just standing around after the speech was over?

Anyway, I began to take ahold of the microphone's power. I asked for shout outs from my audience. None came, but I was the microphone guy. I would not be silenced. Should I have been? Definitely. I was abusing my privileges. I was asking for "holla's" and "woot woot's." They were all definitely uncalled for.

But then the worst in me appeared. I started beat boxing. Oh the shame in that! I tried mostly quick beats that I would set up for someone to start free-styling to, but no one took me up on that offer. In the end, I was a fool on a stage spitting on a microphone.

I have written several songs lately. They have been mostly theme songs for my pals. Recently, I have created a remix of a gospel song. I was inspired by the Kanye West and Jay-z song, "Otis," which is a remix of Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness." For this song, I have remixed a song by the Heavenly Gospel Singers called "Walk in the Light." WARNING: This is not good. This is just a product of being bored and having the app Garage Band with you. I planned on rapping to this, but no one wanted to collaborate with me. That project has been put on hold until further notice. But for now, I present to you: A Gospel Remix

Hey, don't say I didn't warn you. I told you it was going to be bad. I was messing around with beats and that is what I came up with. To make it up to you, however, I have decided to share with you my theme song. It has no words, but I like to get funky to it. It is one of my top played songs on iTunes, mainly because I left it on repeat, it is a short song, and I went to go to the bathroom and forgot I kept playing it over and over and over and over and over again. But for now, I present to you: My Theme Song

The Daumenator has written

Favorite Words of the Day Part 6

A continuation of the ever growing list of my favorite words that I have been given my Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day Email System:

• 8/9/11 Diluvial (duh-LOO-vee-ul):  of, relating to, or brought about by a flood
• 8/12/11 Fillip (FIL-up): 1) a) to strike by holding the nail of a finger against the ball of the thumb and then suddenly releasing it from that position. b) to make a filliping motion with. 2) to project quickly by or as if by a fillip: snap. 3) to urge on: stimulate
• 8/16/11 Defenestration (dee-fen-uh-STRAY-shun): 1) a throwing of a person or thing out of a window. 2) a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office)
• 8/17/11 Toplofty (TAHP-lawf-tee): very superior in air or altitude
• 8/18/11 Vaticination (vut-tiss-uh-NAY-shun): 1) prediction 2) the act of prophesying
• 9/6/11 Pelf (PELF): money, riches
• 9/10/11 Contumacious (kahn-too-MAY-shus): stubbornly disobedient: rebellious
• 9/15/11 Stridulate (STRIJ-uh-layt): to make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together special bodily structures - used especially of male insects (as crickets or grasshoppers)
• 9/17/11 Bioturbation (bye-oh-ter-BAY-shun): the restructuring of sedimentary deposits (as in lake or bottom or seabed) by moving organisms (as worms and burrowing clams)
• 9/18/11 Doughty (DOW-tee): marked by fearless resolution: valiant
• 9/21/11 Preprandial (pree-PRAN-dee-ul): of, relating to, or suitable for the time just before dinner
• 9/22/11 Ruction (RUK-shun): 1) a noisy fight. 2) disturbance, uproar
• 9/26/11 Baksheesh (BAK-sheesh): payment (as a tip or bribe) to expedite service
• 10/4/11 Annie Oakley (an-ee-OH-klee): a free ticket
• 10/7/11 Widdershins (WID-er-shinz): in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction: counterclockwise
• 10/11/11 Cockaigne (kah-KAYN): an imaginary land of great luxury and ease
• 10/16/11 Bumbershoot (BUM-ber-shoot): umbrella
• 10/25/11 Pediculous (pih-DIK-yuh-lus): infested with lice: lousy
• 10/26/11 Jitney (JIT-nee): 1) a small bus that carries passengers over a regular route on a flexible schedule. 2) an unlicensed taxicab
• 10/31/11 Virga (VER-guh): wisps of precipitation evaporating before reaching the ground
• 11/9/11 Fey (FAY): 1) marked by a foreboding death or calamity. 2) a) marked by an otherworldly air or attitude. b) crazy. 3) a) excessively refined: precious. b) quaintly unconventional: campy
• 11/10/11 Ziggurat (ZIG-uh-rat): an ancient Mesopotamian temple tower consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top; also: a structure or object of similar form
• 11/14/11 Bamboozle (bam-BOO-zul): 1) to deceive by underhanded methods: dupe, hoodwink. 2) to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly or completely
• 11/15/11 Tramontane (truh-MAHN-tayn): 1) situated on the north side of the Alps: transalpine. 2) lying on or coming from the other side of a mountain range
• 11/16/11 Mountebank (MOUN-tih-bank): 1) a person who sells quack medicines from a platform. 2) a boastful unscrupulous pretender: charlatan
• 11/28/11 Coquetry (KOH-kuh-tree): a flirtatious act or attitude
• 11/30/11 Fascicle (FASS-ih-kul): 1) a small or slender bundle (as of pine needles or nerve fibers). 2) one of the divisions of a book published in parts
• 12/8/11 Wallaroo (wah-luh-ROO): 1) a large reddish-gray kangaroo (Macropus robustus) - alled also euro. 2) either of two kangaroos (Macropus antelopinus and Macropus bernardus) related to the wallaroo
• 12/9/11 Kibosh (KYE-bosh): something that serves as a check or stop
• 12/15/11 Conversazione (kahn-ver-saht-see-OH-nee): a meeting for conversation especially about art, literature, or science
• 12/17/11 Raillery (RAIL-uh-ree): 1) good-natured ridicule: banter. 2) jest
• 12/18/11 Kegler (KEG-ler): a person who bowls: bowler
• 12/20/11 Subterfuge (SUB-ter-fyooj): 1) deception by artificial or stratagem in order to conceal, escape, or evade. 2) a deceptive device or stratagem
• 12/23/11 Perquisite (PER-kwuh-zut): 1) a privilege or profit made in addition to regular pay. 2) gratuity, tip. 3) something held or claimed as an exclusive right or possession

Word I will most likely use out of all of these: Widdershins

Well, those were all the words of the last part of 2011 that are blog worthy. There were many good ones, especially many good one right in a row (which I found surprising (that doesn't usually happen)). There will be many more good words to come. Of that, I am most certain.

The Daumenator has spoken

Songs To Fight To

First of all, I am not saying to just play this song and then try to beat up everyone you see because I just told you to. That is not what I am trying to say here. I am clearly giving handy advice for anyone who is, let's say, shooting a film and needs to add some background music to a fight. THis fight could be in slow motion, which makes things seem even more fight-y and thought out. Anyway, here are my recommendations for fighting songs:


Creator by Santigold


This song has that, "I am going to fight you" feel to it, you know? I know I might be saying that for all of the songs, but that is the way it should be. Anyway, I picture a couple slow-motion punches and maybe some kicks to the face and someone falling down and then, miraculously, getting up and coming back from a losing battle.


This Song


I think that is all I need to say


Take On Me by Aha

Why not? This has some good techno parts to it that can get your feet up and moving. It is also a very upbeat song that has just a touch of danger to it. Plus, high pitched voices always adds tension to the fight that is taking place. Plus, in the music video, there is a sweet pipe wrench fight.


Riot Rhythm by Sleigh Bells


I approve of this band for all of my dangerous activities. Those include jaywalking, loitering, and ripping tags off of mattresses. The strong bass drums and the guitar-guy (Yes, that is his name in my imaginary world. As for the real world, his name can easily be looked up, but why ruin the majesty of a name like "guitar-guy?" There is a hyphen in his name; that is a true sign that he is so cool, dry ice gets the shivers when he is around.) make for good Tom Foolery.


Peanut Butter Jelly Time by Buckwheat Boyz


Yes; I chose this song! If you are shaking your head in disapproval, them shame on you. You should have realized long ago that this is my list. By that, I mean that it may not make any sense at all and it may be on the humorous side rather than actual songs to fight to. You must also consider the fact that I have never been in a fight in my life... yet. But if I were to be in a fight, this is what I would like to play in my head when I reminisce about it all. Anyway, I expect fast punches in this one, plus a couple slices of peanut butter jelly sandwiches and a baseball bat.


The Daumenator has spoken