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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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.
 A little while ago while I was on the way home from work, Brandy was cleaning the pool and suddenly saw a little lizard swimming as hard as it good and struggling but failing to get out of the water. She scooped it up with the pool net, and then was trying to release it, but it wouldn’t get out of the scooper. So she grabbed it… but then it would not let go! It was all about hanging on to Brandy after she saved it.
It held on for Brandy for about an hour and a half, until I got home, got a small terrarium set up, and we finally coaxed it (OK, pushed it) off Brandy’s hand into the case. It was pretty much in shock over almost drowning and using so much energy to try to escape, not to mention the cooling effect of the water. It so much wanted to just hang on. It was very small (just a baby) and vary cute. It was scared of me, but couldn’t get enough of Brandy. It just sat there on her hand. Let us pet it and everything. And would not get off no matter what.
Once we did finally have it in the terrarium with some food, water and some plants, it slowly got back to normal. A few hours later it was a bit more active and at first ran from Brandy, but once Brandy had it, it once again was reluctant to let go. She did manage to eventually get it to hop off onto a plant right outside our house though, and then it was on its way, returned to the wild after being saved and nursed back to health. Woo!
(I’d of course wanted to keep it, but Brandy said we should release it, and of course she was right…)
 Speaking of acheivements in the family… also about a month ago, something else was announced:
2005 Antoinette Brown Award recipients named
The Antoinette Brown Selection Committee today named Ruth M. Brandon and Barbara Brown Zikmund as the 2005 recipients of the Antoinette Brown Award. This honor is awarded to two distinguished clergywomen at the biennium gathering of the United Church of Christ’s General Synod.
Ruth M Brandon, originally from Vermont, is a graduate of Oberlin College (1963) and Union Theological Seminary – NYC (MDiv 1966) and Christian Theological Seminary – Indianapolis (STM 1983). Ordained in the UCC for 32 years, she is Pastor of United Church of Christ, Second Congregational, in Westfield, Massachusetts; is vice moderator of the national Wider Church Ministries Board and active in the Massachusetts Conference. Ruth’s ministry has included campus ministry, missionary work and settling refugees for Church World Service. She has participated in the struggle for peace and justice from Mozambique to Nicaragua and in this country’s peace, anti-apartheid, civil rights and women’s rights movements. As a missionary Ruth served as a teacher with Mozambicans during the war of independence and later taught Ethics at the Ricatla United Seminary. At the seminary, she organized the first conference for Mozambican women pastors and seminarians. Ruth served on two UCC conference staffs and directed a Campus YWCA which also served as a Women’s Center and related to many justice activities.
The award is apperantly a pretty big deal in my mom’s denomination. The actual reward will be given out July 2nd in Atlanta at the UCC General Synod. I have agreed to go to the event and introduce my mom when she gets the award. I have to come up with a 2 to 3 minute introductory statement. I have no idea what I will say yet. But I am sure I will come up with something. I was very honored that I was asked to do the intro… I wouldn’t miss it.
Congratulations Mom!
 This happened back a month ago, but I failed to post when it happened. But that gave time for it to be on the web where I could link to it…
Cynthia was in the National High School Moot Court Competition. Cynthia advanced through all the rounds. Ended up as one of the four finalists. The other three were Seniors, Cynthia is a Freshman.
This is not the first competition that Cynthia has been in the finals for (or won), and I’m sure it won’t be the last. She of course shruggs them all off. And, as her mom mentioned in an email, “This achievement would be greater cause for celebration if Cynthia had any interest in being a lawyer. She doesn’t.” She was apperantly drafted into the whole effort, and really didn’t have a big desire to do it. Of course, she did well anyway. :-)
Anyway, a belated congrats to my sister. I’m jealous! :-)
For anybody who happened to be wondering after my post a couple posts ago, the MRI results on my liver came back, and whatever they saw on the ultrasound that they thought might be a “nodule” on my liver turned out to be nothing. The MRI results came back showing no abnormalities at all.
Whew.
Now, still have a bunch of tests related to the kidney stuff that I have not heard back on yet, and don’t know exactly what the follow up will be given that the doctor is unfortunately gone. But hey, a few kidney stones every couple of years is a lot less scary and worrysome than being told that you might have unexplained growths on internal organs.
Just added a state to my map!
I’m in Tacoma, Washington for work. Just arrived here a little under two hours ago. It is my first time in Washington state.
12 more states to go to have all 50!
(Map made using World66.)
After my latest round of kidney stones back at the beginning of this year, my regular doctor reffered me to a urologist, who in turn refered me to a kidney specialist to help find out just why I keep making stones, and how to possibly prevent more. I went to my first appointment with him about a month ago, and was in the process of doing a bunch of medical tests, and had a follow up meeting scheduled with him for Monday.
This morning while getting yet more tests done, I heard the nurses at the test facility talking, and then Brandy found this article to confirm…
Brevard doctor dies in Keys’ diving accident
A Palm Bay Community Hospital kidney specialist died during a weekend Key Largo diving accident, officials confirmed today. Dr. Tarik Khair-El-Din, 44, was reported missing during a diving expedition Saturday to the USS Spiegel Grove artificial reef, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
That was my doctor. I had only met with him once. But he had immediately impressed me, because he took the time to talk and explain and answer questions, and just generally had a good bedside manner. I’d heard other people speak well of him too. Not much else to say. :-(
Meanwhile, the test I was having this morning was not my kidneys at all, although I have more of those tests yet to do. It was an MRI on my liver, because while doing the variety of tests for my kidney stones over the last few months, they found some non-normal results related to my liver in both blood work and an ultrasound. So this is to investigate further. I’ll get the results later this week probably. I am crossing my fingers hoping it is not serious.
As for the kidney investigation, no idea what will happen now. Guess I may be refered to someone else. Maybe. Not sure if I should still do the test scheduled for this weekend. Probably I guess. But it is a shame it will not be with Dr. Khair. :-(
OK, I took a long lunch to run some errands. I need to get back to work now…
Despite her initial concerns, as of today Brandy has a job offer, and should be starting work this coming Monday. As could be seen on the net worth chart I posted earlier, the general month over month trend has been positive lately with one income, but just barely, and not enough to overcome the big tax bill I had this year. With one income and three people, we could make it, but it would always be a bit tight. With two incomes… we should be doing pretty well.
Woo! We’re about to head out to celebrate.
One of the early features on this website, going back many years, was the chart of my net worth. It even spawned imitations. At some point along the line it went away though. For many years the chart of my net worth has been gone from the web. Now it is back.
Sam’s Net Worth History
This is a chart of my cash net worth over time. The actual values on the vertical scale have been removed for privacy reasons, but the trends can be seen. The main line is my cash net worth only. Meaning that it only includes accounts which have a direct known cash value and does not count the value of any hard assets I may have. Most notably, it does not include the value of the houses I have owned. I have added an additional set of green points indicating where the line would be if I did count the houses, and valued them at the prices I bought them for.
As of when I am writing this, there are no hits at all on Google for the word “Fishalump”. I don’t know why, but I have periodically been checking this for about a year. Maybe a little bit more. I don’t know what it means, other than occationally I have a strong urge to just say “Fishalump” a few times. Maybe even yell it. I have been meaning to post something about it for a long time.
I think this is an appropriate time. This is my 500th post since this site adopted a blog format. Woo! 500 posts!! Since I did those 500 posts over a time period of 647.123 days, that means I have been averaging one post every 1.294 days, or just about once every 31 hours.
OK, not as prolific as some, but more than others. I wish I was writing and posting more. Every single day I think of at least half a dozen things I want to point out or say here, but most of the time I think of them at times when it is inconvienant or impossible to post, and best intentions aside, I never remember to post them later.
Oh well. Still not too bad.
Guess I’ll see you again in about another 31 hours!
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