August of 2004
August 7th, 2004
Back Soon
I’ve just spent a lovely week vacationing in Colorado, one of my favorite states. I got to climb a “fourteener” (nickname given to Colorado’s 54 mountain peaks that rise to over 14,000 feet), I got to go fishing at a beautiful high lake, and got to spend some good time with my family.
I’ll be returning soon, and will be posting pictures. It is really beautiful out here.
August 9th, 2004
Ow, My Back
I’m 21 years old, and I am in a lot of pain because I strained my back playing football. I’m guessing it doesn’t get any better from here on.
- Hey, you get the President in a revealing jump suit, we get John Kerry throwing a football (via QOAE.net)
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- Get a free iPod! Click here to get your free 20GB gen 4 iPod, Mini iPod, or $250 iTunes gift certificate!
August 12th, 2004
Guess Where
Kudos to the person who can identify the following location, where I took this picture of my mom and brother a few days ago. Here’s a hint: No, it’s not Tunisia.
August 13th, 2004
Hurricane!
So as of right now, Venice, Florida is in the path of a rather vigorous hurricane, codename “Stupid.” Actually, it is hurricane, codename “Charley,” but everone here is pretty sure that spelling “Charley” as such is majorly stupid.
Regardless, it is coming. I live about 30 feet from an intercoastal waterway, and my first floor is about 6 feet above sea level, so the 10-12 foot storm surge should be fun. I’m also looking forward to the 105+ MPH winds with gusts of 145+ MPH. Surprisingly, evacuation isn’t mandatory for my area, so I’m going to stick it out. A major hurricane hasn’t hit here since the 1960’s, so this is a new experience for me.
I might not be able to post for a few days, as the power will likely be out, but if my SideKick device works, I’ll try to post updates with that.
Chris Muir Interview
What with my vacation, I utterly missed this interview of cartoonist, Chris Muir, who authors the Day by Day strip you see featured on this site.
Mens News Daily Interview of Chris Muir
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Argh! Avast! Etc
September 19th is International “Talk Like a Pirate Day.” The Talk Like a Pirate Day website offers some pointers as to how you can best celebrate the day.
Here is an example from the pirate dictionary.
Bilge rat – The bilge is the lowest level of the ship. It’s loaded with ballast and slimy, reeking water. A bilge rat, then, is a rat that lives in the worst place on the ship. On TLAP Day – A lot of guy humor involves insulting your buddies to prove your friendship. It’s important that everyone understand you are smarter, more powerful and much luckier with the wenches than they are. Since bilge rat is a pretty dirty thing to call someone, by all means use it on your friends.
TLAP Day: Advanced Pirate Lingo
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So it begins…
Some time around 3am, the wind picked up, and the area was given a good drenching. I’ve completed my storm preparations, including getting the three cats (my cat Gavin, and the family’s cats Joey and Jessie) into the house. They’re currently sharing a bathroom. Joey and Gavin have become friends, and have been enjoying a spirited game of hide-and-go-seek in the bathtub and on the toilet. Jessie has been sitting in the sink growling, hissing, and scratching at me and the both of them. It’s because she’s a girl, and she feels unwelcome in our “boys only” club.
The wind has died back down… I expect it to pick up as the morning progresses.
Updates forthcoming as long as electricity or cellular data signal allow it.
Deer in Headlights
This sounds promising.
As we head closer to dinner time, Charley will be approaching the southwest Florida coast with winds forecast to be near 120 mph which would make Charley a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The brunt of the storm is still forecast to be between the cities of Tampa and Ft. Myers although latest indications pinpoint landfall just south of Tampa closer to the Sarasota and Venice areas. Charley will definitely have a large (possibly deadly) storm surge factor, dangerous winds, and more heavy tropical rains.
Just in case you didn’t know… I live exactly inbetween Sarasota and Venice. 
The Calm Before the Fury
It is eerily calm outside.
A gentle 6 mph wind is caressing the trees.
Perhaps I’ll take a bath!
Farewell, random pile of broken-up cement.
Future site of the Jaquith Underwater Observatory.
VH1 has nothing on me. I’m the one who is really saving the music.
Somehow I doubt “the kids” are going to make it, either.
Appologies for my cheap attempts at humor. It’s how I deal with this tense period of anticipation.
Hurricane History
HurricaneCity.com has some info on the Sarasota area’s hurricane past. Apparently, statistically, we get a major hurricane once every 26.60 years, and because we haven’t been hit directly since 1960, we’re due.
Category 3
Hurricane Charley is now a category 3 hurricane, with winds near the center of 125 MPH. Hurricane force winds are extending 30 miles from the center, which right now looks like it is going to hit a little bit south of where it was expected, likely the Port Charlotte/Ft. Myers area. It is raining very lightly up here.
Category 4
Joy! Charley is now a category 4 hurricane, with gusts of up to 160 MPH, and sustained winds of 125 MPH. It’s looking like Charlotte Harbor is going to get hit worst of all, but it’ll still probably feel like a category 3 hurricane up here, (not even 25 miles north).
Hurricane Bloggers
Just thought I’d throw out a few links to the other Florida bloggers covering the hurricane.
WeatherBug
HatcherShack
Sticks of Fire
Nick’s Big Adventure
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Interstate4Jamming
Side Salad
The Unstoppable Girlie
Crazy Island
My Single Mom Life
DeCloah Blog
And Glenn Reynolds isn’t in Florida, but he’s been linking to a few Florida bloggers, so watch there for more links.
Did I miss anyone? Leave a comment if you know of any other Florida bloggers covering the storm.
Weather Plugin
So I installed a weather plugin. You can see it over at the side. Although right now I’m not sure what’s up with it. It certainly isn’t sunny. A few minutes ago it showed it as raining lightly, and that was correct. Maybe they’re having problems at the local NOAA center.
Edit: weather.noaa.gov is showing the same info… that’s it’s clear at Sarasota Airport. Could be… the airport is about 22 miles away.
Edit 2: Now it looks right.
About that time
Winds are picking up… Ft Meyers is getting hammered as we speak, so there are going to be tornadoes in this area faily soon. So I’m turning off the computer and moving to a more secure location within the house. Cellular data signal is still good, so I’ll update as long as I can via my SideKick.
The Waiting Game
The wind has been gradually intensifying, with an occasional gust. The lights have flickered a few times, but power remains on so far. Every time the wind picks up, I think “this is it…” But still, it remains relatively tame. Shouldn’t be more than a few hours before it really hits the fan, though.
NOAA, where are you?
Right in the middle of a NOAA weather radio broadcast warning about tornadoes, the channel went to static. That was about half an hour ago, and it hasn’t yet returned to the air.
I’m getting some nasty feeder bands right now… It’ll get real calm, and then the wind will pick up suddenly and gust with an awful howling noise (a lot like the noise a tornado makes). It’ll last for 30 to 120 seconds and then die back down.
And That’s All
I guess that’s it. Charley passed a few miles to the east, and things didn’t really get any worse. Mercifully, we were mostly spared.
I’m interested to see how badly Charlotte harbor got hit. I’m getting reports that a shelter caved in somewhere down that way, but I’ll bet that’s not the half of it.
- I love happy endings
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August 14th, 2004
Internet Boost
Good news for Cox Cable subscribers. The basic high speed internet tier ($39.95, bundled) will be boosted to 4.0 Mbps downstream and 512 Kbps upstream. The Premier tier ($54.95, bundled) will be 5.0 Mbps downstream and 768 Kbps upstream. Wow.
I’ve been begging them for this for quite a while. Mostly, it was the slow (256 Kbps) upload that irked me.
The only bad news is that while most Cox-served areas have already been upgraded, Gainesville, FL will not see the upgrade until sometime later this year, because of a difference in underlying systems. Regardless, it’s coming, and I’m excited.
Cox also offers a value level of 256 Kbps upstream and downstream for $24.95 a month (no need to have cable TV service).
Update: A local Cox representative told me he thinks the speed upgrade would be complete in six weeks for the Gainesville area.
Mobile Homes
A story is on the local news that the residents of a trailer park in Punta Gorda, FL did not evacuate their homes (even though they were ordered to do so, 24 hours in advance.) The report is that 60 body bags were brought out, and that it wasn’t going to be enough. 
Preliminary damage estimates are saying that Charley has caused more damage than Andrew did in 1992.
August 17th, 2004
Moving In
Hurricane Charley really put a damper in my moving plans.
Yes, I realize that it is a bit insensitive to be concerned with something like that, especially since until about 2 hours before Charley made landfall, it was headed right for me, but regardless, I wasn’t able to move back up to Gainesville on Saturday as I had planned.
I moved up on Sunday, but wasn’t in my apartment until Monday. Apparently someone in the office lost the keys to my apartment, so they had to drill out the locks. My mail, which I had forwarded is in Jacksonville… I’ve never understood why mail has to travel hundreds of miles to arrive in the same town as it originated. But this doesn’t matter, because they lost my keys, remember? So now I have to wait several days for the USPS to change the lock on the mailbox. Cable/internet is scheduled to be turned on Thursday. The good news is that my water, electricity, and gas was already turned on.
I’ve yet to move all my stuff in. Mostly because I’ve been busy assembling furniture for myself and for “the Sarahs” (my girlfriend, Sarah, and her friend Sarah, who actually live two doors down by a freak accident.)
My apartment is quite nice. I got upgraded to wood floors free of charge, and they are in relatively decent shape. It is a corner apartment, and is much roomier than some of the others. I have a ton of closet space, which means I can hang a lot of stuff up (also good because I’m noticibly lacking a dresser at the moment). Gavin (cat) seems to be adjusting. New places worry him, so he’s stil not completely comfortable. But at least now he’s not running every time the air conditioning turns on (he’s a bit of a wiener.)
In case you were wondering how I am writing this, without internet, and without phone service, and with my SideKick’s battery being dead, several of my neighbors have unsecured wireless access points. So this blog entry is brought to you in part by “Angel,” or the person who labeled their WAP “Angel.” Nods also go out to “Linksys” and “Partners” who contribute signals in some corners of my apartment.
There are a few things with which I am not too happy. For one, my shower takes literally 24 hours to drain from just one shower. I’m going to need a weapon of Draino destruction here. My bathroom faucet is also rather… sketchy. But these are easily fixable.
The Sarahs are making dinner. Something with chicken and Italian salad dressing. The meat, milk, cheese, bread, butter, mayonaise, ground beef, and other assorted “man foods” that I bought are safe for tonight.
- Dean Esmay offers some sound advice for dieters: "What's the big deal? Do what works for you."
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August 18th, 2004
Irony Remembered
I was recently reminded of something I did a few months ago that struck me as quite ironic, and rather amusing.
At the time, I had a mosquito bite that itched like straw underwear. “There, on the table,” offered Sarah, for on the coffee table in front of me was a tube of prescription strength Cortizone cream. “Thanks!” I replied, reaching for the tube. Noting that the tube had a rather sharp corner at the bottom, I proceeded to scratch the mosquito bite with the tube.
“Hey, this stuff really works!”
“…did you seriously just scratch your itch with a tube of anti-itch cream?”
“Sure… why not?”
“You astound me.”
Thanks for SHARING!
Oy Vey. The King of Fools may be a typical conservative Christian with regard to his love for his family, his faith, and his political beliefs. But never let it be said that he’s uptight in the bedroom.
Here’s an excerpt from KoF’s commentary on Jollyblogger’s “Purpose Driven Sex.”
… inside of marriage I am a firm believer in rabbit-like behavior. Please your partner completely and let them please you. Often.
And this from a man who has was invited to give a guest sermon at a church. 
David’s introductory post is good stuff but it is somewhat unsatisfying. I can’t wait for
the climaxPart II.
Oh behave.
In all seriousness, however, his words bring great hope to everyone who has heard things like “after the honeymoon, Joe and I never really had much time for sex.”
WordPress Smilies
WordPress has built-in functionality to automatically create smiley face images (emoticons, if you will) for both entries and for comments. It just occurred to me that I probably only know the text equivilents for three or four of them. Here’s the entire list. I got this list by looking at the code of /wp-includes/vars.php.
:) :-) and :smile: produce 
:D :-D and :grin: produce
:( :-( and :sad: produce
:o :-o and :eek: produce
8O 8-O and :shock: produce 
:? :-? and :???: produce 
8) 8-) and :cool: produce 
:lol: produces 
:x :-x and :mad: produce 
:P :-P and :razz: produce 
:oops: produces 
:cry: produces 
:evil: produces 
:twisted: produces 
:roll: produces 
;) ;-) and :wink: produce 
:!: produces 
:idea: produces 
:arrow: produces 
:| :-| and :neutral: produce 
:mrgreen: produces 
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- A friend asked what title Bill Gates holds, and my search for the correct answer turned up this hilarious gem
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August 21st, 2004
Oldest Church in the U.S.
While on vacation, I got to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a lively town, brimming with culture and history. Pictured is the oldest church in America, the San Miguel Chapel, built in 1610.
August 22nd, 2004
Wheelchairs XP
While browsing my girlfriend’s laptop, I came across this.
I must have done this a long time ago and forgotten.