License plate watch 44

Seen today on a Mercedes (I wasn't able to catch the model): "OMGSTEF"

That gave me a good chuckle.

License plate watch 43

Seen on the way home from today on a Nissan Skyline: "MOKSTR"

I assume that's a compression of "mokster".

I get several varieties of hits on a search for "mokster", but impossible to say which might apply to this plate.

Weird moment

I was reminded of something that I saw a few days ago, and thought it might be of interest.

The bank branch I usually go to for ATM use is on the northeast corner of an intersection. I was first car in the right hand lane of the northbound road, sitting at a red light before crossing the intersection to turn into the bank's parking lot.

This bank branch has a lane for a drive-up ATM that exits on to that northbound road; crossing the northbound lanes to get to the southbound lanes is legal, but I've never done it because traffic is always too busy for my taste to risk it.

Anyway - what happened while I was sitting at the red light was I saw a car come out of the ATM lane and turn left (southbound) into the northbound lanes and approached the intersection, at which point I got the distinct impression the driver wanted to turn left (eastbound) into the westbound lanes of the other road that crosses the intersection! Yow!

The driver of the car next to me at the red light hit their horn and I threw up my hands. At which point the driver of this car that was going the wrong way realized something was amiss and backed up back into the ATM lane.

The timing of that was fortunate, because right then I got the green light to cross the intersection.

(Hope that all made sense.)

So, that was definitely one of the weirder moments I've had in quite some time!

Best Buy Fail

For reasons too involved to get into here, I had need to buy a CompactFlash (CF) memory card today after I got out of work.

First place I stopped was a Best Buy that is near my office. Their price for the smallest capacity card they had in stock seemed steep, so I drove to a Target that is fairly near that Best Buy to see what they might have available.

I found a CF card with the same capacity at the Target cost less by over $20! So, of course I bought that.

Now, in all fairness I should note the two stores each had only one brand of CF card available, Sandisk at the Best Buy, Lexar at the Target. Of course different brands of the same type of item can have different pricing, so after getting home I did a little research.

First, the Best Buy web site had the same pricing as the store for the Sandisk CF. Using that as a starting point, I looked on Amazon and the web site for B & H Photo for their pricing of that card. Each was about $15 less than the Best Buy price!

So, all in all, my conclusion is: Best Buy fail.

Pet peeves through time and space

Though I didn't see it happening (at least consciously), while shopping a little earlier I thought of a pet peeve of mine.

Namely, a person decides they don't want to purchase something they have in their cart after all, so, instead of putting the item back where they found it, they randomly put it on whatever shelf or other flat surface that happens to be nearby when they decide they decide they don't want the item after all.

And it happens enough that an employee specifically has to walk through the store to find such misplaced items and return them to their proper spot.

I think it's the laziness of not taking the time to put something back where it came from if one decides not to buy an item one had earlier picked up that really bothers me.

License Plate Watch 42

Seen today on a Honda Odyssey: "MRS ON"

Which leads to the question: When is she off?

Identification made

Following up on my last post, I believe I have discovered the name of these trees: African Tulip trees.

For reference:

• http://www.rarefloweringtrees.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=40&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1319
• http://www.thefloweringgarden.com/african-tulip-tree.htm
  

Can anyone identify these trees?

Please follow this link to see a set of photos of trees in San Diego, especially the flowers growing on them. I have been unable to identify what tree this is.

Any help in identifying these trees will be appreciated!

Convergence

I subscribe to three magazines:

• mental_floss
• Wired
• National Geographic

New issues of all three were in my mail yesterday. I have never before had all the magazines I subscribe to arrive on the same day.

That was interesting

Being on vacation this week, I took the opportunity this morning to walk to my neighborhood library to pick up a book I had reserved.

While walking back to my place, I was started to see a California Highway Patrol car go by, it's rooftop light bar activated. (Startled because this was a surface street, and one doesn't normally see CHP cars on surface streets, with or without their light bars activated.)

But the next moment I realized what was going on when a portable classroom rolled past, complete with an "oversize load" banner.

It turned out to be two portable classrooms being moved, along with several vehicles from the firm doing the moving (all with their own "oversize load" banners), and not one, not two, not three, but four CHP cars.

Obviously the police-type presence was needed because portable classrooms take up so much of the road when being moved, but I am wondering why CHP handled it and not the San Diego police.

Selling my photos

My church is in process of wrapping up a program called Seeds of Faith. The basic idea of which is members who wish to participate are given a small amount of cash (in our case, $10) to use as seed money to develop goods or services they can sell, with the money that comes in going to a need internal or external to the church.

In this case the money will be used to defray costs of refurbishing the church's youth rooms.

I decided to sell prints of some my own photos, offering a variety of sizes, getting the prints made after taking orders, and then delivering the prints.

The sales of goods and services took place last Sunday (August 16, 2009) at what was called the Seeds of Faith Harvest Fair. I decided in order to be sure to have any success, I was going to need to be present through the entire three hours of the Fair, in order to explain just what I was offering.

I had previously had 5x7-inch samples of each of the 8 photos made, and had placed them in a small album, which I had with me at the Fair, along with order forms I had prepared.

So, during the Fair I pretty quickly developed a routine of explaining to anyone who approached me just what I was offering. And I was really pleased that I ended up with having a total of ten prints ordered by eight people.

Prints were ordered of the following photos (for the site I am linking to below my member name is Landshark):

• Jacaranda blossoms (4 prints)
• Coral tree blossoms (2 prints)
• Sunflower and bee (2 prints)
• Dandelion (1 print)
• Lily of the Nile flowers (1 print)

(I also offered prints of: Mission Beach iced tea, "The Boulevard" sign, and Balboa Park walkway.

And, yes, I do seem to be unintentionally developing a specialization of being a plant photographer!)

Though I had more people walk away then order prints, I'm considering this at least relative success to be a good sign for selling my photos in future, so will be trying to develop a web-based presence for doing so.

Nothing to speak of

Regarding yesterday's post:

Turned out the person who was being inquired about was a former neighbor who I must admit I had never spoken to.

Reported that to the investigator, and there was nothing further needed. The end.

Vedy, vedy interesting

Came home from work and found on my door a small notice from the, ahem, "U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Federal Investigative Services", that had written on it the name and phone number of an investigator.

The notice says this is "regarding an individual who is being considered for a position of trust with the U.S. Government. Your comments regarding this individual's fitness and suitability will be greatly appreciated."

Huh. I have no idea who this might be about.

Tried calling the investigator at the number written on the notice - no answer, left a message saying I'll try again tomorrow morning.

Google Street View visits KFC

Google Street View car image by wkueting via Flickr

This is terrific.

A Google Street View driver apparently decided to stop to eat at a KFC, but forgot to turn off the cameras before turning into the place's parking lot!

More photo success

Having had a print of one my photos placed in the photography exhibit at the 2008 San Diego County Fair, this year I felt confident to submit three prints:

• Balboa Park walkway
• Jacaranda blossoms
• and "Speed" Ride - 2008 Fair

Considering historically roughly one-third of the prints that are submitted each year for inclusion in the Fair's photo exhibit are accepted, it's difficult to say what the judges will find worthy of acceptance. So, I promised myself I'd be happy if at least one of the three were accepted.

And that is precisely what occurred: "Jacaranda blossoms" was accepted.

So, having placed a different print at the Fair each of two years in a row is definitely very satisfying!

License Plate Watch 41

Seen today on a VW Beetle: "HAIR2CU".

Seeing the writing in the sky

This afternoon I observed, for the first time in I don't know how many years, skywriting as it was happening. Or to be more precise, what is apparently known as skytyping, because it was composed of a series of dots making up the words.

I was on the way to my car to go grocery shopping. I looked up, and there was "GEICO GEICO GEICO" being spelled out, just like that.

After I reached the grocery store, I could see the planes had been spelling out much more, at several angles, including one semi-long sequence I couldn't make any sense of, because the angles were all wrong, except that it appeared to end with a range of dates in May.

After I finished my shopping I could see all that had been completely dispersed by the winds. But just as I was starting to drive home, I could see the planes were starting a new sequence that was at a perfect angle for me to read. That sequence ended up being: "PLANES OF FAME AIRSHOW MAY 16-17"

Obviously the intent of this airtyping was to create interest in this show, so I dutifully followed up on that by looking it up and finding it's site. I especially wanted to see if GEICO has some connection to it, but see nothing on the site to indicate that.

I won't go to the show, but all in all it was certainly fun to see this airtyping/airwriting as it happened.

A restaurant review

My manager at work took my department out for lunch last Friday to a place I hadn't been to before, and I was impressed with it. The place is Nugent's Fishgrille http://fishgrille.com/ - the web site also calls it Firegrille; uncertain which of them is accurate.

It is family owned and operated. There is an emphasis on seafood, but they offer several other types of dishes (steaks, sandwiches, soups, pastas, etc.)

I don't know if they take reservations. Our manager did not make reservations - we arrived about 11:40, I think, and were immediately seated.

The lunch atmosphere was quiet and relaxed, though a pretty fair number of customers arrived while we were there.

A small loaf of warm sourdough bread is provided to every table, with butter packets. This is served partly sliced, which I thought was a little odd. A knife was provided to complete the slices.

Our manager ordered calamari as an appetizer. I recall from previous experience that calamari can be rubbery, but this was crispy and real tasty.

I ordered the charbroiled shrimp Greek salad. The salad was huge (I couldn't finish it), and came with 6 shrimp on a skewer. The shrimps tasted great.

Of the three others in the group, two ordered other seafood entrees, and one ordered a rib eye steak entree. Everyone said they were pleased with what they ate.

Definitely recommended!

Nice use for math

New math that works even for those (such as myself) who most of the time have fear and loathing of math: equations that illustrate non-math concepts.

Smarts Cars...

...Trying too hard to be cute? You be the judge!



(Photo taken by myself.)

Billboard Weirdness

Behold:

This went up recently over a major San Diego traffic intersection. One comment that occurs to me: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

(Click the photo for a clearer view.)

A whole bunch of nothing...

...Which is pretty much what my latest stint of jury service boiled down to today.

I ended up not being sent to a court, which I think has only happened once before in all the times I've gone to jury service.

The day started interestingly. During orientation, it was announced there would be jury panels for at least two longer-than-normal trials:

• One estimated to run seven days.
• And one estimated to run about six weeks! (Yikes!)

It was then explained under what circumstances potential jurors could request being excused from being included in the panels for one or both of those trials. I decided to request the financial hardship excuse from being on the six-weeks-long trial panel, as my firm does not give full pay for nearly that much time. I wrote that down on my summons form as per instructions and handed in the form with everyone else.

That was followed with what (to best of my recollection of previous jury service days) was a very high number of names of jurors being called to the jury services office and to the front of the jury lounge to speak with assistant jury commissioners about what those persons had written on their summons forms. I could only guess these were all about requests for being excused from the juror panels for the longer than normal trials, so I was somewhat expecting my name to be called for this. But that did not occur. (One really odd note during all this - one person's name was called four separate times to report to the jury services office! No idea if the person finally responded or if the person had left or just what.)

Once all that was resolved, names for the panels to go to courtrooms where the longer-than-normal trials were called. The second of those groups seemed to have a very large number of names called, so I guessed those were for the six-weeks trial.

During the remainder of the day two more panels were sent to courtrooms. After the second of those was gone, I looked around the lounge and had an impression (though I did not try to get a head count) there might have been just enough people left for one more panel. An announcement was made that one court had asked for jurors to be held for a possible panel. But eventually another announcement said that request had been canceled, so all remaining persons in the lounge were released and free to go.

As we left the building for lunch break, I noticed a remote news broadcast van for one of the local television stations was parked at the curb. I checked their web site to see if it has anything about what happened today at the court, and found this, which I am assuming is about the six-weeks trial. If that assumption is correct, it would also explain the high number of names that were called for one of the day's first two panels.

I do not recall if I have indicated this before, but I don't mind jury service at all. So, I was initially somewhat frustrated today about not going to a courtroom at all, but I reminded myself (as explained during orientation) that names on each panel are selected randomly by the jury services computer (once requests to be excused from a panel are finalized, that is), so I really have no reason to complain.

Let's get small

A little earlier today I was riding the San Diego Trolley back to where I had left my car this morning to go to jury service. The route the Trolley takes for me to get back to where I normally park my car after I have been in the San Diego Downtown area for whatever reason briefly passes San Diego's airport, Lindbergh Field. When this occurs it is possible to glimpse planes moving around on the tarmac.

When that occurred today I saw something I found very interesting: A small propeller plane that looked barely larger than a standard general aviation plane that had the FedEx logo on it.

Which instantly raised the question for me: Why would FedEx be flying planes that small? I'd never before seen a plane that small carrying the FedEx logo.

The answer appears to be "FedEx Feeder". (Oddly, I can't seem to find good references to this on FedEx's own web site, which is why I link here to a Wikipedia entry.)

License Plate Watch 40

Seen today on a Pontiac Vibe: "SURE YNT".

Well, all righty then.

Oh, joy

My postal mail today had one item:

The first mailing I have ever received from AARP. And, yes, in it was a membership card.

Gee, just what I needed.

(sigh)