Zippy Hendirez 3.0

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

 

Turn, You Friggin Bastard, Turn

If the storm keeps this course, or slightly more north, we'uns are going to get ourselves a probable Cat 1 hurricane over us late Sunday or early Monday. Suffice to say, in a land of mobile homes, sustained 75mph winds would be a friggin disaster this far inland.

If hurricane tradition holds, Frances will turn more north prior to landfall. How much will determine how bad things get for us.

It could turn out to sea, too. One can only hope.

Zippy 3:14 PM

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Sunday, August 29, 2004

 

Because Fresh Is Better

So, Squeaky and I go shopping at the Mart of K today, and we buy socks...in resealable packages.

Why? I mean, really. Why do I need a resealable package for SOCKS? I know NO ONE who stores them for future use...if they do, ODDS ARE THEY DON'T OPEN THE BAG UNTIL THEY NEED SOCKS>

Then it hit me.

Why?

Because fresh socks just taste better.

Zippy 9:43 PM

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Friday, August 27, 2004

 

Tripping Down Memory Lane

Back in first grade, I met Bob in grade school. He and I lived in the same neighborhood for years, and with others, we were the general mild-mannered terrorists of the hood...such as we were.

In high school, I met Wendy. She was (and is) one of the kindest souls I've ever met, and I was smitten immediately, although, in typical Zip fashion, I did nothing about this except to become good friends.

One day, while on the phone, Wendy and I exchanged the old "Who do you like?" while looking through the most recent yearbook. Wendy said to turn to a certain page, row and photo and said she really liked him.

Of course, it was Bob.

So began an exchange of information as Zip, friend became Zip, matchmaker. One particular Saturday morning, I managed to coordinate Wendy visiting the pizza place Bob worked at during the time he was on break.

11 years ago, they got married, after going to college together (along with me) at BG. They have two kids nowadays.

I got to see them again last night for the first time in four years, and meet Squeaky for the first time. It was a nice time (except for being in a bar--cigarette smoke pretty much kills my voice in no time).

It's vaguely astounding how little they've changed in appearance. It was also nice that Wendy and I felt like we were just restarting a conversation ended the last time we saw each other. It was fun to remember how my first photo that I took with a serious (i.e. non-Instamatic) camera was of Bob taking a whiz off the side of a canoe.

There's a certain nostalgia to the past that pervades after decades, yet I can't say I miss the old days all that much. But I do miss having the two of them around. Perhaps one day they'll end up down this way, though odds are that means we'll move the week they leave. I say this because the month I moved to S.C., they moved back to Ohio. My new apartment was about a mile from where they moved from.

Ferris Bueller was right. Life does move pretty fast sometimes.

Zippy 1:55 PM

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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

 

Turkey Trots To Water...The World Wonders

So I go to traffic court in Anderson Wednesday because the DMV never got around to sending us a renewal for one of our cars' registration, and it lapsed, and a nice trooper reminded me it lapsed to the tune of $150.

Grrrr.

I get to court. There's about a dozen of us, other flotsam and jetsam from the roadways of the western Upstate. I'm here because the trooper said very specifically that if I showed up the court, the judge would help me out. A lot, he said.

I have run into this before. Squeaky had a $240-odd ticket dropped to $45 by going to court. I had an improper backing ticket (obtained while in a news truck, trying to let someone into a gas station--never again) erased by the officer when I showed that the station's insurance company had paid for the damage (but not the $5,000 the driver asked for for "chiropractor bills"--I hit him doing 4 mph.)

Despite the fact that my ticket was about the middle of the stack presented up front, I was passed over repeatedly as others went before the judge, who would take their plea, scribble something, hand them back the ticket and tell them to go down the hall to pay their new, reduced fine.

Finally, when no one was left but me, she called my name. I told her that I was indeed guilty, but showed her my tax receipt to prove that I did pay my property tax on time, and therefore, I wasn't deliberately avoiding my registration fee (property tax was $216, registration was $24...which would I avoid if I could?)

She looked at me, nodded, and said, "Okay, you're set".

I blinked. She didn't hand me my ticket to take for payment.

I realized, suddenly, that she wasn't going to give me the ticket back, because it was going away. And as I glanced at the trooper, I realized why I went last--I was the only one not paying a fine today, and everyone else had left the room.

So I smiled a bit, nodded to my new friend (Trooper Burgess, of the SCHP, if you happen to run across him in your travels, is a good guy), and went to work.

Then I went to the other appointment...with my doctor.

I'd been having some pains that I couldn't explain. Without going into details, the end result is this: I do have something wrong, but it's not serious yet, and I can do some things to lessen the impact, possibly enough that surgery wouldn't be needed. Woot?

What's funny is that, if it's the cause of all the pain that I've had in this region, I've had this affliction in some form for better than 20 years, undiagnosed. So it's definitely been skating under the radar.

So, here's hoping a little directed exercise can help limit the impact.

Tomorrow, new tires for Squeaky. I drive stick shift for, I think, the first or second time since we got the new car (with automatic), and hopefully, get together with some high school friends of mine that I've not seen in five years or so.

Oh, and the post title? The concept is this: Sometimes, despite the best efforts, a message gets garbled and things unhinge. Nothing to do with my life. I just find it interesting:

As Kurita came crashing down on Ziggy Sprague's Taffy 3, Kinkaid was sending frantic messages seeking help for the disaster that he was sure was about to befall him. The first message stated "Urgently need fast BBs Leyte Gulf at once" (BB was the naval abbreviation for "battleship.") At 9:00 was another message, "Our CVEs being attacked by 4BBs, 8 cruisers plus others. Request (Admiral) Lee cover Leyte at top speed. Request fast carriers make immediate strike." Halsey returned messages stating the position of his forces, to show Kinkaid that his assistance was impossible due to his position so far to the North. In utter desperation, Kinkaid sent in the clear (uncoded) a message "Where is Lee? Send Lee!" Halsey was at this time quite concerned, and as he was about to respond, he received another message. This one was not from Kinkaid, it was from his commanding officer, Admiral Chester Nimitz in Hawaii.

This message was not sent in the clear, it was encrypted. And as an encrypted message, it had nonsense phrases selected from a codebook appended to the beginning and end of the message set apart by a pair of repeated characters, in an attempt to throw off any enemy deciphering of the message. For example, if a commander wished to send a message to instruct his forces to attack the enemy at dawn, he would send something like "RAIN MAKES MUD PUDDLES QQ ATTACK THE ENEMY AT DAWN LL PUPPY DOG TAILS". In the course of naval transmissions, the enlisted men responsible for receiving these messages would customarily clip the padding before delivering the message to the intended recipient. When Nimitz grew confused about the situation off Samar, he requested that Halsey be given a gentle nudge, to ask what the location was of Admiral Lee and his fast battleships.

The message sent by Admrial Nimitz and received aboard the New Jersey was "TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG WHERE IS RPT (repeat) WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS". When the message was delivered to Halsey, the padding "Turkey trots to water" had fortunately been removed, but the signalman recording the message failed to remove "the world wonders" from the end of the message. Halsey read the message as a stinging slap from his friend and advocate, and with great emotion threw his cap to the deck. And then, reluctantly, he ordered his battleships to proceed South in an attempt to respond to Nimitz and to save Kinkaid. Unfortunately, due to his northern position, he would arrive off Leyte a day after the Japanese had left. Had Halsey stayed on station off San Bernardino Straight, he would have had his massive surface battle. Had he continued on to the north, a different yet still massive surface battle would have resulted. But, instead, his fleet of fast battleships sailed ineffectually between the two engagements, unable to participate in either.

There you go. Your useless trivia for the day. Now shoo!

Zippy 11:10 PM

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Monday, August 23, 2004

 

If Only My "F" Was Purple...


What exactly is this world coming to? Apparently, some teachers are purchasing purple pens to grade papers because, to quote one, "If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening,"

Who exactly is saying, "Man, I flunked that test, but since she graded it in purple, that "F" is a lot more palatable than if it had been in red"?

Okay boys and girls, lesson one: It's supposed to be scary. When a teacher points out a mistake, that means you messed up. That means you were supposed to know more than you did, or you didn't pay attention, or you didn't care to study. Regardless, you screwed up, and that red mark is to remind you of it.

One of the things we do as humans (or mammals, as the case may be) is learn from our mistakes. Nature doesn't sugarcoat things: Stick your hand in a yellow jacket nest, you'll get stung. Jump off a cliff, and you're going to be in a world of pain...at least for a split second. Run from the bulls at Pamplona, and you might get a horn in your ass. Nature rarely gives warning shots. No rabid badger walks up and says "Hey, old chap, seeing as I'm foaming at the mouth, you probably shouldn't stick your hand out to pet me, as I may decide to bite you, what with me being in an addled state and all."

That means that when you make a mistake, you should KNOW you made a mistake. Don't screw around with "good effort", partial credit and smiley stickers unless you're also going to CLEARLY point out the error of someone's ways. And then, when actual consequences can result from your actions, you are ready to play with the big boys.

At least one mother taking classes had the right idea:
"I hate red," she said. "But because I hate it, I want to work harder to make sure there isn't any red on my papers."

And this teacher has it right too:
"We need to be honest and forthright with students," Jago said. "Red is honest, direct, and to the point. I'm sending the message, 'I care about you enough to care how you present yourself to the outside world.' "

Zippy 10:28 PM

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Friday, August 20, 2004

 

It's A Strange Old World

So I'm checking my work site's pageviews and referrals yesterday, and I find about 1,500 referrals from a site called seejulie.com.

I'm the curious type, since that one hasn't appeared before, so I go look it up.

It's a porn site.

Now, it's a bit strange for a TV news website to get referrals for a porn site. As it turns out, the site had a link to a story I had about Oprah being chosen for a murder trial jury.

Strange indeed.

On the "Woot!" side, after two weeks of e-mail discussions with Sony tech support, plus uninstalling and reinstalling Vegas Video, I can now finally upload video to the work site from home. Which means I can officially do my entire job from home, if/as need be.

Woot!

Quark is back to herself, for the most part. The anesthesia they gave her for the teeth cleaning took days to wear off, it seems.

This weekend, the hunt for tires for Squeaky's car, an offensive against the paper wasps in the attic and hopefully some sleep.

Zippy 10:21 AM

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Monday, August 16, 2004

 

The Net Ate My Post

I posted yesterday about the fact that Squeaky was coming home, and how that made me happy.

I posted yesterday about the fact that Otis is now a dad, and how that made me happy.

I posted yesterday about the nice weather, despite Charley, and how that made me happy.

But instead, this post is about how Blogger ate my post yesterday, and how that made me unhappy.

(and, upon further reflection, Blogger didn't eat my post yesterday after all. So now I'm not sure if I'm unhappy or not)

Zippy 2:31 PM

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Sunday, August 15, 2004

 

Hello, Earl

Charley hit Myrtle Beach Saturday, did some minor damage along the coast (amusingly, despite coming from the other side of Florida, Charley managed to come ashore at McClellanville...which is where Hugo did his worst in 1989)

I ended up spending about six hours at work Saturday. Did about double the normal pageviews, so I guess it was worth it. Damn Associated Press didn't seem to be home much of the time, so news from the coast was spotty all day.

Now, apparently, TS Earl is running along a similar path to Charley. Whee!

Otis' family is now larger by one. Woot!

Squeaky returns from KC today. WOOT!

And I cleaned out the litterbox (Quark: "WOOOOO....er....meow!")

Zippy 10:05 AM

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Friday, August 13, 2004

 

Sorry Charley

Damn storm isn't going to be within 200 miles of me, but I'll probably be at the station much of Saturday if it comes ashore at Myrtle Beach as a Cat 1. Damn my Northern work ethic and love of weather!

Zippy 4:19 PM

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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

 

Meet Natto




All's well, according to the doctor. In the middle of the exam, Natto decided to dance. It was...impressive to say the least.

(that upper left part is the head's profile...you can see the nose pressed against the upper left side of the womb)

Zippy 10:43 PM

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Monday, August 09, 2004

 

Running Weekend

Now that was busy.

Saturday, drove to Charlotte to hang with Squeaky's friends from college at a park on Lake Norman. Nice park. Not exactly as "woodsy" as most Toledo Metroparks (still my favorite park is Swan Creek), but they have nice amenities like restrooms, bike rentals and a snack bar.

Amusing moment: The park has a beach, but swimming is prohibited.

Sunday, did some shopping, then stopped by Big Lots to show Squeaky a CD/DVD bookshelf I found there. While looking around, she saw some bedroom furniture that's painted almost the same green as the nursery.

So, we borrowed Gladfinger's Explorer, and brought home a dresser and blanket chest. The dresser is going to take a bit of work to get upstairs, but the blanket chest looks very nice in the room.




Then I noticed today that my expected page view budget jumped by about 22,000 a day this month. Grrr.

Less than three weeks to HS football, less than a month to college games. Woot!

Back to work!

Zippy 1:47 PM

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Friday, August 06, 2004

 

And Welcome To Friday

At least I'm earning my pay today. Yesterday was spent reading my new book. I read the entire thing at work, in between posting stories.

Today, book behind me, I'm fairly productive. Which is good, because there's no friggin news today. Between vacations and the periodic doldrums, it's a tad slow lately.

Started staring at DVD recorders today. How sad is it, exactly, that if I were to buy one, it would be for my office at home to do better web video from home? (Ans. Pretty sad). But then I realized that I have to get Vegas Video 3.0 configured properly anyway for anything to work, and if I get that done, then the existing SVHS machine _should_ do just fine.

The reasoning behind this isn't because I intend to do more work from home, but because of our Friday night high school football show. Currently, I post video from the highlights on the site. Problem is, I can't do it until after the show, obviously, and I have to do it from the station. So invariably, I end up getting home somewhere around midnight or later.

I'd like to avoid it this fall if I can by doing that work at home. But transfering TV to the web is not the quick and easy move that one would like it to be.

Mmmmm...football...overtime money...football...

Zippy 1:14 PM

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Thursday, August 05, 2004

 

Some Days...

Can't say I earned my pay too much today. My new book arrived, and I spent the day reading it between work posts.

When I say I read it, I mean I read the entire book (in my usual skimming style that Squeaky finds annoying)

Turtledove didn't change his pattern of the last seven books of the series that I've loved. As usual, he killed a main character early on, but kept the ones I liked. His ability to make an alternate history have parallels with the actual timeline is fun.

Next quest: Figuring out what sort of stroller to buy for Natto. I love a challenge.

Zippy 9:29 PM

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Wednesday, August 04, 2004

 

The Sunshine Of Your Love

Hey Squeaky! Have I mentioned that I love you?

(this post brought to you by an overwhelming sense of contentment while watching you sleep this morning)

In Other News-A Tale Of Two Cities

It's not easy being Spartanburg. Sure, you have the crossroads of two interstates. You have the BMW plant. You even have the airport. But somehow, development seems to pass you by for Greenville, 30 miles down I-85. Even the airport has Greenville's name before yours. I can understand a certain annoyance that when people talk "Upstate", they're usually referring to Greenville.

So, if this just totally sticks in your craw this morning, I totally understand.

Signed,

A former Greenville resident, now living in the much-calmer Pickens County

Zippy 8:22 AM

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Monday, August 02, 2004

 

Here We Go Again

Damn Monday, sneaking up on me like this. Spent Saturday thinking it was Sunday. Spent Sunday wishing it were Saturday.

Watching TS Alex off the coast with bemused interest. It's funny how a storm can be 90 miles off Charleston, yet they're already certain it's not going to make landfall in this state. Not that I figure coastal folks are complaining of course.

The downside is that Alex has pushed about 167% humidity across our area. I went out to get the paper and my glasses steamed up. NO wind whatsoever.

Less than two weeks until the ultrasound. I figure that's about when I'll start freaking out. :)

Zippy 6:23 AM

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