What is it about me that causes electonics to die a premature death? Do I radiate an aura that burns out circuit boards? I swear, some electonics will last for years, and yet others die ignominously. Is it in my mind, or do I have some useless Jubilee-type mutant power?

Our Uniden phones that are getting crappier each day.

Back in March 2008, just before Lily was born, we purchased new Uniden DECT 6.0 phones (4 of them.) We were now in a larger house, and needed more phones in more places, within arm’s reach.  The old Motorola phones used to work, until Josh threw one into a filled bathtub.  These Uniden phones were pretty good at the time. You could listen to messages from any phone, you could label each phone with a location, and then page someone in another room, and a good speakerphone to use when I’m working from home.

During the past 2 months, the usefulness of each phone is decreasing. It started with our master bedroom phone, and is spreading to the others. During various stages of a call, the phones lose their connection to the base unit. The phone call doesn’t disconnect, but you have to wait for the phone to initialize, find the base unit, and hit the call button again. Finally, you have to explain to someone where you went for 30 seconds. It’s not good. Why is this happening? Only our kitchen and living room phones are  operating properly at the moment. Very frustrating.

I’ve started researching new phones from Panasonic and other manufacturers, but I’m not impressed with what I’m finding. Isn’t it the year 2010? We have fiber optic coming into the house, and VOIP phones in our offices. Why aren’t there cool cordless home phones out there that everyone likes? Our cell phones are so advanced, but cordless phones are stuck in some sort of time warp of the early 2000′s.

The hunt goes on. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment with your recommendations.

Joe Kittinger set the record for the highest jump in 1960, when he dropped from a helium balloon at an altitude of 31 kilometers.

I have never heard of Felix Baumgartner.  Have you? He’s apparently crazy. Crazy like a fox crazy? I’m not so sure. Mr. Felix Baumgartner plans to ride a pressurized capsule connected to a helium balloon, to the height of 36,575 kilometers (equivalent to 22 miles), and jump out. Can you imagine that? Attempting to go faster than sound, with nothing between you and the atmosphere, except a suit and mask?

Why the suit and mask? I read original the article over at New Scientist. In order to reach supersonic speeds in freefall, a diver has to start at a very high altitude of over 31 kilometers. At that altitude, without a pressurized suit and mask/helmet, the atmospheric pressure will cause the gases in your blood to boil out. That’s sick. What is the shock wave going to do to him?

I was wondering how this guy could afford all this. The hot helium balloon, the pressurized capsule, the practice flights, the wind tunnel test runs. Red Bull is sponsoring him. Geez, why am I not surprised?

I decided to look back to the one and only time that I went skydiving back on Aug 6 2004. For many, many years, I dreamed of going skydiving. Short of going into space, it was the ultimate type of event. After I did it, I felt good about it, but that was it for me. I got it out of my system. What is unexplainable is that I have no interest in doing it again. Strange, no? I didn’t have a bad experience, and I was only a little afraid while going up. I’m glad I finally did it.

Here’s the odd part. Still this day, I don’t know why I don’t feel a need to do it again. It was cool to do it, but freefall wasn’t this astounding experience. It was falling with the wind in your face. That’s probably what is holding me back. It was a cool thing to do, but it didn’t change my life. I’d do it again if Red Bull gave me money. Hell yeah!