Archived News starting from 08-03-2004 and earlier
Today I had two seperate power outages. One at 10:43AM - 12:01PM, and another 7:59pm - 10:02pm. Both were more than long enough to exhaust the UPS battery on my server, so the website was unavailable for a few hours. While some signs point to a suicidal squirrel that took a dive into a transformer, I'm inclined to believe that once again the Woodward Dream Cruise had something to do with the power interruption. We're getting close to the anniversary of the "
Great Power Outage of 2003" which we all know was caused by the very same cruise. Todays outage was just a warmup for what the cruise ultimately has in store for us. Don't say I didn't warn you.
After returning from vacation to a green pool for the second time in a month, I decided it was time to disassemble my pool. The constant rainy weather (a new Michigan record set for May) and low temperatures kept me out of my beloved $200 pool most of the time and I wasn't getting enough use to justify running it anymore. Unfortunately, teardown was at least ten times more difficult than setup. Getting all the water out of the pool involved picking up the sides (covered with mud and moss) and channeling the water toward the pump intake. After that it was a futile attempt at hosing it down in the same mud I was trying to rinse off. With the pool eventually put away, the tarp came up and I was greeted with various roots and grubs that refused to let go under high pressure water. Total time required: 24 hrs to drain, 10 hours to tear down. On the plus side, now that the pool is down the weather will be hot and humid for the remainder of the summer.
Every year I help organize
Cougarfest, an event I started 5 years ago for new model Mercury Cougars. This year the lead organizers were very committed and I can confidently say it was the best yet. The first day was a meet and greet, followed by a track day involving autocross and drag competitions. Saturday was the main show with lots of modifications being done in the hotel parking lot. As always the best part was seeing the usual crowd and catching up with everyone. Since we owned the entire hotel, every room was open with various types of alcohol for consumption and people went from party to party. I tried my best to keep up but my low tolerance always means I pass out early. Myself and everyone who went are already looking forward to next year.
Photos from the event.
The server suffered a power outage on Friday (July 24th) at 6:55pm. The power outage lasted over 45 minutes and the server shutdown until "the fiance" revived it. Good thing too, because
Cougarfest is going on and the live web cam doesn't work well without a server.
I'm sure you've always wanted to know, so here they are:
Coat | Size: 44 XL | Over Arm: 48 | Under Arm: 38 |
Trousers | Waist: 34 | Outseam: 44.5 |
Shirt | Neck: 16.5 | Sleeve: 37 |
Shoes | Size 13 D |
After using a "debug mode" of my mobile phone that tracks things such as "Active Pilots," "Neighbor Sets", and "Recieve FER%" I decided to research the protocol my phone carrier uses, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). I was fascinated how I can get 300k connections wirelessly through my mobile phone in contrast to my old lowly 56k wired modem I had for so long before broadband connections were widely available. I also wanted to understand what the magical debug screen terms meant. I found
this article which gives a good high-level overview of how the protocol works. It starts with the original system used in north america and progresses through cdmaOne to the current CDMA2000 standard. Fascinating reading for anyone interested in cellular networks.
"
Alf's Hit Talk Show," airing tonight, is a poor attempt to disguise government propganda as a talk show starring a late 80s sitcom character. The comedy is from the same era, but the delivery is too poor to fool anyone into believing it's legitimate. Slowing down the broadcast, you'll see the real reason this show made it to your home. "REMAIN CALM IN UNSURE SITUATIONS", "OBEY AUTHORITY" and "OPINIONS ARE NOT NECESSARY" are just a few of the interspliced frames pushing subliminal messages during the broadcast. Perhaps the poor comedy is supposed to support these messages but I for one was unable to watch more than 5 minutes of it. This resurection of an 80s icon for government use is second only to the Scooter Store commercial with regard to new lows for propaganda.
Enorym is now engaged to
this girl in California. Together they are heading up the
Philipino political party with the primary agenda item to silence neighbors that complain when their children are sleeping. Congratulations Enorym! Here are some
relevant photos for the occasion. Excited about his recent engagement, Enorym has announced that not only is he now
a father, but also that his fiance and him are moving into a new house together! As before, here are
more appropriate photos.
The
annual celebration of our nations independence from the british colonies was today. Instead of firing guns we now light fireworks, but the end result is the same: lots of noise.
This girl was seen in northern Michigan celebrating. To the casual observer, she seems innocent but
this incriminating photo clearly reveals her true nature:
waterfoul stalker! Disguising
fetal pigs as potential mates, this twisted person lures aroused waterfoul into range and
fishes them out of the water. The
dance of confusion temporarily disorients them before she
turns them into squirrels. Look! There's
only one left! Run while you still can!
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