Standing in a Field in a Lightning Storm . . .

Okay, so it's not very bright. Add in an aluminum umbrella, an aluminum camera tripod and some powerlines nearby and it becomes even less bright. But, I did manage to survive long enough to get some pictures of the storm for everyone. Wow, what a storm.

Typo!

Seen tonight in a document: "In connection with a Successful Bid for one or more sites located in the Chicago area that are branded with the White Her Fanny Inc. convenience store brand . . ."

It's actually supposed to be the name of a real convenience store (left out here so I can keep my job), but the optical character scanner had a bit of trouble . . . Then again, a convenience store with that name might do well in the right neighborhoods.

Labels: proofreading

An Evening With Evita

Jamie joined the ensemble of a local theater for their performance of "Evita" and dropped a few subtle hints here and there about attending. Which I've since learned was code for "pick a weekend and order tickets *now*." When I finally checked last weekend, they were sold out. Jamie was a little unhappy that I waited that long. But . . . luckily for all parties involved they added one more showing (a "friends and family"-type showing that wasn't advertised) on Wednesday night. Amanda was gracious enough to accompany me (I'd like to say I bribed her with a ticket, but the showing was free, so I guess she was just humoring me). I showed up to the theater just before 7 p.m. and waited outside for Amanda. Eventually she came out of the theater and told me I could quit waiting across the street by the bus station. So we waited with the growing crowd inside. The theater itself is small (70 seats, according to their Web site) and we had a sizeable crowd, so seating was . . . interesting. I've heard the phrase "packing them to the rafters" before, but this was the first time I'd actually seen more chairs brought in and put into catwalks at the back of the theater. The director apologized for the lack of seating in a comical way by asking for donations from "those with good seats."

The performance itself was very good. The lead actors were very impressive and charismatic (I was struck by the singing voice of one of the male actors in particular). I had never actually seen this performance before (in any form), and although I was vaguely familiar with the historical time period and back story from a Latin American History class I had years ago in college I didn't know the actual story of Eva Peron. Amanda is a fan of the story (and has offered to loan me the Madonna version), so she had a point of reference (and pointed out the differences between the two versions after the show).

We caught up with Jamie after the show at the "meet and greet," just moments before she was swarmed by a pack of middle-school band students (hers, for those of you who don't know her). The performance ends on Sunday and Jamie has said that although she's enjoyed the run immensely, she's ready to do something less strenuous so that she can lose the crutches during the day (yes, that's right, she's on crutches during the day so she can dance at night . . . I guess she and her doctor have had some words).

It was a great performance and I'd like to say "go see it," but unfortunately if you don't already have tickets it's a bit late. At least until a viable time-travel device becomes available. Which, come to think of it, may explain why it was so packed tonight. So all of you people who haven't seen it yet and are planning on coming back in time to take seats away from those of us who showed up from this timeline, bite me. Or at least bring me back a souvenir.

Some other photos from the performance:
Dancing
The Final Number
Jamie

Video of the Dancing

This Time We Mean It . . .

Regular readers will remember my posts from February about the big snow Omaha received and all the fun we had digging out and figuring out where to put the snow. They might also remember a little diatribe of mine about my apartment complex plowing my parking lot and threatening to tow us if we didn't move our cars (with a good portion of my annoyance carefully cultivated by the fact that there were several cars, including one in particular, that did not move and yet were not towed). I noticed awhile ago that this same car has not, in fact, moved at all since then (and for however long before that). At first I was concerned (I ran through several scenarios, most involving some poor guy dead and rotting in his apartment and no one noticing), but I figured that sooner or later he'd miss a rent payment and the apartment would check up on him. Besides, the car was missing its plates. My guess was that it was either a second car that someone didn't use or abandoned (or stolen and dumped). In any case, it's now May (almost June) and the car hasn't moved since at least January. Apparently I'm not the only person who noticed, because one morning a couple of weeks ago a bright orange sticker appeared on the windshield. Once again the apartment complex is threatening to have it towed. This, the car around which they plowed for a month after threatening to tow it if it was not moved. The problem? The deadline on the sticker was a week ago and the car is still there. It would appear that the apartment complex has yet to grow any teeth.

Storm Clouds Off the Port Bow

Lots of fun weather stuff here on Saturday night. I spent 5 hours at work finishing up an "asap" project (don't you love how "asap" projects never have an actual deadline? Just "asap"). The security guard came up at one point to let me know that there were tornado warnings out and that if he called later I should head for the sub-basement. Luckily for my project, that didn't happen. I finally finished up around 11:30 p.m. and headed home, through a heavy rain and a really great lightning display. Great enough that I, once again, decided to spend 45 minutes kneeling underneath my umbrella in the wet grass next to my tripod trying to catch photos of the lightning. Once again, the results were less than spectacular. There has to be a better way to photograph lightning. I ended up taking 28 pictures, off which only three contained lightning (and the one with the best lightning is blurry). Okay, technically the second picture doesn't have actual lightning in it. It's the afterglow from lightning to the left of the picture. The fourth picture is a representation of the other 25 pictures. They're all pretty much the same. My legs finally started cramping up so I called it a night.

I had a nice scare on my way home from the office, too. I was leaving I-680 to get on Maple and while approaching the intersection where the I-680 offramp meets Maple I was suddenly greeted with approaching headlights. Turns out some guy got confused in the rain and the dark (it's almost midnight, after all) and the catastrophe they're calling "construction" on Maple and turned one intersection too soon, putting him in a rather precarious position traveling the wrong way down an offramp. He panicked and swerved and I panicked and swerved and we missed each by what to my panicked brain seemed like 5 feet (I'm guessing it's more than that, the human mind tends to exaggerate when in fight-or-flight circumstances). He immediately pulled a U-turn behind me (I'm sure he was thinking some colorful euphemism for "OOPS!") and pulled in behind the car one lane over (luckily for him at midnight the offramp was relatively deserted). That's the closest I've ever come to a head-on collision. I had a nice little dose of adrenaline for the next 15 minutes. :)

Humans Don't Deserve This Planet

Somedays you just wake up and think that this planet would be much better off without the scourge we know as humanity. Such petty little differences and desires resulting in so much destruction. I have very low expectations for the future of the human race (I give us another two centuries).

Sorry, I'm being gloomy and pissed off over this article.

I'm not even going to title this one. I'm tired and I'm going to bed. It's been a long day. I have a big project at work that's consuming all of my time (plus some). I was looking forward to coming home, turning on my air conditioner and enjoying a cool, non-humid apartment (it's incredibly humid here). But no. Instead, I spend an hour moving boxes, throwing away ruined items and mopping up water that my air conditioner (which isn't working at the moment) has dripped into the closet. Yay! I have fans running to help dry things out, which isn't doing much to lower the humidity in my apartment . . . Gah, maybe Friday will be better.

On the lighter side, I laughed when I walked to the office to drop off a note to maintenance. As I'm walking down the sidewalk I can hear this repetitive metallic ringing sound. Turns out someone designed the sprinkler system in a brilliant configuration. I'm sure that doesn't bother the occupant of the closest apartment at all (since his/her bedroom window is a good 20 feet away). It at least made me laugh.

Crunchless

More evidence that the Universe is going to continue to expand forever, eventually growing cold and dark as the stars die out rather than ending in a cataclysmic "Big Crunch." Very sad. Of course, our planet will have been incinerated a few billion years before that . . .

Labels: science

Sound Off

After taking pictures (and video) at the Hindu Temple on Saturday, I returned home (in a roundabout way that took me to the Dippin' Dots stand at Oakview) and downloaded the pictures to my computer. I recently bought a new USB 2.0 card reader for my computer and this was my big chance to see how cool it is. So I take the card reader out of the box (which means I cut it out of the plastic container using a pair of scissors that mangles the package so much that there's no way I can return it) and hook it up to the USB port in the back. That's when I discover that not only does this card reader automatically add 4 more drives to my computer (G: through J:) but also puts this annoying little icon down in the task bar (I'm particular about what goes in my task bar). So I eventually decide it's cool but I'm not going to leave it plugged in all the time and unplug it (I have a USB port in the front that I'll use when I need it). Then I start going through the pictures and videos of the Hindu Temple to put on my Web log. I start frowning when I click on a video and it opens . . . without sound. I turn my speaker volume up. No sound. I then follow these steps:

1. View video on camera. Sounds works there.
2. Go through all camera settings. Verify there isn't a "turn sound of videos off" function.
3. Redownload video. Open video on computer. No sound.
4. Shoot a new video of a television commercial. Sound works on camera. Download video. No sound.
5. Go through Canon ZoomBrowser program looking for a "video sound" function. Not found.
6. Go online to Canon's technical forums to see if it's a common problem. Not found.
7. Search on Yahoo for "canon elph video no sound." Nothing found. Try various other search phrases. Nothing found.
8. Frown in frustration. Disconnect camera from computer.
9. Notice that the computer does not make the normal sound it makes when a USB device is disconnected. Notice that the computer is, in fact, not making any sounds at all.

And, finally . . .

10. Reach around behind the computer and plug in the speaker cable that came unplugged while plugging in the USB card reader. (I have to pull the computer forward to fit my head behind it . . .)

Gah.

Going to the Temple

I expanded my understanding of comparative world religions today with a visit to the open house being held by the Hindu Temple of Omaha (conveniently advertised in a World-Herald Article that talked about the effort and materials that went into the Temple's construction). I dumped all of the raw photos into a folder for those who want to experience the beauty of the temple without my commentary (and for those of you who think I'm boring). For the rest of you . . .

The temple is located just north of West Center on 130th Street, behind a Target. I printed out a map from Yahoo, but it turned out to be hard to miss. I had to fight for a parking place in the parking lot, which was a good sign for their turnout. I'd honestly considered the notion that I'd be one of a handful of visitors, given the religious stance of the state, but I was pleasantly surprised. The temple had a respectable crowd. Approaching the front of the temple (for the second time, after I forgot to switch my sunglasses for my regular glasses in the car yet again), I was impressed with the statuary and decoration on the outer facade (this was my favorite picture, by the way). The front entrance was flanked by a pair of elephants that amused the children greatly. Once inside, the patrons hit a slight logistical problem. Once getting over the initial shock of being asked to remove shoes (I heard a couple of people express reticence and one jovial guy joked about leaving with a nicer pair of shoes than he'd worn), we were directed to a hallway that lead to a coat room. The problem was that the hallway was the only path to and from the coat room, which meant we had four streams of people using it at once: those arriving with shoes, those shoeless returning to the front door to see the rest of the temple, those shoeless returning to retrieve shoes and those with shoes leaving the temple. It was something of a traffic jam, but everyone survived.

A room off to the side of the hallway featured a troupe of young girls dancing (I don't know its significance; there was no guide or explanation). Eventually the path led back to the main temple (note the bare feet). The main temple is a large room with a skylight surrounded on the periphery by individual shrines to the different deities of the Hindu religion. Each shrine had a volunteer speaking about that deity's traits and significance (although to be honest, between the noise and the fact that the volunteers tended to lapse into question/answer rather than making the same speech to each wave of patrons, I didn't learn much about the deities themselves, certainly nothing I didn't already know from my World Religion books). The center of the room was dominated by a shrine to Ganesh, who was visible sitting on a throne through a door on the east side of a small room. The southeast corner of the temple contained an open fireplace, although its significance was not explained.

The temple had a good crowd and I was pleased to see an interest in it. I would have liked to have had a bit more instruction on the significance of the various deities, but I can understand that the volunteers were not trained speakers (and had already been there for several hours). It did make me want to go find my copy of the Bhagavad Gita and reread it.

Here are the links to remaining shrines. Enjoy.

One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six

Iron Deficiency

I received a "promotional mailing" (i.e., junk mail) today from Omaha Steaks (a well-known local purveyor of assorted meats and "meat products"). I was part of a "select group of people" who received an offer for $193.00 worth of meat for only $59.99, plus a free set of knives. Which is amusing, since I don't eat red meat (this has raised the ire of certain cattle-raising associates of mine, but I'm sticking to my guns, er, soy patties). The promotion (which came in a huge envelope and was two single-spaced typed pages of gimmick) included this guarantee: "If you're not absolutely thrilled with your purchase from Omaha Steaks -- for any reason at all -- we'll cheerfully replace your purchase or refund your money, whichever you prefer." So I'm tempted to order it, give the meat away to my cattle-imbibing friends, and then call them up with the following conversation:

"Yeah, I wasn't absolutely thrilled with my purchase. Why? Well, because I don't eat red meat. No, sir, not at all. Yes, I knew I don't eat red meat before I ordered it. Why did I order it? Because you sent me the flier. Well, it's not my fault you send fliers out to vegetarians. Your guarantee says 'for any reason at all.' I'd like my money back."

Suppose it will fly?

Today is Thursday

Today is Thursday. Thursday, P.E., everybody happy! Sit down and work.

Sorry. That's a little jingle that my class sang in first grade (we had one for each day of the week, with the rotating class - P.E., music, art, etc. - substituted as appropriate) that I still sing in my head every time I hear someone say "Today is *insert weekday*". We even had little actions to go along with the song, although I don't remember them. Just the jingle. Ah, the mysterious ways that the brain remembers things set to music. For example, when I was growing up in western Nebraska, all three of the radio stations were country. I have no affinity for country music (and haven't listened to it at all in almost a decade), but, because of mass exposure to it, to this day I can turn on the local "oldies" country station (the stuff from the seventies and eighties) and sing right along with whatever is playing. Seriously, I have something like an 80% hit rate (one of my coworkers tested me over a week). I haven't heard these songs in 15 years but after hearing one line I remember the entire song. It's kind of scary how much cerebral hard drive space I'm wasting on old country music songs when I could be remembering much more important things, like the names of world leaders or the combination to my gym locker.

Thursday here is grey and overcast. We went from 90 degrees on Monday to 43 today. Welcome to Nebraska. I spent 20 minutes crouching under my umbrella with my camera and tripod last night trying to catch some of the lightning (on film, not in my hand), but it wasn't cooperating and all I got was 23 pictures of darkness. I finally decided it was too wet and cold to be worth it. So I went inside and made myself an egg-and-cheese whole-wheat pita pocket. And then promptly forgot to shut off the electric burner until I woke up this afternoon. Way to go, genius. Buy a new computer and then burn it up when you set your apartment on fire. Oops.

It occurs to me that since text doesn't transfer music, no one else has any idea what the little jingle sounds like. I can't put the text to words (unless you talk to me in person), but I can give you the rhythm pattern. Imagine a class of 6-year-olds chanting this:

to-DAY is Thursday. to-DAY is Thursday. THURS-DAY, P.-E., EV-ry-BO-dy H'PPY! sit DOWN and WORK!

Okay, nevermind.

Always Pick "C"

I came across this scan of a chemistry test that one unprepared but amusing student put up on the Internet. Funny stuff. I would insert humor into my exams from time to time when I was in college, but only after making sure I had sufficiently answered the question. I'm not that brave.

Ack, Sunlight!

After my CPR class last Tuesday I had some time to kill before I had to be back at work, so I wandered around the Mall downtown (for those of you not from Omaha, it's not a shopping mall, it's a park) and snapped some pictures. I threw them into a folder today. Eventually I'll make up a Web page for them (and the other 5 folders of pictures in my Weblog . . .). Let me know what you think.

Monday Update

Wow, that was an inspiring title. Go me. It's kind of a "blah" day, so forgive the gentle hint of sarcasm underlying the words.

I only did three things of note over the weekend (not counting laundry and grocery shopping). Count 'em, folks:

I finished setting up my new computer. I ordered it last Sunday, and apparently it was a slow week at Dell because it arrived, from Texas, on Wednesday afternoon (the UPS guy thanked me for being there 'cause the box is huge). I had the amazing willpower to leave it in the box on Wednesday night and went for a walk instead, but by Thursday night I was unpacking and reconfiguring. Saturday was spent stripping the usable components out of the old computer and inserting them in the new one. With some advice from Mike (whom I owe a batch of waffle cookies) and Mull, I managed to move everything over myself (a first), so by Saturday night I had a fully functional 3 GHz Pentium 4 computer with all of my old data. There are still some annoyances (I couldn't get Outlook to run on it, so I'm relegated to Outlook Express, and for some odd reason javascript-style drop-down menus don't work in Internet Explorer), but all in all it's good. It looks just a *little* goofy with a white CD burner on an otherwise all-black case, but I'll live. Now I just have to figure out what to do with an enormous box and the remains of my old computer. Everyone who was e-mailing me at other addresses can go back to my usual ones now. :)

I saw "Dawn of the Dead" at the dollar theater (actually the $1.50 theater) on Sunday afternoon. With all of four other people in the entire theater. Popular movie. There was a woman in line in front of me with an infant (very young, probably only weeks) in a carrier that I was not sad to see go into "Cody Banks" instead of my theater. Babysitters, people. "Dawn of the Dead" was decent. Predictable, but decent. You'd think the characters in the movie would learn that if being bitten by a zombie turns you into a zombie, running around in t-shirts may not be a good idea. You're in a mall, people. Go get biker's leathers from the sporting goods store. Ironically, the majority of the movie takes place at "Crossroads Mall," of which there is one in Omaha . . .

I spent almost two hours on the phone with my grandmothers (an hour apiece; we weren't on a conference call or anything). I tried to call my mom, but the phone was busy both times (you need DSL, mom; I know, I know, it's not available yet - that means you should move). Happy Mother's Day all around. :) My mom called on Friday to thank me for the tulips I sent, and to report that my brother was unhappy with me for showing him up yet again this year. He'll get over it. He's just jealous because mom loves me best.

Exciting weekend, no? ;)

Old Books Are Cool

Even digital old books (not quite as cool as real old books, but I can't afford most real old books). The British Library has put several Shockwave-enabled virtual editions of old books onto the Internet complete with audio commentary and a virtual magnifying glass. It's an easy way to kill an hour (and learn something, too!). My personal favorite was Vesalius' Anatomy. Nothing quite like 16th century anatomy textbooks.

Maybe It's the California Air . . .

My friend Cindy is participating in a 7-day, 585-mile bikathon from San Francisco to L.A. in June to support AIDS/LifeCycle, a nonprofit AIDS-awareness organization. To train, she's riding between 40 and 80 miles a day (in addition to her full-time job). That's more than I've ridden in my entire life . . . I'm not soliciting donations, but if you feel like donating, don't let me stop you. Good luck Cindy. :)



(Psst. Hey Cindy, the spellchecker wanted to change "bikathon" to "fixation" . . . I think it knows you . . .)

Bloodshot Eyes . . . Drunk? No, just tired.

I'm relegated to the work computer for all of my correspondence for the next week or so, leaving me disconnected from the world in my apartment (not to mention it's really quiet). I'm so used to using my computer for so many different things (tv schedule, outside temperature, movie showtimes, store hours, etc., in addition to news and chatting with friends) that it's an interesting change to just sit on the couch and flip channels. Not that I've been a total couch potato (so far, anyway). On Sunday I did laundry, washed my car, applied waterproofing treatment to my car's windows, went for an hour-walk in the park (while scattering breadcrumbs from a stale loaf) and went shopping. Today I had my CPR recertification (at 8:30 a.m., thank you very much). So I got 2 hours of sleep before spending 3 hours watching the same training videos I've seen for the last 4 years (wow, if I could think of something I did involving "5" today I'd have a string going in this sentence). After the class I wandered around the park downtown for 45 minutes and took some pictures (which no one can see until I get a new computer to which to download them), then surprised a friend of mine who works at one of the local malls (and spent $40 at said mall), then took 4 boxes of stuff to Goodwill (it's been sorted and sitting in my bedroom for a month, I just haven't actually delivered it). On the downside, I'm really tired and will most likely be dead by the time I get off work. On the upside, I satisfied my craving for Dippin' Dots (don't laugh, it's really good).

And they still didn't let me shock anyone with the AED. *pout*

Ack!

That pretty much sums it up. My computer took a dive today (I'm posting from work). The motherboard shorted out or something (Mike, who was really nice about taking a look at it for me, is pretty sure it's the motherboard or the processor). It won't even power up. :P So . . . the computer I've been planning on ordering just got pushed up. I just spent $850 on the Dell Web site for a computer that I'm hoping is here by next weekend. In the meantime, I guess I'll learn to knit or something.