On the Road:Update 4
While driving across the vast empty farmlands of Southern Illinois Thursday, I was wondering if Terry Schiavo’s parents are torturing their child’s body simply because they’re addicted to the attention. Once their daughter dies, the special interests, the politicians, the TV news programs, and everyone else will quit calling to ask them what they think of their daughter’s condition.
Driving without a reasonable radio station within 300 miles (two preacher sermon stations, two Country Music, and one Fox News simulcast) forces one to drive in silence and let the imagination do the walking.
We spent Wednesday evening in Nashville at Jean and Andy’s beautiful house just outside of Nashville. We drove around downtown for a bit and looked at the plethora of Country music-themed boot, hat, and clothing stores as well as the diaspora of music industry-related studios, stores, and venues. It really is a music town and I hope we can fly back sometime to see a concert or two at the Ryman auditorium.
Thursday night I almost drove our U-Haul into the mighty Mississippi when the truck hit a bad pothole driving over the bridge from East St. Louis. It was raining and the roads are in miserable, dangerous conditions, especially for a novice driving a nine ton truck. My fleeting thoughts were 1) would I have to pay for the truck, 2) at least we wouldn’t have all this stuff anymore, and 3) could I jump clear of the truck and grab the bridge as it slammed through the bridge railing. My guess is No on 1, 2 would suck more than I think, and an ice cube’s chance in Hell on 3.
We spent the evening with our friends Mike and Darryl who have lived in St. Louis for seven months and gave us the pros and cons of the Midwest compared to Fort Lauderdale. I’ll share those another time. Michelle and I are driving into Kansas City this morning!
On the Road:Update 3
Nicknamed “Fireworks City” Kimball, Tennessee is the home of two major fireworks outlets, a few restaurants and hotels, and the Kimball Crossing Shopping Center featuring a Wal-Mart Supercenter. It’s also where we’re staying tonight in the local Holiday Inn Express [hotel page] while sampling the local Domino’s Pizza.
But enough of this prattle, what is your opinion of the Terry Schiavo situation! It’s on the radio all day, every day and therefore it must be the most important thing on Earth. Even Congress got motivated to do something and came together for a historic session this last weekend for Terry Schiavo. The economy is going to hell in a handbasket and we’re entrenched in Operation Eternal Gulf War, but damn they got together fast to rally for this issue.
Tomorrow we’re spending the day in Nashville with one of Michelle’s friends from high school. We’ll probably talk about Terry Schiavo.
On the Road:Update 2
It’s just past midnight and I’m writing from a dark, chilly hotel room in Valdosta, Georgia. The Fairfield Inn [hotel page] where we’re staying has free Wi-Fi access and a bored security guard who offered to bring in our luggage, I think, just so he could talk to someone. There’s probably a lovely downtown Valdosta somewhere, but from the Interstate this city looks like a clone of every Cracker Barrel/Motel 6/brightly-lit-gas-station town we’ve seen three dozen of already. At least we made it out of Florida.
The plans to visit St. Augustine fell through when we realized Sunday morning that there was no way we could pack the Orlando apartment in one day. We worked all day slowly emptying the contents of Michelle’s one bedroom apartment into the cavernous U-Haul. By evening the truck was full, the apartment was nearly empty, and we were exhausted. We needed to go out.
Some of the Orlando Sentinel friends met us at a bar/lounge called The Peacock Room, which specializes in colorful martinis and even more colorful locals. Both were in full supply because it was *karaoke* night. I’ll cut to the chase and say that I choseto sing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” because I know Charlie Daniels can perform it while three sheets to the wind. What I failed to consider was that he is a musician who can keep a beat, sing in key, and has the lyrics memorized. I ended up skipping over the lyrics and extemporizing about how the song was a popular version of the classic short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster”. Fortunately everyone else was drunk and didn’t care.
Michelle performed a few times with her friends Koshi and Valencia. My recollection is fuzzy about the actual song titles they performed, but I remember two guys (some of Michelle’s friends) dragging me up on stage to sing “I Know What Boys Like”. Yep. The audience was howling and one cute girl ran up and started dancing against me during the song. I assumed it was my magnetic rock star charisma shining through, but Michelle said it was because she almost assuredly assumed I was truly, deeply gay and was thus a NSF (nice safe male).
Monday day was spent recovering from Sunday night. We finally left Orlando around 8 p.m. vowing that we will never drink again - a vow that I make about twice a year. Tomorrow we’re going to try to make it to Nashville.
On The Road:Update 1
I ordered a truck that was supposed to fit everything from the house in Fort Lauderdale and all the stuff from the apartment in Orlando. It didn’t. Not even close. I ended up leaving everything yard-related and some other stuff that I figure we won’t miss terribly.
On Friday we did the closing at a law office on Las Olas and Michelle took it upon herself to let the buyers know that their dodgy plans to cover the terazzo we worked so hard to restore was a really bad idea. It’s none of our business, really, but it take a bit for the emotional realization that it’s not our house anymore to kick in.
We drove to Orlando Friday night with our overburdened truck. Today (Saturday) we visited our local truck rental place with hat in hand and explained how we severely underestimated how much stuff we had and how we needed to upgrade our truck. After being sent to a far away office a kind, friendly, compassionate manager there let us have a massive Mad Max-sized truck for no additional charge. Awesome! All we had to do was unpack the old truck and move into the new one.
We put the two trucks butt to butt andproceeded to transfer everything. After five hours in a hot truck on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and while Michelle stoically avoided mentioning that we were missing the “Festival of Speed” bicycle race downtown, we finished packing. Tomorrow we move Michelle’s apartment into the back of our spacious truck. Woohoo!
Our Itinerary
Massacre by Crocodiles on Ramree Island
I found a reference to this fascinating event yesterday and have collated as much about it as I could find online:
The crocodile attack to claim the most human lives took place on February 19, 1945, when an Imperial Japanese Army unit guarding a stronghold on the Burmese island of Ramree was outflanked by a British naval force. The soldiers were forced to cross 16 km (10 miles) of mangrove swamps to rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry. The swamps were home to thousands of 4.6-m (15-ft) saltwater crocodiles.
The New Doctor Who
The new Doctor Who, starring Christopher Ecclestone [IMDB link] in the title role, does an excellent job hitting the major characteristics we can expect in a Doctor. He was likable, but odd; handsome, but nerdy; professor-ish smart, but action hero-ish. Fans of the long-running series will undoubtedly find the first episode a bit coy about jumping into the background of who the Doctor is and what he does, but that’s because the producers seem to try to please both the old fans and still remain approachable for the new-to-the-series crowd. They’re mostly successful.
They did a great job of maintaining the low-rent feel of Doctor Who productions. I assume this was done on purpose and I’m sure the U.S. networks hated that, which is why there are no plans to air it in the U.S. yet. I hope there will be DVDs with subtitles, though. Even though our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic speak English I find that sometimes they are completely unitelligible. The Doctor’s new assistant is too cutesy, but she comes into her own by the end. It all looks extremely promising.
Sean and Paul Rudd in 1987
In high school I participated in Forensics, a form of competition acting. We’d perform at tournaments throughout the year and there was even a post season where the better teams competed against one another. I was Improvisional Duet Acting (I.D.A.) State Champion with my partner, Paul Rudd. Paul had a fantastic sense of comedic timing and a talent for improv. He went on to a successful career [IMDB link] on stage, screen, and film. It’s kind of neat to see someone you know in a movie, although it tends to destroy any suspension of disbelief. I usually find myself trying to figure out how tall other actors are since I know how tall Paul is.
This video comes from our 2nd to last time performing together - at Olathe North High School in March, 1987. A friend videotaped us as part of a school news story he was producing about Forensics. It’s the only video ever shot of us performing that I can recall. The VHS tape I had is 18 years old and required multiple DV transfers to get it all to play before it broke apart. There are a few areas where the image dissolves entirely or the footage jumps a second or two.
Click here to get to the video.
Sean and His Hair in 1990
In January 1990 I had a part-time job working in the University of Kansas bookstore - the very same semester when KU made the bold move to biodegradeable bags. Yes, it’s true. I’m sure most adults remember this seminal news event that had worldwide implications, but just in case you’ve forgotten, I found the videotape I recorded back then of this historic occasion. I’m sure that I saved the tape because I wanted to show future generations how conscientious we were about the environment and not because the local Kansas TV newscast interviewed me (briefly) for the story.
Geez my hair was long.
Click here to get to the video. [QuickTime required]
Newspaper Motto
The New York Times has the most famous motto of “All the News That’s Fit to Print”, but the motto of the Aspen Daily News is “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.” I like it.
I'm Moving to Kansas City
Michelle has finally given her notice at work (whew!) so I can go public and say that we’re leaving Fort Lauderdale after 13 years of continuous summer and heading back to the Midwest.
I quit working for the City of Coconut Creek in mid-January and spent nearly three weeks getting the house presentable to sell it. We put the For Sale sign out Friday, February 4th and had an Open House on Sunday the 6th, SuperBowl Sunday. We gambled a little and decided not to advertise except for 5 plastic signs that pointed to our Open House. If it didn’t attract anyone we could get a newspaper listing next week and, failing that, actually get a real MLS listing like normal people.
In all, 22 people visited in four hours and we had three offers within 24 hours. Excellent! Whatever failings South Florida may have, growth and demand for real estate is not one of them. We signed a contract with a single mom police officer with three kids who loved my office with the Starry Night ceiling. This was contingent on her closing on her house, but she offered at our list price so we accepted.
Michelle and I flew to Kansas City that Thursday to look for a place to live, at least temporarily. We drove around to almost a dozen apartment complexes all around Kansas City. Quality Hill, by the way, isn’t. We settled on a six month lease for an apartment near I-35 and 75th Street in Overland Park. Since we have no idea where we’ll end up working, it seemed like a good central location unless we start working north of the river.
On Saturday at 1 p.m., though, the police officer buying our house called and canceled. Her closing had fallen through. Our quasi-real estate agent said not a problem and can she show the house that afternoon? Sure, we said. She called back at 5:30 p.m. and said that she’d sold it again and this time at above list.
We now seriously question if we set our list price correctly. Oh, well. We’re set to close on March 18th and be in Kansas City about a week later.
The Real "Finding Neverland"
“Finding Neverland”, the movie about the creator of Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie, is charming and pulls at all the right heart strings for a good biopic. Much like “Amadeus” and “Shakespeare in Love” we see the ups-and-downs of an author’s life influence him to write his best works. But the end felt a bit unresolved, so I searched for the true story of J. M. Barrie and found this well-written explanation and biography that tells a different story from the movie version. Among other things, I learned that the girls name Wendy was non-existent before the 1904 play and became so popular that it has become a common girls name in the English-speaking world today.
UPDATE: I guess it’s true. According to the SSA, the name Wendy did not occur in the 1000 most common girls names until the 1940s where it debuted at no. 250. In the 50s it was no. 108; the 60s it was no. 47, the 70s it was no. 37, and in the 80s it dropped to no. 136 and continued that trend into the 90s where it dropped to no. 258.
UPDATE 2: This site has a really cool interactive chart that can show you how popular a name has been since 1900. Sean is a trendy name in decline.
A Better Way to Fight Spam
Knowspam.net has blocked 1539 spams for me since 3 a.m. Jan. 27, 2005.
I have Razorfish installed on my mail server and I employ a Bayesian filter in my e-mail client to further weed out the solicitations for pharmaceuticals and horny housewives and lord knows what else. But it hasn’t been working well lately. I decided to try something new: a challenge-response system.
UPDATE: I still spent lots of time compulsively checking in with Knowspam to see if it was mis-labeling good e-mail, so I suppose it wasn’t a brilliant “silver bullet” solution. It was interesting to see that I get about 120 spam e-mails a day - or about a 40-1 ratio of good to bad.
My Life List: 10 Places to Have Lunch
I’ve met other people who’ve said, “I want to visit Hawaii” or some other interesting global destination. Some of these people included these places on their life lists of things to do or accomplish before they die. Few, however, ever get specific about what they want to do there. When I turned 30 I made a list, but with specifics. It was a list of places I want to have lunch.
Hemlock 2-7158
This evening I was watching “North by Northwest” and Cary Grant’s character asks a police officer to dial “Bonneville 81098” to call his mother. How did that work? Before the 60s the first two numbers were referred to by letters as spelled out on a telephone. The number 2 is A, B, or C, for example. An exchange name is a word that is used to represent the first two letters.
© 1996-2005 sean m. tevis
