T.D. 1

And so the mad dance begins again. No, I’m not talking about midterm elections. I mean the Atlantic hurricane season. It lasts from the beginning of June to the end of November, but the designation is rather arbitrary as this period is when hurricanes are most likely to form.

Anyway, Tropical Depression One formed today, and like all good tropical systems that form in June, it’s very close to us here in Florida. They’re saying that it could become a tropical storm, which is one step below hurricane status, later today. The current forecast models have it swinging through northern Florida as a tropical storm within the next few days. However, these models track the center of the storm, and tropical storms are pretty big. In fact, I think the clouds we’re seeing in South Florida today are related to T.D. One. This seems to be a good opportunity to get some much-needed rain.

Earlier this year, I obsessed over a girl but never gave her name here (at least, not in connection with the crush). Attempts at the most basic kind of courtship failed. I had liked her before (long before) and have liked her since. I was thinking about this the other day when I had an idea. She had told me, “I just want to be friends. I know that’s not what you want, but when you do want it, let me know.” So I finally offered to be her Just Friend and she said it was okay. Now that we’re officially Just Friends, I’ll either (a) get over my thing for her or (b) allow her to fall for me. Either way, I won’t be sitting here knowing that my feelings are in vain. And with that, I thought you should know that her name is Autumn and, as you can see, she is a very nice person. On a similar note: I need a life.

A few months ago, the family of my friend Ipek suddenly moved back to their native Turkey for personal reasons. Because one of her favorite bands is playing in Miami in September, some of here friends have set up the Save Ipek Fund to raise money for the $900 plane ticket. I’ve already sent in my contribution. Won’t you please do the same?

StateMaster has all kinds of tables, graphs, and maps of statistics concerning the US states. For example: in which states are people over the age of 65 most likely to have had all their natural teeth pulled? At the top of the list is West Virginia, followed by Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. At the bottom is Connecticut, followed by Utah, California, and Minnesota.

This Finnish video from the ’80s could quite possibly be the worst music video ever (Google Video link). You’ll have to see for yourself. I think the song is pretty okay, though. I mean, I definitely didn’t find an MPEG version of the video so I could download a special program specifically to extract the audio as a WAV. Nope. Didn’t do that. No intention of burning it onto a CD either.

One year ago: “During this little expedition I found several dollars in change and a $50 check that I got for Christmas.”
Two years ago: “My freshman year of high school is over. It all happened so fast.”

So yesterday we went to Miami

Yesterday, my friends Kevin and Lisa, along with my sister and I, went down to Miami once again. We didn’t spend as much time there as last time, but it was still a long time: we left at 1:30 and got back at 9:30. There were no delays on the train ride this time, so we were in Miami relatively quickly (about an hour).

Once we got downtown, we decided that we’d go to the Omni Mall. Having seen it on a transit map, we made our way there by the Metromover only to find that it was no longer a mall but a college. We walked all the way back to the heart of downtown. It was a long time before we made it to an actual sidewalk. By the way, there’s a lot of construction going on in Miami.

After that, we decided that we’d go down to the Dadeland Mall. Last time we went to some stores that were near the Dadeland Mall, but we didn’t actually go to the mall, which is near the southernmost Metrorail station. (It’s near the station; it’s actually a few blocks away. A few blocks that you have to walk and cross streets that aren’t meant to be crossed.) We checked out some stores, but it’s a really small place, so we were done with that quickly.

By the time we got outside, it was looking like it was going to rain, so Kevin’s idea of checking out UM was scrapped. Instead we headed back downtown. Walking through the financial district around Brickell Avenue was interesting. The sky was cloudy and the road was already well shaded. An endless stream of large/expensive/fast cars passed us by. Kevin put it best when he said that the buildings were “throwing up suits and ties.” When we got back to the heart of downtown, we ate dinner at Bayside. Well, Kevin and I did, anyway. Kristen and Lisa shopped.

By that time it was time for us to go back, so we rode the Metrorail to the Tri-Rail to await the train. We actually get there in plenty of time, but it was better than missing the train, which happened to be the last one of the night. And then the train took us home, and that was it.

That Bill Gates has a big house. Take a virtual tour. Don’t bash me for using Windows.

“Necessity is the mother of invention. The father is unknown.” So says Patently Silly, a site that features strange but real US patents.

Two years ago: “For a young, young high school freshman who hasn’t gotten his driver’s license or permit yet, like, I dunno, me, an ID can be a your key to the world – whether for boarding a plane or just for getting a discount at the movies.”

Things that have happened the past few days and are going to happen today

On June 5, 2005, I was making my first attempt at the No S Diet. It didn’t last long, but that day I took a picture of myself — a “before” picture, if you will. So two days ago, I decided to repeat the process to show how I’ve been doing after 7 months on No S. The difference in the photos is pretty startling. In fact, it’s so startling that I won’t even show you. I can’t believe I had all that weight to lose (about 25 lbs.). It’s also hard to imagine that I was so chunky only a year ago. I don’t remember myself being that fat. Even now I don’t feel like I’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight; I pretty much feel like I did before, except a little more satisfied because I can (sort of) control my appetite.

Since I’m getting into lucid dreaming, I remembered that my sister has a book on the subject. I’ve started reading that. Well, since I’m just beginning, I’ve stopped at the part that says you need to write down your dreams so that you start remembering all of them. So I went and bought a small notebook yesterday to record my dreams. Unfortunately, I don’t think I remembered any of the dreams I had last night, at least not immediately as I woke up. But a few moments later, a dreamlike scenario entered my head. After agonizing over whether I should write it down (what if it wasn’t a dream?) I went ahead and wrote it down anyway. I don’t think I could have just made it up right then.

In a repeat of January’s excursion, Lisa, Kevin, my sister, and I are going on a trip to Miami today. Well, if it were a true repeat of that trip, we would have already left because we did spend the whole day there last time. Today, however, we’re leaving in the early afternoon. Once again, we’re making the best possible use of public transportation by using the Tri-Rail, the Metrorail, and the ultra-cool (and free) Metromover. I don’t know exactly what we’ll do. We’ll probably just walk around the downtown area and stuff like that. There might be shopping involved. But if we get a chance, I want to see the first Burger King if it’s still there. (So I’m a glutton…)

Apparently a professor at the University of Miami is a descendant of Genghis Khan. It makes me wonder if I’m related to any historical brutes.

1 man + 1 cello + 37 tracks = A Cello Rondo (YouTube video), a song consisting of entirely of 37 cello parts, which include percussion.

Back home

My family has returned from our vacation. We left the condo today just as a thunderstorm was arriving. All in all, I’ve had a very good time. I didn’t think I’d be able to spend so much time at the condo (Tuesday through Sunday) without getting bored, but it was actually a lot of fun, as it always is. On this trip, I’ve learned a few things:

• Florida is big. It may not look like it, but it is.
• You can buy Key West souvenirs in St. Augustine. Yeah, really.
• Tallahassee is in the middle of nowhere. When the bird flu pandemic strikes North America, Tallahassee will be safe for a very long time.
• Northern Florida is rural and pretty boring. Rural areas are full of small, hateful towns that have plenty of people who don’t know how to mind their own business.
• Central Florida is not as touristy as it may seem. Hills and lakes are cool.
• South Florida, where I live, is good if you like an endless jungle of suburbs.
• Coca-Cola BlāK is fine in small doses. Caffeine has an effect on me.
• If I buy three sodas on Tuesday, they all will be flat by the weekend.

In other news, Autostitch rules the world. Here are some panoramic shots I took on the trip. (Click the thumbnails to enlarge.)

Flagler College, St. Augustine

Old state capitol, Tallahassee

Inside the old capitol

Old Supreme Court chamber

At the condo: view from our 3rd floor balcony

View from the top (9th) floor, facing west

Here’s how to reduce clutter on your Windows desktop. These tips could come in handy.

Speaking of Microsoft, here’s a tour of their Mac lab, where their Macintosh software is produced. It’s a weird thought, isn’t it? I’ve never seen so many Macs in my life.

One year ago: “So before the grand excursion we’re going to immerse him in some good American culture.”
Three years ago: “If that’s not enough, they stay current with the world’s political scene and update their flag images when necessary.”

Pretty /b/ but no one did /r/ a rant…

Hello everyone, I am Gilbert. I shall be doing a guest post for today.

<guest post>

I wanted to be able to rant about something, but i couldn’t think of anything that would be proper to rant about. Don’t you just hate it when you cant think of what a good rant would be? So many things that suck and could be bickered on… yet I could not think of anything. A rant should be good, and have some sort of meaning to it, and if it can contain a lesson, that would be awesome too. But did I find a proper one? No… I did not…

Anyway… you may know me as the occasional mention on this web log, y’know, the guy obssesed with altering the images with pictures of Jordon… It’s fun… really. In fact I propose a competition… altering of Jordon’s picture, you wont win anything good… or anything… but you’ll have fun (and if Jordon put’s them up you can steal his bandwith later… or can you?) Anyway… just send the pictures to P.O. Box 5820 santa monica california 90091. < <(joke) Actually, send to hydrogsogilby at gmail dot com. The “winner” get’s a mention or something… but if you participate… then we’re all losers… I mean winners…

</guest post>

Hasta luego.

The condo

On Tuesday we left my aunt’s place and headed back south, but not to go back home. Instead we went to my great-aunt’s condo that she has on North Hutchinson Island in Ft. Pierce. Yesterday, my dad went back home to run a few errands (it’s not that far from here), and he got me one of my guitars. I didn’t bring any guitars for the trip because I thought I could go without them, but I was wrong.

Here’s a typical day at the condo. We wake up relatively late, eat breakfast, go to the beach (across the street) and sometimes the pool, have lunch, and then do afternoon things. Afternoon activities may include going to the rec room, sleeping, and going back to the beach or pool. Then we eat dinner, watch TV, and go to sleep. I usually sprinkle some going on the computer and playing the guitar in there somewhere. Sometimes I use generous portions. But hey, it’s vacation. I can do what I want.

Today the story has pretty much been the same. There was some rain and thunder this morning, so we were only at the beach for a few minutes. After lunch, my dad and I played pool while my sister and my mom played Scrabble. Later in the afternoon, we went back to the beach and then to the pool. That probably gives you a better idea of a typical day.

We return home on Sunday. Before that, though, we’ll probably swing by Vero Beach and make our usual trip to Cravings on the corner of Ocean and Bougainvillea. (Funny… we always get ice cream there, and I consider it an ice cream place, but their site doesn’t even mention ice cream.)

I started to hit a snag last night while using my dad’s laptop. I couldn’t get to MySpace, nor could I reach any sites hosted by NearlyFreeSpeech.NET, including this site. It didn’t matter if I was using Firefox or Internet Explorer, so it had to be a problem with the computer or the connection. I was stumped. So was my dad, who can usually figure such things out. While I was effectively locked out of my site, my pre-written post was posted automatically and on schedule, so all was not lost. Anyway, today it finally occurred to me that I could use a web proxy to access my sites, so I found one, and now I’m here again.

You have to really, really like Charlie Brown to get a Peanuts tattoo.

There are a lot of abandoned railroads in the US.

One year ago: “The lyrics to this little ditty are protected by copyright, but luckily, the melody is not.”
Two years ago: “Quick, what’s the only place in the United States where traffic keeps to the left?”