Month: July 2005
In the Lap of Apple
I just bought a Laptop…. An old one at that but it’s an atempt to move forward in the mobile generation.
And it’s an Apple.
As someoen who’s been a PC user since his old man bought one about 15 years ago, I’ve only had brief interludes with Mac’s. Not just that but I’ve had zero to no experience with laptops as well. I’ve wanted to try out laptop technology but I haven’t. I’ve wanted to take advantage of wireless access points when traveling but I haven’t had the chance.
With plans on doing Press stuff at the St. Pete Times Forum this year, having a laptop will be a necessity. i’m just hoping this little baby is going to work out great.
Laurel (oak) and Hardy
The acorn planting experment has been a big success. Basically all you need to do with Laurel Oak acorns is pick them / harvest them, make sure they are clean and good (drop them in water and if they sink – they are good) and refridgerate them to keep them fresh. The acorns won’t last forever int he ‘fridge but they will last much longer and remain potent.
So now I have several Laurel Oak sapplings in pots and don’t know what to do with them or where to plant them. I’d be more than willing to sell them off — but they are still very young (all less than 8 months) and very small.
To plant them on public property is to suscept them to being mowed over. To keep them is to simply put off their dying. I’d like to move some of these (the tallest ones i have are 18 inches or so) but where and how – I am not sure.
The Saddest thing about the NHL Lockout ending…
…..Is that I will have to start actually writing something worth a damn at Boltsmag / Raw Lightning
Where ya been, Johnny?
I guess this has something to do with my absence…
Madeline… Just under 9 weeks old:
Real Estate
It’s scary to find that there are more places I can afford rent wise in Los Angeles than there are in teh Tampa Bay region.
Unless I suddenly win the lottery that is :}
Roving Yeti
Hand it to Matt over at Defective Yeti… He takes the time to break down the entire Karl Rove / Valarie Plame scandal and show why it’s a scandal.
Usually a comedy blogger, Matt shows his chops on something much more meatier.
Wordsmith
It’s happened a lot before, I start drawing conclusions on any situation that I’m told about and those conclusions — be they correct or not — could be the synopsis of a story. It’s only occasionally I sit down and decide to hammer out the idea that crosses my mind isntead of letting it pass into oblivion. Tonight was one of those nights.
I’m chatting with Jenna and she informs me about finding two little black kids peering into her van at Sabal Walk. She asks them not to get fingerprints on her windows and they ran off screaming. I think about it a minute and then tell her that the kids could have been made to think bad things about her and the cages (dog cages) that are in the back of her van…
From one brief spark, a fire is born.
In 15 minutes I write an ultra short story — just under 900 words — talking about the kids and what could have led them to react like they had. There were racial issues and social issues and just flat out childhood reactions that all come out. I’m not all happy with the length but I am happy I wasn’t so lazy with putting the story down that I didn’t do it. It was a solid concept and it was supposed to be brief in the telling. to begin with. I would have liked 1000 words and I might try to edit the story up but for the time being I’m happy with what I got.
Rove Did It
But of course I expect conservatives / Bush supporters to point at the source and complain:
But before you dance or roll your eyes at the news, take a look at part of the story:
Explaining that he had obtained last-minute “personal consent” from his source, Cooper was able to avoid a jail sentence for contempt of court.
Rove conscented being revealed?
How am I gonna' pull this off?
Every time I bring a dog up at home – watching dogs for friends or having another dog in teh household – I get a flat out “no” from family.
Excuses and lack of discussion – and gang-up-on-John BS.
Well, how do I break it to everyone that I bought a dog months ago? Especially when I show up with her next week?
Here we go again — another blow by blow story by Mother Nature
I really had been treating Dennis as another spectator storm much like Cindy for the Tampa Bay area after early computer models had it taking a western track to Louisiana. No harm, no foul. Just a little rian and a lot of clouds….
Yeah, well, over the last day my opinion has changed…. Especially after I took a stroll earlier this evening and came across a neighbor boarding up her windows.
Here we go again — two years running. Flood watch in effect til Sunday even though no affects of Dennis shoudl be felt until later — much later.
Oil Dependence and national drilling
So there is that contingent of closed minded individuals who think drilling nationally is going to save us from foreign oil… More local oil will lower costs long term and what not…
And yet one tropical storm comes through the Gulf of Mexcio – with another on the way — and prices skyrocket. The gulf is where they want to do more drilling in addition to doing more drilling in ANWR…. And yet if one storm reeks havok on domestic oil prices, can you imagine how bad it would be in the future if we were more dependant on gulf oil?
Of course, the solution is alternatives and alternatives escape the logic of those in power — so we remain screwed as a nation because of little minds and little logic.
PING PONG, GAME MATCH!
James Stockdale — Ross Perot’s running mate in the 1992 election — has passed away.
My title reference pertains to a Saturday Night Live skit with Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman playing Perot and Stockdale respectively. That’s basically most of what I know about Stockdale which seems a travesty. Me and the neighborhood kids would do parodies of Phil Hartman’s parody all the time…
PING PONG, GAME MATCH! OUT OF AMMO! ARE WE THERE YET?!
Walk like a Sabal
Jenna’s got something going for her and going against her at her apartment in central Clearwater. She happens to live in the Sabal Walk apartment complex which is near the corner of Highlands Avenue and Union street.
The complex is close to shopping, which is a plus. It’s not far from Clearwater Beach or the Intercostal Waterway which is also excellent. It’s at a central location close to her parents and her friends (such as this Artful Dodger) and it’s got a hell of a lot of floorspace for a one bedroom apartment. It’s also reasonably priced.
…but there’s a reason for that.
Jenna moved in when we were dating in February and before she moved in, she found a huge piece of sheetrock removed from the ceiling. The Office Manager said there had been a leak but it was fixed. It only took a couple of days in the apartment to find out it wasn’t however.
And Jenna waited, and complained, and waited for the roof to be repaired. The only means of repair that Sabal Walk employed was poking a hole in the sheet-rock so that water would flow out more easily… That and vacuuming up water that accumulated in the bedroom.
It took until just this past week to get the roof repaired — four months?! And yet there are other incidents around the complex where the apartments are leaking.
Of course, this is disregarded by the powers that be. I didn’t mention that the majority of the Sabal Walk populace is minority. Anywhere else and there’s a media sensation about slum-lording at Sabal Walk.
But down in central Clearwater, also known as Crackwater, it’s simply written off.
SO just for future reference — Sabal Walk happens to have pretty good prices if you’re willing to deal with poor maintenance. You also better not be some bigot or you might not enjoy your stay.
Rove-ings
I really don’t know what’s more depressing about the fact that (finally) it seems Karl Rove has been found to be the leak-source in the Valerie Plame case…. Not that many who are farmiliar with Rove’s dirty handed politics are surprised.
I say “Depressing” because there are a couple of things that are negative when I look at the situation:
- * Some people don’t get what the big deal is outting a CIA operative
- * Some chicken hawk patriots were quick to name those who opposed the US invasion of Iraq as traitors, and yet no one from that group is going to think that Rove as a traitor (doing what he did out of political vengence)
- * Despite all mounting evidence of corruption in the White House, those loyal to Conservative ideologies remain oblivious as to the direction the United States is heading under such corruption.
- * If Rove is indeed the guilty party, the President will quickly and simply sign a Presidential Pardon and send Karl on his way to the private sector
That last item… That’s the one that hurts the most because that’s what I expect from Bush and I expect a ho-hum response from America, unfortunately. They ho-hummed Richard Pearle. They ho-hummed Paul O’Neil… I can see them ho-humming this….
Is it possible for them to say anything else? Such as “enough is enough?”
Revamping Boltsmag
I’m not a real CSS junkie but I am getting better understanding of it now… And that is reflected in part by some changes I am developing for Boltsmag… I’ve created a site specifically for CSS Development (I will likely use it for this site sometime) where I have been tinkering away. I’m not quite done yet but hopefully soon.
Edit: WOW, with how well the new site has transfered and how comfortable I am getting with the CSS, I am goign to have to work on revamping Der Stonegauge now…. It’s high time I fixed this shit up….
High Treason
There’s a report out saying Karl Rove is the leak in the Valerie Plume case… This makes Rove guilty of High Treason for revealing a CIA Operative’s identify.
Who wants to bet George W. Bush signs a Presidential Pardon soon after and then Rove goes off into the private sector?