Whoa

Image via Wikipedia

This morning when I stopped at my neighborhood post office I was amazed to see in the parking lot a Ford Pinto. Before today I had not see a Pinto, in working condition or not, in many, many years.

My amazement was not just because the Pinto was basically a vehicle of the 1970s. And now the history lesson: the things became infamous because their fuel tanks had a nasty tendency to rupture and start a fire in the spilled fuel if the car was hit by a rear-end collision.

Due to that I would have expected all Pintos to have been retired to junkyards long ago. Think again!

License Plate Watch 5

Seen yesterday on what appeared to be a relatively new Jaguar: "XSKUZ ME"

Heh.

Keeping one step ahead of the ants

Last week I discovered ants were returning to my kitchen. After doing some observing of their movements I realized where they had to be coming from: A slight opening between a wall and the counter backsplash.

Caulk to the rescue!

License Plate Watch 4

Saw this plate on the way to work yesterday morning: "HUSTLEN".

I'll assume that was referring to the car itself, which was painted a very bright apple green.

I had it easy in high school!

I know I'm really aging myself by bringing this up, but I graduated from high school in 1977. I have been coming to the realization people going to high school in that era had a pretty easy life with regard to being able to graduate, as compared to current students.

First off, there's the California High School Exit Exam. As the site says: "Beginning with the Class of 2006, all public school students will be required to pass the exam to earn a high school diploma." There's been all kinds of publicity about this, at least within the state, so I won't make any comments about it here. Except to say in 1977 there was nothing like that!

Here is the web site for my high school, Patrick Henry. The thing that really caught my attention here was the Portfolio and Exhibition page, which is about graduation requirements set by the San Diego City School District in addition to the state's Exit Exam. This amazes me because, like with the Exit Exam, my class was not required to do anything with any similarity to these Portfolio and Exhibition processes. But, looking through all the details via the links on this page, it occurs to me these procedures might have been a real help for me in preparing for life after high school.

License Plate Watch 3

A Texas license plate, seen last evening in San Diego, that read: "E NOT A".

No clue what it means, I just thought it was interesting!

A very small disappointment

Image via Wikipedia

So I'm re-reading In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson, which is full of stories of his travels around Australia. And I came across the following line in it, which I had forgotten from my original reading of the book: "We wanted proper outback: a place where men were men and sheep were nervous."

Reading that made me laugh aloud, and since I couldn't recall seeing it before, I assumed it was an original joke. Well, something led me to do a Google search for "men were men and sheep were nervous" and that revealed the line is by no means original to Bryson. Which disappointed me a little, but then I reflected a writer certainly has a right to use old jokes if they work in context, and this one certainly does.

At any rate, it's a marvelous book with many wonderful stories about Australia and it's people. Very highly recommended!

License Plate Watch 2

Saw the following personalized license plate on a car while driving to work a couple days ago: "AND 4WOT".

I'd assume that translates as "And for what", and that the owner is making a statement with it. But I can't imagine what that statement might be! Hmmmm.

An explanation

I realized that I should explain something related to this blog.

In order to help shut off the blog spam I had been starting to received, I decided to activate a new optional feature of Blogger. Namely, that in order to leave a comment, a person has to manually type into a form the content of a graphic that displays a series of letters.

I realize it might be seen as a nuisance, but I hope the need for it is understood.

(Side note on a totally different topic: I just ran the Blogger spell checker on what I had typed above, and it flagged "blog" and "Blogger"! That's hilarious!)

Mystery phone use

Image via Wikipedia

Needed to make a Costco stop on the way home from work today, and during that I was really struck by something I'd just vaguely been noticing in previous Costco visits. Namely, the number of people in the store who were using their cell phones and actively talking to someone.

These were not people just walking around between putting items in their carts. They were stopped, faced towards an item or items and using the phone.

What can be causing that many people to be making calls while shopping in Costco? Some possibilities that occur:

• Needing to clarify exactly what item or items need to be bought.
• Finding an item that was supposed to be bought is not there and checking if something else that is there is acceptable.
• Checking if the other person is also interested in an item that was not planned to be bought but caught the attention of the person who was in the store.

Any other possibilties occur to you?

"Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" - A Movie Review

I have a weakness for British comedy, both visual comedy (Monty Python's Flying Circus, for instance), and written (such as the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, one of which I have previously reviewed on this blog.)

A new British comedy film I have seen recently is "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". It was made by part of the team that had created 2000's marvelous "Chicken Run", so I was keen to see this new movie based on having a great time seeing that earlier one.

That these movies were made by stop-motion animation (minute frame-by-frame adjustments of physical figures to show, for instance, walking, talking, and changes in faces) is nothing short of amazing.

The characters Wallace and Gromit have previously appeared in short films; this is their first feature length movie. They operate a humane pest-control company called "Anti-Pesto" in a British village. Wallace, the human half of the pair, is an inventor of highly bizarre and wacky gadgets, some of which are used in the pest-control business. Gromit, his dog, though always completely silent, readily comes across as the generally brighter and more reliable half of the pair.

As the new film opens, the village is preparing for it's annual giant vegetable contest, which is a major passion for everyone. But the place has many rabbits that are wreaking havoc with the vegetables and Anti-Pesto is scrambling to collect them all.

Then what seems to be a giant rabbit starts rampaging through the village only during nights. That is when the fun really starts.

And yes, I am leaving this review at that!

Getting shot

Last autumn and winter were somewhat unnerving on the health front because of the severe shortage of flu shots that occurred at that time. Due to the shortage I skipped getting one of the shots at that time; I had been getting them for several consecutive years prior to that.

But for the currently approaching flu season, I have not seen or heard anything about such a shortage occurring again. So, today I looked up local places offering the shots, found one occuring today, and got it done.

Of course this vaccinates only for human varieties of influenza. The potential for a pandemic from the avian influenza problem that is currently mostly in Asia is still present; read up about that from the National Geographic article I just linked to.

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• Bird flu can linger in landfills (msnbc.msn.com)

Costco: Keeping you alert

Image via Wikipedia

One thing that is consistent about shopping at Costco is that every so often when you go in you will find the placement within the store of some categories of items has undergone major shifts.

I assume this done at least partly to improve sales numbers of certain categories by bringing them into the areas that have heavier foot traffic. I can understand that.

It can be a momentary irritant having to at times hunt down where an item I consistently buy there has been moved to. But I try to think of it as an exercise in staying alert.

The scum also rises

Ah, spammers.

I've been fortunate for some years to have virtually zero spam. But they've started to catch up with me in the last 2 or 3 months. (Damn it.)

One particular tactic of theirs that is beginning to irritate me about this is what I have been getting is very frequently set up so that my email address shows as where it came from. I received one of those today; it also has my email address as the only content of the subject line. Sheesh.

Despite my irritation, I'm not feeling like I have the time and/or energy to pursue means to get these persons shut down. So, I'll likely continue to just delete their emails and at times wonder why they can't find more constructive ways to spend their time and make money.

Terry Pratchett's Thud!: A Review

Thud! is the latest Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, and is one of several in the series that feature the police force of the city of Ankh-Morpork, the City Watch, with emphasis on their leader, Commander Sam Vimes.

Early on Vimes and the Watch are alerted to the murder of a prominent dwarf; his head was smashed in and a troll's club was found next to the body. The murder leads to a sharp escalation in tensions between the city's dwarf and troll populations.

Vimes does everything he can to keep that situation under control while at the same time directing the investigation of the murder. And all the while he must remember he has a requirement from his wife to be home every day no later than 6:00 PM to read Where's My Cow? to their infant son , complete with appropriate animal noises.

Much as I'd like to I won't get into any more details of this book, to avoid possibly revealing too much. But as he demonstrates repeatedly through out the Discworld novels, and does again in Thud!, Pratchett is a master at analyzing the circumstances and foibles of existence and giving his readers many chances to have a hearty laugh at those circumstances and foibles.

Hangs Ups (Follow-up)

There was nothing on my answering machine when I got home yesterday afternoon, hang ups or otherwise. That was nice to see, and here's hoping for only legitimate messages being on it from here on!

Hang Ups?

Every day this week when I've come home from work, the phone's answering machine function has had recordings of two or three hang ups. I've of course had answering machine recordings of hang ups before, but never anything like this!

And on top of that, I've had calls come in the last couple days shortly after I've come home and nobody was (apparently) at the other end each time.

I'll admit this is starting to get creepy. If the recordings of hang ups continue today, I'm seriously thinking I'll call SBC to inquire about what may be going on.

Boom!

Image via Wikipedia

A rare (for the San Diego city area) thunderstorm passed through my area a little earlier this morning. I'm always impressed when that happens; being able to hear the crackle of a lightning bolt instantly followed by the much louder thunder is not easily forgotten!

Unfortunately this particular storm was not carrying much rain with it at all; the area could use more.

Fun with Vikane (Not)

In previous posts I had mentioned that my condo building was going to be fumigated for termites. Well, that time cometh: it will happen next week.

A couple evenings ago representatives of the firm that will doing the fumigating met with owners and occupants of the building to explain what will need to be done. We learned the fumigant will be Vikane, and the major thing we have to do is protect from being effected by the gas anything that can be swallowed (foods, water, toothpaste, medicines, et cetera, et cetera) and that is not in original factory-sealed airtight containers, by double-bagging them in special non-porous bags that come from the same firm that makes Vikane.

The double-bagging will be a pain, but at least I won't have to do it all on the morning the fumigating starts, before I clear out. For instance, I'll get everything in the freezer in the bags the evening before.

And one relief is that I won't have to pay for housing while I have to be away from the condo: I have plenty of family near to me!

Yellow?

Image via Wikipedia

It may be pure coincidence, but I've been getting a distinct impression the last several days that there are more yellow cars on the road than I've seen in quite some time.

They're still pretty infrequent, mind you, but it's got me wondering why people might be selecting yellow more often for their vehicle's paint color.

National Geographic Photo of the Day: A Web Site Review

Here's another "picture of the day" site that I like to visit. The National Geographic Society's web site has a page that every day displays a different picture it's photographers have taken, along with a paragraph of text appropriate to the photo's subject matter.

A nice touch on this page is that right at the start of the text about the subject matter, it lists where the photo was taken, what year it was taken, and the name of the photographer. The year the photo was taken can be important, as the page occasionally shows a photo that was taken in the first half of the 20th century; for instance, this view of a monastery in Greece that was taken in 1930.

Another good feature on the page is that it always has a link to another page on the site that provides more detail about the photo's subject matter or about related topics, or provides more photos of the subject matter. For instance, on the day I write this post, September 4, 2005, the photo is of a capybara, and it was taken in Venezuela. The link goes to a "country profile" of Venezuela.

The Society's photographers always take many more pictures than can ever be included in the National Geographic magazine, so what is shown on this page is very frequently noted as having been "...shot on assignment for, but not published in..." the relevant article in the magazine.

All in all, this page makes for fascinating viewing and reading!

Sheesh

A little earlier I was walking home after completing an exercise running session. And I watched as another person walking on the other side of the street set off a car's alarm just by walking past the car and not laying a finger on it. This is what we call being just a little too oversensitive! (It didn't help my opinion that this alarm was that very annoying variety that makes a whole series of different tones at very high decibels.)

The oddness of the potholes

Image via Wikipedia

I've been noticing over the last few days that several new potholes have developed in roads around my neighborhood.

What's so odd about potholes, you might ask? Well, I normally think of new potholes appearing after rains. And San Diego has not had any measurable rain for several months.

So, I'm feeling somewhat curious what could be causing these new ones to develop.

More photo magic

Check it out.

Another fun animal photo

...again from Broadband Reports: Here you go. Cute and funny all once.

License Plate Watch 1

I saw the following California personalized license plate on a car in front of me at a traffic light,: "REVOLT".

There was nothing else on the car that indicated what that was all about!

Astronomy Picture of the Day: A Web Site Review

NASA runs a web site called Astronomy Picture of the Day (aka APOD), which every day has a different photograph or image that is in some way related to astronomy.

Most of these pictures are of objects in outer space or areas of outer space. These are frequently absolutely astounding, such as this recent image, which is titled "The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula." Wow, just wow.

As is acknowledged in the site's FAQ, they do occasionally rerun images (especially when new information about older pictures becomes available on the web). Perhaps the most impressive fact about the site is that it has been running continually since 1995 (as documented by the archive). That has to make it one of the oldest continually updated sites on the web, which is pretty astounding in and of itself.

For anyone with any amount of interest in astronomy or outer space, daily visits to APOD are a must.

Cable modem replacing slickness

My Internet service is the Road Runner service as provided by the San Diego franchise of Time Warner Cable. Recently the cable modem I had received at the start of service has been acting up - randomly going offline for long periods. Not seeing anything on the Roadrunner help web site or on the Road Runner forum at Broadband Reports that indicated any kind of network problems occurring in San Diego, I finally made up my mind last night that the problem had to be the modem itself.

I had previously seen comments on the Broadband Reports forum that Time Warner Cable franchises do allow Road Runner customers to bring malfunctioning modems into their offices for replacement, so I decided to do that this morning. The local office is reasonably close to where I work, so I drove to the office from work mid-morning.

The exchange process could not have been simpler. I walked into the customer service lobby, and had to wait just a few minutes to speak to one of the reps. I put the bad modem on the counter, said it was malfunctioning and I wanted to replace it. The rep said OK, brought up my account on her computer and went through procedures on the computer to deactivate that specific modem and then to activate the replacement on the local Road Runner network. She then had me sign a form to acknowledge the exchange, and I walked out with the replacement in hand, which is now connected and working perfectly as I type up this post.

The big surprise in the process is that the rep gave me the full package of hardware they provide when someone starts service: in addition to the modem, I also got a new power supply, a new ethernet cable, and a new USB cable! I had assumed I would simply get the replacement modem, so being given the full package was a very nice surprise. The power supply and ethernet cable I have been using since I started on Road Runner are still working fine, so I'll just put these new ones in storage for possible future needs.

So, the entire process to replace the bad modem was a good experience. If this new modem eventually starts to misbehave, I will definitely not hesitate at that time to hustle it into the local Time Warner Cable office as early as possible for another replacement exchange.

Another follow-up

In this post I had written about the termite infestation throughout my condo complex, and the resulting special assessment being charged each unit for treatment. I also noted that payment of the assessment would be spread out over 12 months, but I was sort of tempted to inquire if the whole thing could be paid at once just to get it over with.

Well, the monthly bill for the normal fees arrived in my mail yesterday, in which I expected the first of the payments for the special assessment to be included. So, I was very startled to find that apparently someone in the billing process had made a mistake and assigned the entire assessment amount to the bill!

I'm sure the management office will be getting plenty of calls complaining, but I am seriously considering going ahead and sending in a check for the billed amount before the probable corrected bill gets sent out. Like I noted above, I think I'd just like to get. it. over. with!

Keenspot: A Web Site Review

In my report about Comic-Con, I mentioned going to a panel discussion that had some of the creators of web comics that are based at Keenspot. In this post I'm going to take a look at Keenspot itself.

Keenspot hosts over 50 comics and Flash cartoons. At present, I follow about 15 of the comics. I wrote "at present" because Keenspot has always had a policy of not interfering when a creator decides to take his/her comic independent. Which means I have continued to follow several comics after they have at one point or another left Keenspot.

There are other hosts of multiple web comics; so why do I follow Keenspot comics? To be blunt, one point is because Keenspot does not charge for full access to the comics. Unlike other sites which allow the most current edition of a comic to be viewed free of charge, but to view the archives of comics they host, one has to pay a subscription fee. I tend to be cheap and look for good free alternatives whenever possible, whether it's a matter of viewing web comics or selecting software.

Another point is that I feel Keenspot simply attracts quality comics. Of course, as I noted above, sometimes the creators of those quality comics choose to go elsewhere. Which brings me to another good point about Keenspot: it frequently recruits comics to join the firm. Thus being able to find new (for me) web comics at this one source can be great fun.

So, all in all, for anyone interested in comics, I heartily recommend Keenspot as a good site to find new ones to follow.

Train sense

From time to time San Diego news media has an item related to freight trains moving through the downtown area, so I've been aware that one day I might find myself waiting for one such train to move through whatever downtown spot I found myself at.

That happened yesterday evening. I was attempting to get to a trolley station, and found myself blocked by a freight train that was composed of one engine, followed by 10 lumber-carrying cars, which were followed by what appeared to be about 20 tanker cars, all of which were labeled "liquified petroleum gas" (not gasoline).

So, this train was slowly moving forward through the intersection I needed to cross to get to the trolley station.

Then it stopped and started backing up.

Then it stopped and started forward again.

Then once again it stopped and began to back up! At this point I realized the engineer and whoever he was in contact at the other end of the train must have been trying to back it into a siding or through some sort of other switch.

Myself and the fairly large crowd that had been gathering at the crossing gates were able to get through after the engineer eventually was able to back up enough to get the entire train out of the intersection, but after that he had to do some more back and forth before everything was lined up as needed.

That additional back and forth including one more time of completely backing out of the intersection than moving forward through the intersection again. During that moving forward, I watched an amazing number of people go around and under the crossing gates and cross the tracks as the engine was approaching; the engineer blew the engine's horn continually until that nonsense stopped. That display by multiple people of a total lack of common sense was truly astounding.

One of the funniest animal photos ever

You have to see this to believe it. Oh, man, that's just hysterical!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Review

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is narrated by a character named Christopher Boone, who the reader discovers is an autistic British teenager.

His autism is displayed in several ways. For instance: human emotions make no impression on him whatsoever. He reacts violently when anyone touches him. He cannot abide the color yellow.

The tale begins late one night when Christopher finds the body of a neighbor's standard poodle; it had been killed by being stabbed with a garden pitchfork. Christopher does react well to animals, so discovering the killing of the poodle makes a deep impression on him; he decides he will identify the person who killed it.

Thus begins a journey for Christopher that also creates a journey for the reader through Christopher's thought processes, which are unlike anything most readers will have experienced. As he interacts with various people during his pursuit of the identity of the killer of the dog he goes through moments that at times are funny, at times shocking, at times very sad. Author Haddon obviously knows what he is writing about; a note at the beginning of the book says he has "worked with autisitic individuals."

This novel is throughout fascinating, compelling, and rewarding.

Couple follow-ups

Today we're having weather that is more normal (as opposed to yesterday's weather) for this time of year: Hot, and huge thunderhead clouds forming only over the area's mountains and mostly likely raining only over those mountains.

The ants I wrote about earlier are still coming, but (at least so far) only in very, very small numbers. I'm also seeing really small numbers of them in my kitchen, despite my caulking off of an access point in the kitchen last year. Obviously they found somewhere else they could get in.

Rain? Maybe? Please?

Image via Wikipedia

Clouds have been building up over the San Diego metro area all day; the weather service has been forecasting a slight possibility of thunderstorms getting away from the mountains (where they normally form and dump all their rain this time of year) and moving west to the area's cities (where I am.)

The clouds had been getting thick enough I've been hoping we might actually get a decent amount of rain out of them, as we haven't had any rain to speak of for a few months. But at least for now it's looking like what has and will fall will be so minimal all it'll do is make my car look even dirtier than it did this morning!

Return of pet peeves: Parking challenged people

I was reminded of this long-time pet peeve when I got home from work today.

First, some explanations. As I expect is the basic norm for apartment and condominium complexes, my condo complex allocates one space in the parking lots for each unit. Thus, when people find their ability to use their space is being interfered with in some way, they can get rather upset.

So. Arriving home this evening, I found one neighbor's car parked at an angle that left most of it in their space, but which put a major section of the car's left rear quarter within my space. The only way I could have parked in my space would have left my car encroaching into my other neighbor's space, which I was not about to do. I knocked on the door of the condo associated with the angle-parked car to ask them to move it, but nobody answered.

I parked on the street and stomped back to my condo, very irritated.

Ate dinner and went back out to check, and found the badly parked car was gone, so I walked back to where I had parked my car and got it into my space. Frankly, right now I'm just too tired to write out a complaint about all this to send to the homeowner's association, but I'll see how I am tomorrow morning.

The Comic-Con report

My one day at Comic-Con for this year had ups and downs, but overall I enjoyed it. I'm thinking for next year I am going to want to schedule vacation for the week it will be running in and go more than one day. Discussion of why later in this post.

I had preregistered via the Comic-Con web site. Thanks to doing so, I was pleased to find I could sail right past the extremely long line that was waiting to register by displaying my printed confirmation to Convention Center personnel and proceed directly to the check-in area for preregistered folks. Yay for preregistring!

I decided first thing to do was go to the exhibit halls and wander the aisles for a while. That did not last real long. The numbers of people in the those areas of the Center were just incredible. An example of the problems thus created: All vendors who were selling or displaying anything Star Wars related had been grouped together in one area that was labeled the "Star Wars Pavilion." While I was trying to walk around this area, I found myself in the middle of one spot where foot traffic was so dense I was unable to move in any direction for at least 30 seconds. After that I had had quite enough of the exhibit halls!

So, that is one of the factors in my thinking I'll want to do more than one day of Comic-Con next year; my understanding is that Saturday is always by far the most crowded of the four days the con runs every year. So, I am assuming the exhibit halls will be more reasonable to get through on the Thursday and Friday next year.

This year I wanted to experience a few of the seminars and panel discussions that are held in the many meeting rooms that are on second floor of the Convention Center, above the exhibit halls. So:

• I am a casual fan of the "Teen Titans" animated series. One of the larger meeting rooms had a session for the writers of the series and for the voice actors, in separate panels, one after the other. The room was packed with fans of the series, and sitting in on that session was very enjoyable.
• I visited a room that was showing short animations by independent filmmakers.
• I went to a panel discussion for web comic artists who are associated with the web site Keenspot. I follow a fairly large number of web comics, and several of them are part of Keenspot. So, I was curious to see and hear some of these artists, and to also hear the promised news about corporate developments at Keenspot. This session was lots of fun. For instance, for one question, the panel answered by singing opera; several members of the panel had excellent singing voices! For another question, the panel was required by the moderator to include an "interpretive dance" in their answers; the definitions of "interpretive dance" got pretty bizarre.

So, another reason I'll be wanting to attend more than one day next year will be to simply get to more of these panel discussion sessions.

Here is a quickly put together album of the usable photos I took at the con yesterday.

Brief Comic-Con report

Just back from Comic-Con. Much better experience this year (see earlier post about Comic-Con about last year.) I'll work on writing up more tomorrow.

Fire putting out from the sky

As I was getting close to home yesterday after work, I couldn't help but notice some sort of fire relatively nearby was putting out disconcertingly large amounts of black smoke.

Just before I actually got home, it was really nice to see the city's two fire fighting/rescue helicopters taking off from Montgomery Field, a general aviation airport that is very near my condo. I hadn't realized these copters were based there, so it was encouraging to know they were going to have a very short flight to get to the fire.

The fire turned out to be near a golf course that has a large pond and also borders the San Diego River, so the copters had those very convenient sources for filling their tanks before making water drops on the fire. As the story the link goes to explains, those water drops plus several ground crews put the fire out after it burned 10 acres.

The city owns one of these copters outright, but the other one will be gone after the lease on it expires August 1, unfortunately. At any rate, it was great to see what they can do, and to know the city did not have to call in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is the only other source available in the county for water drops.

Comes the con

Comic-Con, that is.

Every year in July, San Diego Comic-Con International occurs for four days, including a weekend, at the San Diego Convention Center. This has over the years become a mammoth event that attracts tens of thousands from around the world and occupies the entire Convention Center.

It deals with comics obviously, but also with many other topics: science fiction, fantasy, horror, cartoons, art and artists, writers, films, gaming, television, anime, and on and on.

Last year I attended the Con for the first time ever, during the Saturday session. As might be expected, Saturday is easily the most crowded of the four days the Con runs. I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the whole thing that first visit!

Having gotten some idea for myself of the scope of the whole thing last year, I decided I'd try it again this year and hopefully have a better experience. This year's Con is running right now; once again the Saturday is the only day I really have free to go. So, this year I'm really hoping to get lots of photos and attend at least a few of the many seminars. One big lesson I learned when I went last year is that buying food in the Convention Center is a big mistake; what is offered is insanely overpriced! There are plenty of other options for getting food within a reasonable walking distance of the Convention Center. So, I'll be doing that and/or bringing my own food in a backpack. And I'll also definitely bring a water bottle with me!

The horror, the horror

I don't recall how I first became aware of this and don't know what made me recall it today, but I offer for your enjoyment one of the funniest things I've ever read, The Horror of Blimps.

A disclaimer

I am not, nor am I related to, the Jeff Craig who does "Sixty Second" movie reviews.

(It occurred to me this might be a good thing to get on the record.)

Somewhat unnerving

Coming home tonight, I approached and had to slowly drive through the aftermath of a traffic accident: fire engine, paramedic ambulance, two police cars, tow truck, shattered glass on the ground. Didn't have time to try to make out just what had happened, but it was rather unnerving because this was all only a block-and-a-half from my condo; I don't recall ever personally seeing or otherwise being aware of a traffic accident that serious that close to home.

Ants (Not in the pants)

Starting to see ants in my bathroom. That's irritating, but not entirely surprising. Just like the last time they first appeared San Diego has not had any rain in quite some time and the weather is getting hot.

I'd like to seal off their access point, of course. During the last bouts of ant invasions, I was able to do just that in my kitchen, but I have yet to find an access point in the bathroom. Will keep trying to do so. In the meantime I've broken out my container of Ortho Home Defense Indoor Insect Killer.

Another pet peeve

Image via Wikipedia

Namely, people who apparently can't be bothered to flush the toilet! Discovered evidence of that this afternoon at work. Ugh.

Essential web site for anyone who uses CA freeways

I find this site to be an absolutely vital source of information about Californians freeways: The CHP Traffic Incident Information Page.

For anyone who hasn't used it, the basic way it works is that it displays currently active incidents in each of the California Highway Patrol's regions throughout the state. CHP dispatchers in each region's Traffic Management Center enter comments and information about each incident into the CHP's Computer Assisted Dispatching system, and as these items are entered they are reflected on this site in real time.

For instance, as I am typing up this post, this site is showing for the San Diego region:

• 1 non-injury hit-and-run
• 6 traffic collisions
• and 1 traffic hazard.

The way the site works is that it is set up in 3 horizontal frames. The top frame is where one selects what information is to be displayed. For instance, if you want to see current incidents in the Los Angeles area, use the drop down menu titled "Areas" to select "Los Angeles" and that brings up in the middle frame a list of the current incidents. Click the "Type" line for a given incident, and you see in the bottom frame whatever has been typed up about it by the area dispatchers. Sometime no details will be displayed after clicking the "Type" link; this usually just means it is a brand new entry.

NOTE: The details about an incident will usually use CHP codes that designate certain situations or certain things to be done. Some browsers will display a dotted line under these codes. Hover your mouse cursor over such a line, and a little pop-up shows what the code means. If your browser does not do that, you have to go the "Glossary" entry in the "Resources" drop down menu. (For instance, 1039 means "Message or Item Delivered"; this code seems to normally be used to indicate a telephone call was made.) The Glossary also explains most of the abbreviations that are used in the incident details.

All in all, this site is incredibly valuable for trip planning, especially for checking on road conditions just before you leave.

Broadband Reports: A Web Site Review

(Truth in advertising: I am a member of the site being discussed in this post.)

Broadband Reports is a site whose main purpose is, as stated on their "About Us" page is to "provide information and communication on the subject of residential and small business Broadband connections." That is to say, they provide pricing information, reviews, and discussion forums about ways to connect to the Internet using various means of broadband connectivity such as cable, DSL, wireless, or satellite, for instance.

The site's discussion forums also cover a huge range of other topics. For instance:

• Security
• Microsoft help
• Digital imaging
• Webhosting chat

...plus a wide variety of hardware-related forums, general chatter forums, forums about the site, and on and on.

The site also posts news items that are of interest for this kind of community.

I find the site to be hugely invaluable, and enthusiastically recommend it!

(One possibly confusing thing I should mention. The site was originally known as DSL Reports. When the owner of the site decided changing the site's name to "Broadband Reports" would better reflect the actual content of the site, he agreed to keep both URLs running, and what is posted on one of the URLs is mirrored to the other one. So, if a link on the site changes you from one URL to the other, don't panic, you're still really on the same site.)

A pet peeve

Please do not refer to California as "Cali."

"Cali" is a city in Columbia that is notorious for being a cocaine trafficking center. I really can't imagine anyone in California who gives it a little thought wants the state to be associated with that.

If you must abbreviate "California", why not just use the postal abbreviation: CA? Please?

Thank you, that is all. Carry on.

Flat out amazing

Image via Wikipedia

You've likely read about/heard about NASA's Deep Impact mission to send a robot spacecraft to intercept a comet, with one part of the craft separating off and manuvering itself to intentionally collide with the nucleus of the comet. What's that? You haven't? Well, get thee to NASA's Deep Impact Mission site to learn all about it!

The fact the collision went off as planned early morning July 4 (EDT), and the science has started flowing from it is just amazing, considering the craft traveled for 172 days and about 268 million miles. So, I just want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to NASA!

At last

The areas of bare land that are centered in this Google Maps image are what remains of a badly aged and mostly unoccupied strip mall near my home that was demolished a few years ago. (The only building that remained, as can be seen in the image, is a mortgage firm.)

The bare ground has slowly become major weed farms while the city has been going through the process of taking proposals for development of the site, getting comments from the community planning group and the city planning department, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Since the weed farms have become such a huge eyesore, I've been happy to see that it appears everything has finally been resolved and decided on what to do with the site and development is starting to happen. I've seen bulldozers that clearly have been working with the bare patches of ground, and also seen evidence of work being done on portions of the sidewalk that borders the site.

Cripes

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I received a notice from my condominium HOA basically stating the entire complex has a termite infestation, including all the buildings and many fences. The builds will be tent-fumigated and the fences and many other wooden items entirely replaced.

The cost of all this? A special assessment of $600 per unit, charged as $50 per month for 12 months on top of the regular monthly HOA fee. Oh, man. I'm semi-tempted to inquire if it will be possible to pay off the $600 all at once, just to get it over with!

Huh

Stopped at an Albertsons grocery on my home from work today. When I walked into the store I was startled to see a little table set up by someone who was offering subscriptions to the local newspaper; the startling thing was that the inducement for subscribing was being displayed as a chance for a $250 shopping spree at Ralphs grocery (a competitor of Albertsons).

I was really surprised this guy hadn't been tossed out because of that!

Making Flash VERY annoying. And how to fix it.

So I read a recommendation for a web comic called Alpha Shade, and decided to check it out. And very quickly began thinking about not looking at any more because of what I found to be an incredible amount of continuous changing of Flash ads. I was just finding them to be insanely distracting.

But, since I am using the Firefox browser, I recalled reading previously about an extension for Firefox that blocks Flash objects with an icon that can be clicked to view the objects.

And since I was finding the art and story of Alpha Shade to be quite interesting, I decided to install that extension and see if it helped. It did; YAAY!

I hear you

Earlier today at work two people in one of the aisles next to mine were talking about something, and at one point the conversation shifted to whispering to each other about whatever the topic was.

Please, people. Do you really think people aren't going to notice you are whispering? I personally usually have no trouble tuning out conversations in normal tones, but when others start whispering to each other, I can't help but notice.

If you've got something to talk about that prompts to you to whisper: Go. Somewhere. Else. That. Is. Private!

Mike Nelson's Death Rat!: A Review

Just finished re-reading an outstanding summer novel: Mike Nelson's Death Rat!, by Michael J. Nelson, the former head writer/host of the great comedy TV series, "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

This novel is centered around a sixtyish writer of obscure history books who has the highly improbable name Pontius Feeb. (Otherwise known as "Ponty.")

Circumstances having made him desperate for money, Ponty decides to write a trashy novel that features a six-foot long killer rat. Due to circumstances beyond his control that I will not get into here, his novel ends up being sold to a publisher and printed as a true story, and becomes a major bestseller. And that is where Nelson's wonderful sense of silliness really kicks in, as Ponty frantically attempts to create a cover story to explain why the tale of the death rat is a true story (so as to allow the money from sales to keep coming in.)

Nelson has many great touches in his writing, including wonderfully developed parodies of his fellow Minnesotans Garrison Keillor and Prince.

And it is simply flat out funny. So go forth and read it!

Self checkout - nays and yays

The concept of self checkout at stores has been rolling into San Diego for some time. First time I saw such a set up was at a Home Depot. The implementation they are using worked fine for me the once or twice I have used it. But I really don't go to Home Depot enough to have a proper opinion of their set-up.

On the other hand - I do my regular grocery shopping at Albertsons. Last year they began installing their self checkout set-up at stores that have enough space to allow whatever number of standard checkouts that have to be removed for installation of the self checkout units, and still have whatever their minimum number of standard checkouts is.

I have gotten into the habit of using the Albertsons self checkout system. It certainly has quirks. For instance, the space for bagging of items is really not large enough to hold everything in a regular weekly (or whatever) purchase, but the system is definitely happiest if the customer does keep everything that is being purchased in the bagging space until payment is completed.

I find I always have to put at least one, and usually two bags in the cart before I am able to finish scanning and bagging everything. And when I do that, the system starts whining about an item being removed and telling me to put it back. When the whining starts, the system does display an option for the customer to press that basically tells the system: yes I did mean to remove that bag so shut up. I've gotten pretty good about being fast to press that option and thus cut off the system's audible complaining before it really gets going.

But these complaints are really pretty minor. Overall I like using the self checkout because I appreciate having more control over the process, and I normally am out the door and walking to my car at least as fast, if not more so, than if I had gone to a standard checkout.

(I can't comment on other self checkout systems because I just haven't seen any others to date.)

Testing

Testing