Acknowledging the rather large caveat that October isn’t here yet and could be anywhere weather and temp wise, it was 38 this morning when we came down to let the dogs out, making it very October-like. Yesterday the temp didn’t get out of the 60’s and it’s more of the same today, despite sunny skies.
Have to admit, I like it.
I caught a little of TWC’s new Storm Riders show. My impression is that it will be a short lived show. Obviously, the whole premise for viewership is adrenaline. The two tornado chasers get as close as they possibly can to the storms and start taking pictures. The problem is, how does this not become “if you see one show, you’ve seen them all?” Sure, it’s different for the two of them every time, but they’re actually doing the chasing.
The other comment I wanted to make was about the editing. They had some incredible pictures and video of tornadoes. But they way the show is edited together, it isn’t possible to actually see anything. The pictures are constantly changing and switching views and angles. They even show still shots taken, but only leave them on screen for a second.
I’m sure the intent is drama. But the effect is frustration. It would be nice, since these two guys are getting phenomenal video of tornadoes, to be able to actually see the storm as they see it- how the debris moves, how the clouds spin around the funnel. Instead, we get at most a few seconds of footage, followed by fancy editing and shot sequences that make it impossible to really see anything of interest.
They probably could have done these guys more justice by giving them a 2 hour show where they narrate their video and explain what they’re doing and feeling. As it is, there just isn’t much to get excited about.
I remember that day with clarity. It was a beautiful sunny day.
I was at work and browsing the web (on a dial-up connection, remember those? HAH!). At that time, I would check the various news sites looking for the latest bit of inanity. I wasn’t a news junkie (I’m still not) but I paid attention to events.
I remember bringing up MSNBC’s site and at that time they would have a single picture and headline to try and grab your attention for a new story. The picture here was an aerial shot of the Twin Towers, and the headline said simply “Plane crashes into World Trade Center.”
I remember my first thought being “Great, some idiot flew into the building.” The picture and headline made it sound like it had been a small private plane. I didn’t even bother mentioning it to anyone else in the office.
Then facts started flowing in and word spread through the company- we’d been attacked by terrorists. A plane had crashed into the Pentagon as well, another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I remember a TV was setup in the company’s conference room and for the rest of the day, we milled in and out of the room, watching and waiting for the latest bit of news. When we left the room, it wasn’t to work but to talk quietly about what was going on. Little work was done after 10AM that morning.
When the Towers finally fell, there was an audible gasp in the room followed by silence. One of my fellow engineers just put his head down. Talking about it later, I remember him saying simply “It was already bad before that, but when the buildings collapsed … Man, that just made it a lot worse.”
Since that day, we re-elected George Bush and subsequently elected our current President. We’ve warred on 2 countries. I got married on a beautiful Spring day that following April. I’ve now got 2 kids, 2 dogs and a cat. I’ve got 2 birds too- but I remember they were already with me that day nine years ago.
9 years later, I still remember.
One of the gifts the kids got me for my birthday was an RC helicopter:
You see those little missile thingies on the bottom of the ‘copter? They actually fire and are controlled by the remote handset. Both kids have been extremely intrigued by those missiles and want “their turn.” Naturally, I have to wonder if they got the toy with me in mind, or themselves.
Earl is out there, but not here. We’ve been dribbled on and that’s about it. No power outages, no wind. Nadda. Zip. Zero. Zilch. The last rainstorm that came through here was more impressive.
Of course, I’m not on the Cape. They’re supposed to be getting the nasty stuff. So on the whole, I’ll chalk this one up to good fortune that it went East.
Earl may have been a no show, but that doesn’t mean I want to deal with him.
Hurricane Earl isn’t supposed to hit us directly- but we’ll likely get whacked by the outer bands. So far, local forecasts are predicting tropical storm force winds for the coast, but nothing so bad where we are. Mainly rain- and I’ve taken some action on that front to help keep water out of the basement.
Assuming that Earl doesn’t just continue due North at this point, our prep is basically going to amount to assuming that the power will go out. We’ll be getting batteries for flashlights and I’ll be filling propane tanks as well. We’re also planning to wind-proof the place as best we can- umbrellas, lawn chairs and what not. I’ll be filling some jugs with water tomorrow morning and we have some bleach, but that shouldn’t be needed for at this point.
The kids are both aware of the hurricane and had been getting real agitated about it, so we’ve stopped watching weather forecasts when they’re around. That’s helped settle them down, though they still ask about it occasionally. We just keep assuring them that all will be well. Frankly, having them calm is the best help they can offer at this point.
All this is subject to change should the track forecast change. But the weather guys have been pretty consistent in predicting that Earl will head NorthEast and pass mostly to our South and East. So it doesn’t seem necessary to get too worked up about it.
For now.
AKA: The Desert Rose:
The Wife and I went to a local Verizon dealer to get a better handle on smartphone purchases. The phones themselves are slick pieces of work. With just a few seconds of poking around, I was able to start operating the phone usefully- entering contact info, executing searches, browsing, launching apps.
Despite the off-the-charts “coolness” factor of a smartphone, current contracts make owning one prohibitively expensive and restrictive. Verizon basically “holds you up” by mandating “Thou shalt purchase a data plan” if you get one of their smartphones. That’s an extra $30 a month. What’s more, it’s a per phone charge. So for the Wife and I, double that number. And that’s just for data.
Considering that we already have landlines and internet service at home, that’s a hefty premium for the privilege of owning a smartphone.
I was playing a racquetball game when I was around 8. I had only just begun learning to play. I wasn’t particularly good, but better than average. Good enough to think I could play better players and beat them.
I was wrong but I refused to admit that to myself. The result was my calling frequent timeouts and being next to tears in the corner of the court, frustrated at my inability to beat my opponent.
Got an email this morning about cell phone numbers soon becoming available to telemarketers. So, in a fit of curiosity, I decided to do a little research and turned up this blurb. Basically, the email is a bit misleading. Yes, you an add cell phones numbers to the registry by calling the number. But no, telemarketers are not allowed to call cell phone numbers, or more specifically, they can’t use robo-callers to call cell phone numbers.
So, basically, participation is optional.
Ever since we picked up the new TV, we’ve been considering a Blue Ray player to go along with it. Earlies this week, we finally followed through with a player from LG.
What really sealed the deal, speaking personally, was the extra features of the player itself. We can subscribe to online movies from NetFlix, use Pandora Radio, and several other online features. Obviously, the NetFlix thing is intriguing since for a flat monthly rate, we can watch as many movies as we want. Very cool.
Not that we’ll be watching movies ’til our eyes dry up and fall out, but I suppose we could.
Anyway, the kids christened it with The Sword in the Stone and now the Wife and I are getting our turn with Sherlock Holmes. I’ve also tested the Pandora application and it works swimmingly. We’ll give the NetFlix thing a go in a week or two.
The Highlander just passed the 100,000 mile milestone. We hit it just at the horse farm at the beginning of our street. It’s been a remarkably trouble free 100,000 miles. Although it’s been leaking transmission fluid lately- so that needs to be addressed if we want it to make it for another 100,000.
Life as an SAHD isn’t that boring.
Honest.
The one with it’s peak buried in the clouds is Mt. Washinton. We pulled over to take some pictures of the sky line; we were about 25 miles South of it.
Another July. Another heat wave. It’s official- July is my least favorite month. I’m doing my best not to complain, but if the Wife is any kind of judge then I’m failing pretty miserably at it. Even last July, which was much much cooler, sucked because it was 100% humidity all the time. This year, it’s not that humid all the time, but that’s because it’s 90 friggin degrees every day. And there’s no end in sight.
Perhaps when July 31 roles around, there will be.
I’ve finally reverse engineered my Grandmother’s potato pancake recipe. Not that it’s that difficult; quite the contrary, it’s simple. The problem is each failed attempt makes it necessary to wait a bit longer on the next attempt because no one wants to eat them. Then, they’ve got a reputation for not being so good and no one’s willing to take a bite.
I knew I finally got it when I gave the Wife her serving and she stated “Wow, these are actually really good.” Score one for me. Also, I’m thinking the Sister will be most interested in this particular post, since of all us siblings, she enjoyed Grandma’s potato pancakes the most.
After talking to Mom and the Wife, I just wanted to clarify that, while the boy does get frustrated with reading at times, the experience as a whole is not frustrating. The learning curve is steep, and he is definitely making progress.
The overall point of the post was that learning to read is difficult because there are no hard-and-fast rules regarding pronunciation. Just about any arbitrary letter combination has multiple exceptions that must be memorized. Really, it’s an exercise in the student recognizing the printed version of a spoken word. After that, it becomes possible to make educated guesses regarding pronouncing a new word.
Hope that makes more sense.
Just saw it reported on TWC that the well leak has been stopped. Judging by how quickly the conversation turned to the relief well, I’d say that it’s a day-to-day thing. Certainly, BP isn’t going to get cocky at this stage. Still, it’s welcome news. Here’s hoping there’s no problems with the relief well and that it’s just a cleanup operation from here on out.
Teaching the boy to read is a rewarding but arduous task. I’ve never thought about it before, because I never had to. But as I’ve been sitting and helping him to sound out words and the like, I’ve come to realize just how difficult reading English is.
This is a must read for any parent who takes their kids swimming. Really. Go read it.
Now.
(hattip: John Gruber)