This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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May 2005
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Hypocyclonic Regression

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A couple weeks yet until the season officially starts, but I noticed that the National Hurricane Center has started to update their danger map again after several months with no updates. And some people are predicting a season just as interesting as last year…

NOAA predicts above-average hurricane season
(Maya Bell, Orlando Sentinel via Tallahassee Democrat)

ou can’t take this to the bank, but here’s a safe, albeit unsettling, bet: The 2005 hurricane season should spawn at least seven hurricanes, with at least three of them ballooning into major hurricanes.

That was the outlook released Monday by forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who predicted that the coming six-month season that begins June 1 likely will be more active than normal.

If so, the 2005 season will mark the ninth above-average season in 11 years, adding credence to the notion that the Atlantic basin entered another and perhaps decades-long cycle of more – and more vicious – hurricanes in 1995.

Yeah, yeah, but what are the odds of four that can be felt in Brevard county again? (OK, that counts Ivan, when it wasn’t even tropical as it was doing it’s big loop, but still… we had some rain from Ivan, a pretty bad storm from Charlie, and pretty much direct hits from Jeanne and Francis…)

OK, odds are pretty good to not get hit two years in a row. But still, probably time to hit the Home Depot and get wood the right size for the new house.

I’ll be checking the danger map (above) daily again. It is fun to watch! There is already danger for tropical formation on there, although it is in the pacific nowhere near here.

This years names will be: Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katrina, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma. We have a Brett and a Dennis at work (although Brett spells his name with two t’s) and Brandy knows an Emily. I also once named a bug that I kept in a piece of wood Harvey. Rebecca later inhaled Harvey’s remains.

I’m thinking because of the personal connections to me those four are the most likely to hit us this year. If I had to place bets though, I’d say Harvey will hit Florida, then make a bee line for Virginia to get Rebecca. Those wood boring insects really hold grudges when you accidentially suffocate them in a Ritz can and then let your friend inhale them.

DVD: Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope

imageIn preparation for the new one coming out later this week, thought it would be good to watch all the old ones again. I had intended to start earlier, but only just got to the first (well, fourth) one last night. Unfortunately the bulb on the projector died a bit ago and we haven’t gotten around to replacing it yet. I had really wanted to watch these projected up to wall size, but that is OK I guess. Instead, we finally hooked up a five disk DVD player / receiver / home theater kit thingy that I had won in a raffle over a year ago. My other DVD player is in the family room for the projector (and temporarily for a regular TV there). We set this one up in the master bedroom. I got really frustrated by the lack of a backlight on the remote, but we watched the movie. The first half Brandy and Amy and I were all on the bed, then Amy fell asleep between us. All very nice. At one point though we needed to stop cause the dog needed to go out and Amy was crushing Brandy’s arm. Which inturrupted the flow a little, but would have been OK. But then when we were ready to start I hit the wrong button ont he stupid remote, then accidentially started the movie over from the beginning. Then I had to find the right chapter we were on and start it from there, which backed it up to repeat about 5 minutes. This confusticated me greatly, and I started to have a little fit, and almost stopped for the night with the intention of starting over from the beginning again the next day, because I was now completely out of the movie groove, and was too upset to really enjoy it all. But, after about 10 minutes I calmed down, and we watched the rest of the movie. Well, I did. Brandy fell asleep. (And of course Amy was already asleep.)

I’m not going to spend too much time actually talking about this movie, because well, everybody in the universe pretty much has seen it multiple times. Now, this was the first time I’d watched the DVD release, which had even more changed on top of what had been changed for the Special Edition releases a few years back. So it was cool looking for some of the differences. Also, I relized that I actually had NOT seen this THAT many times. I’d seen the end like a billion times, cause I would flip channels and see it on TV and watcht he end. And the closer to the end we got, the more was clearly remembered. The stuff at the beginning, much fuzzier. Not that there was anything I didn’t remember at all mind you (other than some of the new things) but it was just interesting to see how my memories of the end were much stronger than of the beginning.

I’m intending to post little snippets on each new DVD I watch (I won’t redo ones I’ve done before if I watch them again). I didn’t actually intend to start this with five star wars movies in a row, but it just happened to be the first ones after I decided I would do this. The last movie before these was Rebel Without a Cause if that helps. And there will probably be more variety later. We shall see.

Also, this will be like five in five days if I actually do all of them in time to watch the new one Saturday (not even thinking of trying for opening night), whereas I normally only get around to watching a DVD (either one of my own choice or one Brandy or Amy picked) once every few weeks.

Anyway, so that is Star Wars.

Oh yeah, and obligitory stuff…

I agree with the folks that say the change to when Han shot Greedo sucked. Still does.

I actually like most of the added affects, but there are a few that didn’t seem to fit quite right.

Even with redone CGI yet again, the Han / Jabba scene doesn’t work well. Should have just left it out still.

Uh, that’s enough I guess.