The Bioshock Song

Because I enjoyed this game:

Superhero mashup

Here's a little video for all the superheros, supervillains, sidekicks and damsels in distress out there.

How to use Google

Created by: HackCollege

Nothing new here

So many people have a blog for a while, then taper off. This post is purely so I can have the experience of writing one of those blog posts that say, "Gee, I haven't posted anything here in a while, have I?"

Feels about as good as I thought it would.

Still, it serves a purpose. Like an easement or a transit right-of-way, consider this the periodic notification to the world that while I might not be doing anything with this space at the moment, I still own it, and am hereby renewing and reserving my rights to do something with it in the future.

January, 2010

Snow is still falling here in Philadelphia. We'll get another 4 to 6 inches before this is through.

Getting steamed

Part of springtime is cleaning. Every year or so, we rent a steam cleaner to get rid of the accumulated crud in the carpets. Today was the day for that chore. The video below show the result of trying to accomplish this on a beautiful spring-like day with the kids in and out of the house.

I want the kids to go outside and have fun in the sun.

What I DON'T want is this:

Stress and caffeine

Really, is there any stressful situation that isn't made easier to bear by having a cup of strong, hot coffee nearby?

The Blizzard of '09

Here are a few pics and videos of the snowfall we had here on the east coast on December 19, 2009. Click on any of them to see them full-sized.

Official snowfall at the Philadelphia airport was 23.3 inches. Since the yearly average for us is 19 inches, that means we got an entire year's worth of snow on Saturday.

Total by me was around 16-18 inches. It was hard to tell, since the strong winds made big drifts in some areas, and scoured down the accumulation on other surfaces. The buried lawn chair was in a reasonably sheltered area, and I'm going by that.
















I've also included a couple of videos down at the bottom. Enjoy.

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Connor and Nick shoveling some snow:



Connor and Meegan shoveling some more snow:

A River Runs Through It

Heavy rains in Philadelphia over the weekend (click to enlarge):


Fortunately, we had no appreciable water in our basement, but our neighbors had to do a fair amount of mopping. A mud slide downtown closed one of the major arteries in center city.

Today was bright and sunny. Go figure.

Service with a smile

Served as council-person-in-charge at church today. Torrential rains caused drips from the roof onto the pews during all three services.

Time for a building campaign, I think...

Making plans

I'm looking forward to the camping & float trip this summer.

Not much

Not a lot going on here, but not quite zero.

Swine flu is not a big deal, BTW.

November 3

... and I have a title. An unshakable head cold is sapping every last ounce of strength.

NaNo is just not going to happen this year.

I'll have to sit down with one of my unfinished books and remind myself of why I started writing them. ...Read more

What will it take?

Is it possible to do NaNo this year? It was a challenge in 2006, working on ~1700 words/day. How much time do I have this year?

Since I'll be out of town for 6 days at the end of November, that means I have to get this finished and in the word processor by Nov 24. I should be able to find a WiFi connection to upload the file when the validator opens up after the 25th. I'll be gone hunting for 6 days in the middle, which leaves 30-12=18 days total.

Realistically, Monday through Friday is the only time I can do this. That gives me 11 days. Oops, subtract Veteran's Day, leaves 10 days. That's 5000 words/day. There were some days in 2006 when I did 3000/day, but they were unusual. I can feel my wrists hurting already.

If only I didn't have a day job.

God Mode

NaNoWriMo 2008 Synopsis

God Mode

Just knowing the right cheat code isn't enough to give you god-like power. You have to be willing to cheat.