hello.

i have returned.

a selection of pictures (~200/650) are currently online. more will probably be coming. eventually.

because of flickr peculiarities, they are in reverse chronological order. going to the bottom of the page and clicking on the last one should get you to the beginning of the set. also please note, reverse chronological order includes the fact that the earliest photos are helpfully at the bottom of each page.

bye-bye.

goin' on vacation ^_^ leaving PHL in almost exactly 12 hours. various hotels have internet, but i'm not bringing my laptop, so i probably won't be posting ;) it should be fun. will be back, functionally, next wednesday. see you then.

unhappy conclusions.

i, over the last few days, been doing some schedule math, and i have discovered that in order to safely allow the government to go through their ridiculous security charade, i must arrive at the airport no later than 6:50AM next tuesday morning. this will involve leaving my house at approxomately 5:45AM. and never has the expression "ack emma" seemed more appropriate. luckily, mom has volunteered to drive us.

also, is it just me, or are we hitting an odd convergence here? first, you have this piece of advice:

Try to avoid wearing anything with metal, clothing, jewelry or other accessories that contain metal such as, heavy jewelry, clothing with metal buttons or snaps, belt buckles or under-wire bras.

and then this anecdote:

"I've put up with public inspection for the underwire in my bra, and when I protested, being told to wear a bulky sweater and go braless in the future.

hmm. a bulky sweater. or maybe a burqa? ;)

dear global intelligence community,

i see you done caught yerselves some terrists.

couldn't have waited until after my vacation, could you? *sigh*

current reading.

theology, mostly. just in case anyone was wondering, science fiction and fantasy is easier. i recommend Lord of the Rings and Neuromancer for a little light reading over postmodern theology.

on the other hand, i have a vacation coming up that will include 2 6-hour plane rides and 2 5-hour car rides, so a little theology might actually tide me over for the whole week ;) especially if domestic flights are going to go the way of the UK and start banning laptops/mp3 players/game systems from carryons.

a second woozle has joined the first.

er. heron. i saw a second great blue heron this morning. which is pretty cool. i tried to take a picture of it with my phone, but a) my phone's camera isn't very good, b) the heron was rather the same colour as the rocks around it and c) i can't get the picture off the phone anyway because i have neither the usb cable for it nor bluetooth. oh well.

i know there are two, because after seeing one standing in the creek in the park, i saw the second one in the other creek by the walnut st. bridge.

er. sorry, weather.

wow. severe thunderstorm. and here i've been claiming for years that i'm not a weather sprite.

AT 853 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNY SIZE HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR PERKASIE...OR ABOUT 19 MILES SOUTHEAST OF ALLENTOWN...AND MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH.

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. IF YOU ARE IN ITS PATH...PREPARE IMMEDIATELY FOR DAMAGING WINDS...DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...AND DEADLY CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. PEOPLE OUTSIDE SHOULD MOVE TO A SHELTER... PREFERABLY INSIDE A STRONG BUILDING BUT AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

we had the hail, the lightning, and the wind. as well as a heck of a lot of rain. this is pretty impressive.

sorry about the caps. the NWS doesn't believe in anything else.

stupid weather.

i wanted a thunderstorm, dammit.

power.

a battery backup has been purchased. whee! now watch it not be used.

this is my 301st post, according to blogspot. i'm surprised it lasted this long.

[update 3:37pm] i am surprised at how simple it actually was to install, including the friendly monitoring software. although i am now out of usb ports o.O

misunderstandings.

thanks to his research for school and youtube, i have finally seen the jon stewart clip where alaskan senator ted stevens now-infamously mixed metaphors regarding an attempt to describe what net neutrality is all about. everyone has jumped on his "the interent isn't a truck that you just dump stuff on...it's a series of tubes." i can understand why. it really is a wonderful sound bite.

but it's also not the most disturbing thing about that clip. the man is obviously elderly, obviously confused, and obviously misinformed. but i can understand why you'd attempt to describe the internet as tubes, mostly because a more common metaphor is to talk about pipes (all sexual innuendo aside).

the real horrifying quote, the one where he really displays his complete and utter ignorance and why we should be afraid of him is later on. growing, apparently, increasingly more frustrated with his inabilty to make his point, he says, "why...why just last friday one of my staffers sent...sent me interent. and i didn't get it until today!"

one of his staffers...sent him internet. the whole internet? that might explain why he's so flustered.

maybe he should be training his brain. no internet or tubes involved. oh. and believe people when they say sudoku is addictive. believe them.