This was a really fun weekend

June 30th, 2008 • chatter
Tags: weekend

And we didn’t even DO that much! We had our shoot on Friday night and just hung out at home after that. I spent Saturday getting the Focus ready for tomorrow’s drive to Orlando and generally screwing off by sleeping late and grocery shopping. But today, today was fun. I finally broke in my Luhr-Jensen smoker and smoked all my fish — which was insanely delicious — and some chicken for later in the week. The salmon got a nice coating of Dales Seasoning and brown sugar while the Mahi Mahi got some kosher salt and lemon pepper. The chicken was split in half, one half got kosher salt while the other got a good mix of a cajun rub The fish was simply delicious and was complemented by some yellow and white corn as a side. It was all too much to eat and there’s still about a pound of it left that we’ll eat for lunch.

I think we’ll have the chicken Tuesday night since we’re working late and that takes all the guesswork out of cooking except for a side dish. I’m thinking rice or couscous or maybe some black eyed peas. Whatever it is, it’ll be good. Smoking all the food was as easy as my brother said it was, I barely did anything but add wood chips and check the temperature every so often.

I also changed the oil in my car today, it’d been so long. I was also running this thing two quarts short so I’m surprised it didn’t cease up at any point in the past. That took a whole lot longer than it should have since I had to send Jess off to get a new gasket for the drain pan as mine was nearly non-existent, another reason I’m surprised the thing even ran. Now, given how much I drive per year, I shouldn’t have to do this for another year or something, in that time I may accumulate 300 or 400 miles, tops. I’m not wasting my time in three months to change basically new oil.

I also just finished a new post-metal review that’ll be published later tomorrow at Band Names Not Brand Names — no direct link yet since it’s not published. It’s over Swallow The Ocean’s debut self-titled album from Forgotten Empires. I’ve been meaning to write this one for weeks but have just been putting it off, for no good reason. I’ve got a few grind reviews slated and I’m trying to scrape up some new black metal albums worth a damn to review. I’m so disappointed in BM over the last year, it’s just been so…generic. Can’t say that grind isn’t generic either, which it is, but at least I can get obvious differences in style but most BM is just one-dimensional “true” scene garbage. I want more Lurker of Chalice and Leviathan and Sargeist and on and on.

I really liked this weekend, I hope we can do fun stuff next weekend too. I didn’t get to build my shelves…again, I just ran out of time…again. We’ll be going to Shisha Cafe on Tuesday which should be awesome. I’m going to bed now to hopefully get a lot of sleep.

Workin’ for the weekend

June 29th, 2008 • chatter
Tags: building, good magazine, weekend, work

As iconic as Loverboy’s hit from the 80s is, I’m actually doing some work this week and not simply working towards it! I found a nice tall piece of 1/4″ pressed plywood today — it looks like thick wood paneling — that will go great with the found-in-a-dump wood I’m going to use for my hookah stand (most of that wood went towards making a spice box). Now I just need to cut the thin wood and find suitable mounting. I’ve got some small right angle wood brackets for the actual stand that’s for the hookah but nothing for this new wood which I’ll use to make small shelves for all of the shisha and accessories I have. I just need to plan this carefully as I’ve only got so much of this wood to use so I can’t afford any mistakes and I certainly don’t want to buy any wood.

Tomorrow I’m also hooking up my brand new Luhr-Jensen smoker to smoke a pound of Atlantic salmon, a pound of mahi mahi, and a massive 4 pound free range chicken. I can just taste it all now. I’ve also got to change the oil in my car which I did in the Focus today and man, was it HOT today. I was only outside for maybe an hour and I was dripping in sweat, I can only imagine the same fate befalls me tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll start the day off right with tasty breakfast burritos I’ve been begging the girlfriend to make, now I’ve made that request complete with some spicy salsa verde. I may have to sacrifice one of those delectable dried peppers for this meal, they would compliment so well.

I also managed to pick up the latest copy of GOOD Magazine since my subscription starts with the next issue and I’m totally thrilled about a travel issue. I sent the China Issue off to my dad to see what he thinks about the magazine and see if he likes it, maybe I’ll send him this one as well.

And for now, it’s 2AM and I’m off to finish up some feed reading and head to sleep.

New theme

June 26th, 2008 • blog
Tags: cutline, theme

I installed the Cutline 2.1 theme tonight (the author also has one for WP 1.5+ but makes almost no distinction between them until you go to download one). It’s nice and plain and slick, nothing fancy. I like that. I’m looking for a header image right now but I should have one or two good ones from our trip to Morikami last weekend. I still really like Unsleepable 2.0 but since it’s no longer maintained (and hasn’t been for some time), I’m worried that it’ll break once 2.6 drops in a month or two.

14 year old girl charged with rape after being raped

June 26th, 2008 • 2 comments idiocy

This one is just maddeningly stupid.

A 14 year old girl in Kansas is charged with rape because the boy who raped her in under 14 years of age. The state law says sex, consensual or not, with anyone under 14 is rape. Despite the fact that the rapist was under 14, he’s now the rapee in this case. How the hell does this make any sense to their police force? I understand law and all its trappings but when, ever, does this make sense? This reminds me of that case in late 2006 of two kids in Utah being charged with raping the other person they consensually had sex with simply because they were underage. Now, they’re labeled as sex offenders because of a voluntary act. Also, how is she being charged with sodomy? That’s an interesting charge to tack on. I suppose more information will come out once it goes to trial.

I’m glad a lawyer (with ethics!) is defending her for free in this absurd case.

Florida buys out US Sugar

June 25th, 2008 • 1 comment environmentalism

Yesterday, it was announced that the state of Florida was buying back a huge portion of the Everglades, the most ecologically diverse wetlands in North America. All I can say is thank you. The state is buying roughly 300 square miles back from US Sugar, the nation’s largest cane sugar company. The plan roughly comes out to the state buying the entire company for a hair under two billion dollars and giving them 6 years to pull up the stakes and move out. This will leave roughly another 400 square miles still in use for sugar cane production. I’ll miss my sugar in 6 years but I think I can make due with agave nectar.

Boom or Bust?

It’s both actually. We Floridians are regaining our beloved wetlands while everyone else loses out on sugar. Too bad, suckers. The current CEO of US Sugar states he’s “not a little bit saddened” at the prospect of being bought out for $1.75 billion dollars. Who would be sad? He’s the CEO and will be making some serious coin off this deal, along with the compensation and severance packages all of the employees will be receiving. It’s a loss to the sugar industry for sure but it’s truly a gain for our wildlife. While the constant drought, brush fires, and extreme farming are killing the Everglades, so are a lot of other things. The farming reroutes the water unnaturally and keeps certain areas parched for weeks or months at a time during the dry season. Brush fires due to drought and heat are an expected way of life in the wetlands but they’re no doubt helped by farming. The ecology itself is direly threatened by invasive non-native species such as Melaleuca trees, Latin and Central American birds, non-native African snakes and the list goes on.

When I was going to school for my first Bachelor’s Degree, the teacher that probably impressed upon the most was Dr. Allen Dray, a lead researcher on using native and non-native species to fight melaleuca plant invasion. Sure, he taught me economics and statistics and project management but nothing shone through more than his own love for his job: harvesting bugs to kill trees. He loves the Everglades and has been working there for years trying to combat the extremely water-hungry trees. I can only imagine that Florida’s new initiative to preserve and restore the state’s most amazing asset has him in either tears or jumping for joy, I can see him doing both. This new deal gives him and the rest of the Invasive Plant Research Laboratory researchers a much bigger sandbox in which to play; besides, their research lab is something to behold in and of itself, its windows can withstand Category 4 force hurricane winds and not flinch.

New conservation efforts will be readily made

Since the Everglades is the state’s largest national park amassing literally one-fourth of the entire state, the restoration efforts to begin in 6 years will undoubtedly bring new life to local conversation efforts. Our own little slice of the Everglades just a few miles away is always up for grabs in conservation efforts, some successful some not. This buy back will serve as a platform for shrinking other sugar production in the area, I’m sure, albeit slowly. I hope that wildlife tours will pick back up as they’ve been trailing off in the last few years. Why aren’t parents teaching their kids about the awesomeness of the outdoors and how cool animals are? Every time we go to Lion Country Safari, it’s amazing and we’ve seen all the animals before. Our recent visit to Morikami Japanese Gardens was just amazing even though we stomped a third of a mile in a torrential downpour. Sugar Sands Park is a great place to go and relax on a bike ride and it’s just a 5 minute bike ride from us. There’s all this awesome ecology around us and kids around here probably can’t stomach camping out in the woods let alone having some fun in a giant swamp right their backyards. But given this buy back, I believe that county school systems will try to reintroduce many students to the cool stuff they can find right outside their house. When I lived in Georgia, a similar effort was made by the state to raise awareness of the Okefenokee Swamp and wetlands and it was a success. I can see the same thing happening here.

Now, I hope Palm Beach and Broward counties will take a restoration effort to their beaches soon. Many of the beaches in Ft. Lauderdale are like sandy garbage dumps and aren’t very scenic, same way in Miami. Ever see the movie Bad Boys 2? Most of those beach scenes were actually filmed in Delray Beach because Miami’s beaches are trashed and overcrowded for the most part. The beaches are becoming more littered and actually shrinking as time goes on so I really hope they try and start saving them before our dunes disappear.

God arrested for selling cocaine

June 23rd, 2008 • chatter, idiocy

Just found this from CBS12:

God is arrested near a church for selling cocaine – a man named “God”, that is.

I find that quite funny and ironic. So some bad drug dealer named ‘God’ Lucky Howard got tossed in the hoosegow for selling smack to undercover cops. Neither was he God nor very Lucky today. And arrested near a church, it’s just insult to injury. Now, I wonder if some local yokel is going to sue God for selling him some bad dope? I wonder what his odds would be.

Erroneous editorial

June 22nd, 2008 • chatter, environmentalism

I was just reading through my feeds and came across this badly written (and even more poorly copy edited) editorial — source and author unknown — mostly about alternatives to oil-based energy. The writer spends most of the entire editorial lampooning solar energy and talking up natural gas. It’s very light on facts, after all it is an editorial, and heavy on poorly informed opinions. The author states that a 1200+ megawatt LNG drilling port off the coast of Broward County is going to be more efficient and useful than a 75 megawatt solar installation in Martin County. Well, sure it’s going to produce more energy but it’s in no terms more efficient. And apparently the offshore port is going to be less vulnerable to hurricanes. Less vulnerable than what, cows in Montana? Sure, the pipeline will be underwater but the actual drilling port won’t be so I fail to realize how a giant metal spire sticking up in the Atlantic Ocean is less vulnerable to hurricanes than an apparently non-existent more vulnerable alternative is. It’s in the Atlantic, it’s in South Florida, and it’s a giant lightning pole. I really don’t see the “less vulnerable” part here. It will get hit by hurricanes and probably heavily damaged in the process. That 75 megawatt solar field will be a lot less costly to replace entirely than it will be to replace even a quarter of a drilling outfit. Panels are getting a lot cheaper than the author is privy to although it’s pretty common knowledge, you can find out that new production innovations have brought the cost per watt close to $1, the same as coal.

Languish or Learn?

The same author also takes this piece as a way to poke a jab at our own Tri-Rail system which they see as a failed method of transport despite its ridership skyrocketing 46% over the same time period last year. So a nearly 50% increase in riders and revenue makes this a failed railway? Hardly. I’ve been in Palm Beach County for 4 years and many of my coworkers (and my girlfriend’s) have relied on Tri-Rail for transport because of expenses. We lack any good mass transit down here but Tri-Rail is the only thing that’s not failed. Amtrak is a bust, bus routes are a bust — they’re only successful in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami — and not getting better, and taxis are just overpriced. I see over 15,000 passengers a day over 7,000 last year as a sign of a booming rail system.

The author is also quick to point out that FPL’s planned solar field in Martin County will be mostly paid for by customers. Shocking. Isn’t this how most public service infrastructure is paid for? The Florida Turnpike is almost solely paid for by its customers. Nearly all telecommunications infrastructure is paid for by its customers. I’d like the author to find a public service that isn’t nearly wholly subsidized by its customers, after all we’re paying for a service we use otherwise, why are we paying at all? It’s capitalism in action. Their own salary is funded by their readership.

I read a lot of badly written stuff everyday but the first 1/3 of this editorial (really, it’s an op-ed, there’s a pretty big difference according to my mother, a 20+ year veteran of being a news editor and reporter). It really seems like this writer is just pissed that they might have to pay for a lower output infinitely renewable energy source than an ultimately limited and non-renewable higher output energy source. Yes, solar is grossly underpowered for how much land it takes for field installs but that’s changing with each innovation in solar panel production methods. If people can utilize enough panels just on their house to feed back into the grid, there’s obviously more to it than the author wants to admit or realizes.

New Klean Kanteen in hand

June 20th, 2008 • environmentalism

I got my new 27oz. Klean Kanteen two days ago from reusablebags.com. I got the blue one so I could differentiate mine from my girlfriend’s, it’s a splendidly nice color. I had to order it from a 3rd party because the team at Klean Kanteen never returned my email about when the kolor ones were going to be released for sale and I sent it probably 2 weeks ago. Still waiting, guys!

They changed up the design on the loop cap versus the older bottles. It’s now made of PP #5 and has a smaller profile. It’s also now hollow whereas before the top was a solid piece of plastic top to bottom, they simply bored out the middle to save on weight and plastic. They also removed the outer nubs on the external base of the top — which was the only thing providing grip — and replaced them with the words ‘klean kanteen’. I can’t blame them for putting their name all over their product but it’s made opening the new top more difficult since there’s little to no traction on the recessed lettering. Lack of usable traction surface is my only gripe with the new top, I like the smaller design a lot more. Since I have two other bottles, I just swapped out the more usable older loop cap onto the new bottle and put the older one in my hurricane emergency kit.

My one real big complaint is that the blue paint, and I’m sure this applies to all of the new colors, is friggin’ smooth! It’s got a light sheen and is very vibrant but it poses one simple problem: it’s too smooth. I picked it up to take a drink a minute ago and since it’s covered in condensation, I could hardly get the thing open without the bottle turning. The older non-painted stainless bottles were smooth to the touch but were not completely slick unlike this one. Some powder coating or something would really make these colors so much better…besides a hot pink color for my girlfriend. Next redesign guys, add in some texturing for grip. I know this won’t be a problem for everyone but it’s always humid here in Florida and I literally take this thing everywhere, I may have to rough up this pretty paint job.

I also ordered some ChicoBags to give to my family. One was ripped on the side and I’ve got to return it for an exchange. I got the mango ones which are really more orange than mango but very easy to see, almost like a dayglow orange. We’re sticking one in my girlfriend’s purse for that rare occasion when we forget our other reusable bags. My only worry is since they’re nylon, you can’t exactly recycle these things like you can the Green Bags many retailers are using now (which are NWPP #5). Luckily ChicoBag has a recycling plan in place to repurpose their bags and any others for low income families.

Now I just need to order a sport cap for my Klean Kanteen when I’m out on my bike and I’ll be good to go.

Silly downtime

June 17th, 2008 • linux

Server was down and out for about 4 hours today due to a faulty kernel configuration not loading the proper RealTek driver for eth0 and eth1. Bryan at LSN had to get over to the DC and console in to get it manually loaded. Got that fixed and got the proper kernel booting again and now the reverting hostname issue has been fixed as well. Yay.

Update on Boca’s green certification

June 15th, 2008 • chatter, environmentalism

I just found an update, or rather more information, about the move to seek certification via Boca Raton News. It seems that for Assistant City Manager Mike Woika grabbing the lowest hanging fruit is OK. The city is applying for ’silver’ status which is the lowest certification available from Florida. I’m amazed this level even exists, it only requires applicants to meet 20%-40% of about 221 areas of certification. So the city only has to meet 44 points of certification to just squeeze by? I’m fairly certain most booming cities can do this in their sleep and this is both laughable that the level exists and pathetic that our city is aiming so low.

Setting the bar low on purpose

While I’m not privy to any of the city’s plans, they’re more than likely setting the bar low on purpose. I can imagine that this is being done so that in case the city easily passes silver or even gold certification, it’ll look like a great victory. However, if it fails at the lowest level, it’s not that much of a failure when you put it in perspective that the gold certification requires over 60% of points to be met. From what it seems like according to the Florida Green Building Coalition (the non-profit actually putting forth the certification standards Boca is applying for), much of this is aimed directly at the local government and their own municipal practices although I do have a feeling the higher levels of certification will touch on or include many of the gripes from my previous post. I can’t be certain because the full standard is very vague in its language but admittedly, more than likely has to be vague. They cannot specify that you treat — or re-treat — reclaimed waste water in certain ways or use it in certain ways but the use of reclaimed water does earn you a point or two. I see that 1 point is awarded for LEED or FGCB certified buildings per 10% of owned or leased buildings. That’s great but I don’t recall there being any LEED buildings in Boca…yet.

Is it still greenwash?

By all means, yes. It’s greenwash up and down. One quip from Woika is that Boca makes “environmentally sensitive land acquisitions.” Of course they do. That’s why the government is slowly selling off conservation and reserve land to developers for strip malls and multi-family residences. Developers who are concerned about building out and building quickly, not building up (very few buildings in the entire city are over 4 or 5 stories) or building “green”. He also is quick to point out that Boca is a leader in recycling. I’d love to know where he got this bunch of BS. We can’t recycle electronics in this city, we have to go to Broward County or closer to West Palm Beach to do that. Many city-owned and privately-owned malls, parks, and other public areas lack any recycling bins/cans at all. Can you recycle your trash from the food court at Town Center Mall? Nope. Can you recycle your waste at Sugar Sands Park? Nope. That’s both city and privately funded. Are any of the trash cans scattered around the city at various bus stops and grassy areas designated for recycling? Again, no. To become a leader in recycling, you have to make it available to your populace, Mike. Just recycling at home isn’t enough and never will be. At FAU, all trash cans on the Breezeway (the main walk-way on campus, also functions as the campus’s main even area) are flanked by a plastic recycling bin and a paper recycling bin. Both are rarely used for their correct purpose and many of FAU’s on-campus students are from Boca or surrounding areas. Where’s the leadership in recycling there? Since it’s a state facility, the local government exerts its own influence but recycling isn’t one area it does so. However, we — my girlfriend and myself — are going to be working on this in the fall once school starts again.

How to help Woika get his head out of the sand

Residents can help by attending town hall meetings and calling for public dissemination of Boca’s sustainable or environmentally-friendly endeavors. We can also help by calling Woika’s bluff that Boca’s a “leader” in anything but bad drivers and snowbirds (and the go-to destination for old timers in movies). I wonder if he lives in the same city that I do. I frankly don’t see much sustainable anything going on. I don’t see LEED buildings all over the place or even LEED certification being promoted or incentivized (is that a word?). Or gas stations being urged to carry biofuels past E10 or E15 gasoline. There are no stations in this city providing any type of biodiesel, natural gas, hydrogen, or any other alternative fuel source. The most we have are Shell stations providing E10 gas by default these days but at $4.10 average cost per gallon, who cares? By now, we all know that food-based ethanols are, simply put, “pissing on your shoes” in terms of weaning anyone off oil. Why doesn’t the city build more sidewalks, bike lanes, or provide free premium parking for alternative energy source cars? FAU will be providing those in the fall for anyone driving a hybrid or an EV car; personally they should include motorcycles and scooter as well since they’re both very efficient. Or what about sponsoring city-wide bike rallies to increase public awareness of riding a bicycle to work? Most of the city’s Hispanic and Mormon population already have this down pat but everyone else? It’s a lost cause without education rammed down their throats. Increasing public awareness, public and city culpability and accountability will do more for sustainability than a certification will.

I sound like I’m coming down pretty hard on my home of the last 4 years, and I am for good reason, but at least they’re attempting a step in the right direction. My hometown is still stuck somewhere between blacks getting integrated in the 60s and the 80s. Or the town where my Mom lives is some kind of odd mixture of farm culture circa 1940s and early 2000s glitz of strip malls. I’m very interested in where this certification will go but only if Boca’s government truly puts themselves behind it and they make it a green reality instead of greenwash.