Having fun looking at my weather stats right now. A mere two hours ago the relative humidity was 82%, winds were solidly from the south, the temperature was rising on its way to 65 degrees, and the barometer was dropping quickly. Thirty minutes ago the front passed by, as the temperature began to drop from 65, humidity is dropping below 38%, winds have shifted to the north and the barometer has bottomed out. I get a kick out of watching this stuff happen in real-time.
Compostin’
Hearing the city’s leaf-vacuum truck making its rounds this morning reminded me of a project we completed this weekend. Saturday’s weather was superb, so while Kelly and Hallie attended a birthday party, Travis and i spent the morning raking (and leafblowing) leaves. Travis really enjoyed aiming the leafblower as we cleaned the yard. He especially enjoyed jumping into the leaf piles we created!
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Focusing rain
I’ve found our rainwater tank seems to focus rain. A sprinkling of rain fell overnight. Though my wheelbarrow was out it only collected enough water to fill up a mug.
I didn’t expect much to have been added to the tank this morning but I was surprised. The tank showed 12 to 15 new gallons! That’s from just half the roof, too. It always amazes me just how much water can be collected just from the rainfall.
Private concert
Friday evening we gathered the kids and went to Durant Nature Park for a folk concert. David DiGueseppe and Mara Shea played at the park’s training lodge. We had trouble finding it, first driving to the wrong building and then being puzzled at finding an empty parking lot in front of the other.
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Citation needed
I was reading up on the xkcd meetup that happened in Cambridge in September. A bunch of geeks descended on the local park which was previously mentioned in the comic strip.
Wherever geeks gather, trouble can’t be far behind. This is one of the funniest protest signs I’ve ever seen. Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales must be proud.
MPD – Music Player Daemon
I’ve been under a rock (and roll – hah!), but I just found out about MPD, otherwise known as the music player daemon. I’ve had my music server parked by my stereo for years and have been logging into the command line to play music. MPD makes this unnecessary.
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Donate computers to the Kramden Institute
I spent my lunch break gathering up old computers and parts I’ve been meaning to recycle for months now. I piled the back of the minivan high with this gear and drove over to the Kramden Institute in RTP to donate it all. Folks there were very friendly and appreciative of the gift. Thanks to my donations, two families will have nice computers that wouldn’t otherwise have them. Kids will be able to write papers, do research, and build their own ugly MySpace pages thanks to my gift.
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AT&T dispute update
Progress was made this morning on my dispute with AT&T. I got a call from Ms. Cherry Johnson from AT&T, responding to the consumer complaint I sent to the N.C. Attorney General’s consumer protection office. I reiterated that I never put my social security number on the account in question and that I never worked for the company whose name is on the bill. After some polite discussion we agreed that I needed to fill out AT&T’s “fraud packet.”
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Cops should take a cue from kids
WRAL brings me the story that a new Interagency Radio System Helped Police in Cooper Capture.
The radios allowed law officers to do something this time that they had been unable to do in the past.
It also was something that police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel in New York City could not do on 9/11 – talk to one another by radio.
Thieves don’t want THIS credit card number
One of my first jobs was a part-time position stocking and cashiering at Dart Drug in Sterling, VA. It was a throwaway job in many respects, working for minimum wage with some shady characters and finally quitting after being falsely accused of helping myself to the till. The job was useful in that while working there I once helped track down a killer, but that’s a story for another day.
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