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
|
I was actually asleep when it happened (I think) but about 10 hours ago at 02:36:03 UTC it was exactly 34 years (at 365.242199 days each) since I was born. Woo! Go me. I am tired.
I’m at work right now, and am trying to be all 100% focused at work and not do things like post while I am here, so I’ll keep it to that. Short post. Want to go home and back to bed.
But instead, I’ll drink my coffee and get to work. There is a lot to do.
Hmm, just for fun, I’ll set this post to be published exactly 10 hours after the moment, rather than approximately. Woo!
Ophelia, first a tropical storm, and now a hurricane, has been sitting just off shore from where we live. Sometimes wobbling a bit north, sometimes a bit east, sometimes a bit south… this radar image is as of about an hour before this post. (Follow the link to current radar.) We’ve been right on the edges of the outer bands of the system for days now. It was a little closer yesterday, but not as strong. We’ve been getting lots of nice rain. No really high winds though. But the silly thing is just sitting there, right off shore, practically within sight… teasing us with its presence.
The forecasts have it basically staying stationary right there off shore, slowly gaining strength, for the next few days. Then early next week it will do something. Exactly what, nobody really knows. The hurricane center‘s best guess as of the last advisory was that it would slowly move east, then loop back around clockwise and head back in our general direction… or maybe somewhere else entirely. There will be a new advisory in a few minutes, and of course another every 6 hours after that. We’ll be paying attention.
At the very least, we’re getting several more days of lots of rain as outer bands occationally cross over our heads. At most, sometime in the next week we get a hurricane banging at our door.
Guess we’ll be watching it.
But the strangest thing has been just watching the radar, and seeing it just sit there. Right off shore. Moving slightly every once in a while, but basically just sitting there. Eye and everything. Within sight. But not coming toward us. Not going away. Just sitting there watching us as it spins. Shaking my confidence daily. Well, not really, just had to get a plug in for the next line of the song. I’m not going to be on my knees begging her to come home though.
Anyway, for the moment, the weather is fine, but…
I’d been waiting to hear if anybody had any news on Snowball… for those that didn’t catch the stories on it… When they were loading people at the SuperBowl into busses to evacuate, one of the people being loaded was a little boy… who was clutching his dog snowball, who he’d managed to keep with him through everything. Well, no pets were allowed on the busses. So one of the National Gaurd troops stationed there took Snowball away from the boy. The boy was apperantly screaming and crying “Snowball! Snowball!!!” and was an absolute mess as he was pulled onto the bus, and ended up throwing up because he was crying so hard… Anyway… an update:
Sad Story of Boy and His Dog Grips Nation
(Paul Webber and Brian Skoloff [AP] on Yahoo! Asia News)
Late Monday, there was a ray of hope. The United Animal Nations said Snowball was safe, citing news from the state veterinarian’s office. However, the information could not be immediately verified. To complicate matters further, the group called Snowball a terrier mix, while others consider the dog a bichon frise.
If the boy and his dog are indeed safe, they have beaten long odds.
Many of the animals _ dogs, cats, ferrets and birds _ that police collected at the Superdome were herded into a stairwell until the human evacuation was complete. Of the 50 animals rescued from the Superdome on Sunday, not all of them survived.
(via Drudge Report)
Unconfirmed of course, but hey, it is something.
And yes, in the grand scheme of things, this matters absolutely nothing. I know that. But it is one of many stories that just get at you when you hear them.
And of course, even if they do know where Snowball is, they haven’t yet located the boy.
 We actually watched this almost two weeks ago, but Brandy fell asleep during the last of the six episodes, and so we didn’t put the DVD in the mail to return until yesterday when Brandy finally got around to watching the last episode again. :-)
This story did very little for me. I just wasn’t into it. It has the Ice Warriors. Yawn. It did have an amusing trip in a rocket and the doctor running around defending himself with trashcan lids with light bulbs stuck to them. So you have that I guess. But that’s about it. Oh! And wait, the Doctor running in terror from soap suds! I didn’t even notice that the Doctor wasn’t in the 4th episode at all until I read the summary online. Well, OK. I kinda did. He had been knocked out and spent the time unconcious.
I find myself hankering to move along and get to the 4th Doctor episodes. Or at least the third. And color. Color would be nice at this point.
The one we just watched was going to be the last 2nd Doctor episode in our sequence as we went through the stories available on DVD… but just last week they released another one. We’ll be watching out of sequence because this one aired before the one we just watched, but that is OK.
I’ve been meaning to post about this since about Tuesday, and it isn’t really timely any more, but oh well, I’m going to post it anyway. In the couple days immediately following Katrina’s second landfall I was hearing two distinct sets of comments that annoyed me. (And I know I’m not the only one, but hey, I’ll throw in my comments.) The comments from a variety of sources, fell into two categories:
The underestimators: These were the people saying “This is so much worse than we ever imagined!!”. And I’m not talking about your average person on the street, I’m talking about people in positions of authority. People who had no excuse whatsoever. This was not worse than could be imagined. This was in fact MUCH BETTER than the worst case scenerio, which had been discussed and analysed in detail for literally decades. There had been articles and papers and documentaries. Some recent, some going back years. And it wasn’t as if people weren’t talking about it… incessantly… from almost the moment Katrina left Florida and entered the gulf… about just how bad it would be if it hit New Orleans… and then the track maintained a bullseye on the city for a decent amount of time. Anybody paying attention knew it would be very very bad absent a huge amount of good luck. And as it happens, that good luck came. Less than 12 hours before landfall, Katrina sucked up some dry air on the Northwest side that destabilized a lot of the flow, weakened the hurricane significantly, and cause a wobble to the east… this was bad. Really really bad. But it is not “worse than we all imagined” it is actually considerably BETTER than anyone who was paying attention and actually believed the warnings thought. Brendan Loy, a great source through this whole thing, lays out the whole thing in more detail in terms of what could have happened and why everyone should have known.
The overestimators: Then there are the overestimators. This seems to have died down a lot since the beginning of the week, but there were a flurry of people comparing Katrina to the Asian Tsunami. I know there seemed to be some superficial similarities, and yeah, I saw them too. But as bad as this has been… it is a tiny, miniscule, insignificant event when compared to December’s Tsunami. OK, “insignificant” is not the right word. Any loss of life or property is significant. Especially to those involved. But these two events are simply an order of magnatude different. Take everything you know about what has happened in New Orleans this week. Multiply by 10. Maybe 20. Then you are getting closer to what happened in December. This seems bigger because it is HERE and NOW, and the other was THERE and MONTHS AGO. Looking at this hints at just how bad the earlier situation was.
Anyway… like I said, probably should have posted Tuesday, but I’ve been busy. By now lots of people have said both things. :-)
Now (hopefully) the worst is over. There will be much work to do and much hand wringing and blame throwing. In the end, New Orleans and the whole coast of all the affected states will probably be better than it was before. Just might take a few years.
Aside for a few hours when Brandy (wisely) made me turn it off so I could get some work done for work that I needed to get done this weekend, I’ve pretty much been watching Hurricane Katrina coverage non stop for the last 19 hours. I can’t turn away. It is looking like this will be very bad. How bad all depends on if the surges are really high enough (as everyone seems to expect) that the levees in New Orleans fail. Although as the night progresses, they are speaking more and more about the effects in the whole region in addition to whatever happens to NO. And they are saying the way it is veering in these last couple of hours may be better for New Orleans, and worse for Mississippi and Alabama. And it has shown some slight weakening (but is still very very strong). We shall see I guess. In just a few hours.
I just finished what I needed to do for work. Well, I wanted to get even more done for work this weekend, but I made the mistake of actually relaxing for a few hours on Saturday. But I got the stuff done that I needed to. It is now just about 5 hours until the alarm starts going off for me to get up and go to work. Amy has the day off from school, so neither her or Brandy actually have to get up. I have to get up and do the work thing.
I am torn. I want to stay up all night watching more coverage, and then stay glued to the TV for however long it takes before the situation stabilizes. But on the other hand, I need to get at least a couple hours sleep before going to work.
And of course, it will kill me to leave the TV to go to work. But one does what one has to do.
In any case, best of luck to those about to be hit. I know what we went through last year here in Florida sucked, and this looks to be much worse unless it fizzles at literally the last hour. So… good luck. Especially to those who were stuck and could NOT evacuate for whatever reason…
One more note. If when you read this events are still ongoing, check out Brendan Loy’s Blog. I’ve been checking it a few times an hour for most of the evening, and he’s got some pretty good info and commentary on what is going on.
 Last Saturday afternoon, I printed out the showtimes for March of the Penguins and took them over to Brandy with a begging pouting face. I’d been talking about wanting to see it since I first saw the poster. It just sounded cute. And different. Brandy said OK. Amy was amd though, cause she wanted to go over to a friend’s house. A little later, clsoer to time to go, Brandy and I had a little brushup about the tadpoles. Then Amy got more mad about having to go and slammed doors and such. And I started saying I didn’t want to go if nobody else wanted to go. Then Brandy insisted that we were all going to go, and we would have fun damn it!
So, we all packed into the car, grumbling all the way. But by the time we got into the theater we mostly felt better (all of us) and then the penguins started being cute. And then that was that.
So yes, the penguins were cute. And there was drama and death and life and all that. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but then again, I didn’t know exactly what to expect other than a documentary about penguins. And it was that. And it was a good one. Lots of cute penguins. It didn’t blow me away. I wasn’t quite in the mood for that. But I did like it. Definately worth a viewing.
And in the end, depsite her protests… Amy liked it and thanked me for having us go. So good.
 As any of you who read the comments thread on my School Daze post know, in the end we did indeed decide that it would be best if Amy changed schools. Brandy spent a few hours online researching the West Melbourne School for Science and comparing it to where we were, Riviera Elementary School. No offense to Riviera intended at all, but once we did the research, there was no comparison. Amy started on Tuesday, and has now completed her first week. (Well, not full week, but first calendar week.) The picture shows her proudly showing off her school uniform the night before her first day. She LOVES the uniform and is very proud to be at West Melbourne. When she siad good bye to the kids at Riviera there were impressed sounding murmers through the room “Amy is going to West Melbourne!!!”. Apperantly West Melbourne has a reputation, and it is a good one.
As it turns out, is it not JUST a lottery to get into WWSS, it is a lottery amoung those applicants that qualify. So right there, you are already getting a situation where the average performance is higher (and according to the test scores and such we could find on line, MUCH higher…), so teachers and staff can concentrate on stimulating and enhancing the kids who “get it” rather than on discipline and catch up for the kids who do not. This isn’t to say that those kids don’t need that and should get that, but the kids in the other half need to be pushed forward rather than have to wait for the others…
Anyway… not only is there a bit more concentration on science… tehy have science labs and a biodome and more extensive science fairsa and compete in science competitions with other schools… but everything else is an upgrade too. The music program has an orchestra program that will allow Amy to play the instruments she already plays and takes lessons in, rather than forcing her to play “this grade’s instrument”. There is a chorus that takes itself seriously. Then there are clubs and such for a variety of interests that meet before and after school. The the after care program that goes until 6 PM for when Brandy and I are both working and can’t get her earlier… isn’t just an after care where they give them stuff to play with and keep them safe, but is actually an “educare” where they have structured activities that actually are still useful. (And of course they can work on homework.)
At Riviera we were a litte worried. She wasn’t liking the strict old fashioned behavioural model her teacher was enforcing. I figured she would get used to it, and a little extra discipline was not bad. But perhaps there was a bit TOO much emphasis on that at the expense of other things. She was making friends, but hadn’t really yet latched on to any group. And she said actually told us she was frustrated by one person at her table and how they, and I quote, “didn’t care much for their education”.
The contrast is evident. Now Amy has been coming home absolutely thrilled. She is very excited about school. She is being challenged by the homework, and LIKES IT. She likes her teachers. And she is horribly proud of her uniform. She says the uniforms “make everyone the same on the outside” and she likes that too. She is excited about several of the clubs and such. She joined the orchestra and chorus immediately, and on the first day the orchestra leader said she didn’t have to come to the extra practices they are having this month to get everybody up to speed to start, because she was already up to speed… but if she could come anyway to tutor and help out the two boys who are also playing the bass, that would be wonderful. So she is tutoring two boys on the bass, and again, she is thrilled.
We saw in the paper that some of this reshuffling is due to the fact that many of the county schools ended up with fewer children than they had expected. Many were dozens of kids short. Just fewer new people coming to the county than they thought. West Melbourne was THREE children short. Amy was one of those children they brought in because of that shortfall.
I can’t say at this point just how glad I am that they were three kids short, and our lottery number was such that we got in, and that we made the decision to switch. It has only been a week, but so far everything is looking really good, and there just seems to be so much more opportunity for growth here. This looks like it will be really good for Amy.
We have a parents open house on Monday evening. Brandy has gotten to go there and meet the teachers and such already. I haven’t yet because of work. I am very much looking forward to it…
This is the golf course in our back yard:
Neighbors scramble to save Palm Bay golf course
(Victor Thompson, Florida Today)
Retiree Charles Madge is on a mission to save Port Malabar Country Club’s 38-year-old golf course by any legal means possible. Just one problem: The course’s current owner, Palm Bay Greens, may want to build houses on it. Neighbors have spoken out against tentative plans to turn the private course into a residential development since Palm Bay Greens bought it for $3.8 million in June 2004.
They don’t do a very good job communicating when all these meetings are and such. I might have considered going. But I had no idea until I saw this article. Once the golf is gone, I probably would prefer a park to houses, but I’m not sure I’m going to go be an activist about it.
We of course were told that this was in the works before we bought the place, so it isn’t a surprise, but since moving in, this is probably only the second time I’ve seen something really talking about it. So I probably would have gone somewhere to find out more about what was going on. If only they’d left us a pamphlet or something.
Over the last week or so (maybe a bit more) I’ve kept a list on a piece of paper of things I wanted to blog about. Of course, I haven’t really had the time. Especially with me doing the blocking the web at work thing. And then when I get home there are almost aways other things going on. Either that, or I am sleepy and crash.
Anyway, rather than full posts on any of these, here are some quick notes on several topics:
In early July we went cash flow positive for the first time since buying the house and moving. (With the exception of a spike when I liquidated some stuff to pay taxes in April.) Now, the total net worth trend has been up since the taxes were paid. But a lot of that is in forms that aren’t easily usable (like retirement funds), and some of it will eventually go away (like withheld taxes). Here I’m talking JUST checking accounts (mine and Brandy’s). The month over month delta numbers on our combined checking balances finally moved into the green around the first week of July. I was very happy about that. Of course, for a variety of reasons, I expect we will dip slightly back into the red shortly, but hopefully that won’t be for long and we’ll soon be green for good… {If this had been a full post, I would have added graphs and stuff…}
At one point last week there were NINE baby frogs sitting on the egde of the tadpole tanks waiting to hop away. And we’ve seen bunches of new medium size frogs hopping around that probably came from our tanks. Yea! Bunch more tadpoles still in the tanks.
DirecTV slowly but surely pulling away from Tivo pisses me off. I’ll reserve full judgement until they release their HDTivo replacement thing later this year. If it blows the socks off the HD Tivo, well then… OK. I’ll reluctantly say goodbye to Tivo and go on to the new best thing. But… I love my Tivo damn it!
In the new Battlestar Galactica, a spaceship named the “Gideon” was the site of a massacre a couple of episodes ago. I congradulate this Gideon on his obviously mounting influence.
Speaking of BSG, I was shocked to see there were a bunch of online discussions a few weeks back on who was right, Adama or the President, when Adama jailed the President after they had a dispute, Adama would not do what the President wanted, and the President went around him to get it done anyway. Obviously this was a military coup and the President was in the right. Or at least I thought it was obvious. Lots of people seem to disagree though.
The people who are going to put the screen back on our pool will be here “any day now”. It was supposed to be mid week last week. Now it is maybe tomorrow, maybe early next week. We (well, mostly Brandy) spent a bunch of time and effort trimming back the bushes and plants around where they need to work, so they can do what they need to do. Time for them to show up.
I’d been delaying taking my car in to service for awhile (other things to spend cash on). A couple weeks ago it started making noises that made me think the wheel was about to come off. Actually, it didn’t start suddenly, but slowly built up, but only recently did it get so bad I was afraid for my life. So I took it in. Needed a new bearing and hub on one wheel, and new front breaks. About $600. Bleh. Done now. Car is much better.
I’ve been playing more games on ICC lately. I play maybe once a week. I was really excited a few days ago when I won my fourth game in a row. (I always play people within 10% on either side of my own rating.) But then I lost the fifth game. Oh well. Maybe I should post my games here? I am also in the middle of a game with Amy. She has improved a lot. She is holding her own with me in this game at the moment. (I think I’m like a pawn up, but I’m not crushing her.) I am very impressed.
In the last few weeks, I have gotten emails from people who live in both Lac Megantic, Canada and Orotukan, Russia. They both found my webpages about those locations and wanted to comment. The person from Lac Megantic said that I hadn’t visited long enough, and I should come back for a longer visit and I should be sure to visit a specific restaurant he recommended. The person from Orotukan mentioned that in my list of links about the place, I neglected the site that he manages… orotukan.ru Which is of course in Russian, and I can’t read a single word.
Brandy’s dad has been in the hospital and has had a couple of surgerys to address some serious problems in his leg. He is doing much better now, and is in better spirits than he has been. But he is still in the hospital right now, and once released he will be in a rehabilitation program for quite a while probably. Here’s hoping for as quick a recovery as possible, and no more complications…
A few months ago they opened a Whataburger near where I work. I had never of heard of them before, or eaten there. To be honest, I was kind of scared. Earlier this week I went there at lunch and got take out. It wasn’t bad. I went again yesterday. I may add it to my rotation of Wendy’s and Burger King that I go through when I forget to bring lunch from home.
Kelly emailed me a little bit ago to let me know that my former employer in New Jersey now blocks this website as inappropriate for work viewing. “Clubs and Discussion Groups” category. Woo! I have been banned by a major financial institution! (Or, more likely, whatever blacklist provider they use.)
OK, all that is more than enough for now. I have held back a couple of things which I still intend to make full posts on. Perhaps I will post about those things this weekend. Maybe.
|
|
