2004-09-29

We made it

The reason this update is not done on the evening of the 28th is because Rhys needed my access code to get his mail, so I will wait until tomorrow (29) to send this message to the blog.

The trip down- stressful. Rhys got in on time. I left for the airport allowing some extra time cause of the rain. I got there early cause there was no traffic. Central parking was full so they had a valet-type parking they were using every available spot (not just parking spots but corridors as well. So they said for me to leave the keys in the car. I went in and collected Rhys and we went back and no one was to be found. No valets no one. And there is the Subaru with the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked. Nice. Rhys drove the whole way down here. It was not a pleasant drive at all. Rain was heavy at times. We stopped at Framingham services and picked up some refreshments. Then we had to stop in around New Haven as well for gas. By now the sun was setting (it was still raining but it was getting dark) Continued on to NYC. Traffic was semi bad slowing down at times. We got to our critical turn (After Co-op city onto the cross-Bronx expressway) we got off at the right exit but actually got off the highway so we are driving in the Bronx. The neighborhoods didn't look too bad, but we did go underneath a elevated railway and a subway train was going overhead. They have gotten some spiffy new subway cars with LED's to show the route number/Letter. With mine and Rhys' excellent sense of direction we got back onto the highway and headed for the GWB. We got into the wrong lanes for cars (upper deck is reserved for Trucks) but we drove through. Still raining non stop. Once we crossed into NJ the roads got darker and truckers got bolder almost clipping us. We made it to our exit. And to the hotel. I got soaked going to and from the car to the hotel twice cause you have to put a tag in the car that says you are a guest. We decided to not eat out at a restaurant because neither of us could be bothered to go out in the rain. So we settled for hotel food. Ordered ourselves a whiskey and a Sam Adams. Got a salad (OK) and then a starter of calamari (rubbery and hard - sucked but we ate it) The entrees didn't fare any better but what do you expect eating in the hotel? The bill came to be $80 which pissed me off a bit, but it was food in our stomachs and now I can go to sleep with ease.

Tomorrow, I am going to have breakfast at 0715. I will try to get online and post this to the blog. But it all depends on whether Rhys is in the room at 0600. He had said he wanted to go to the fitness room. He will probably be up at 0500.

Currently it is 2240 on the 28th. And I am off to bed. It's still raining. Hope it stops before tomorrow

2004-09-28

Packed

I am all packed. Ready to go. Rhys' flight arrives in 1 hour and 21 minutes according to flytecomm. So far it has only been raining lightly. Most of the heavy stuff is out to sea or in the Long Island Sound. Will see how it goes. I am about to shut down my PC here at work and my next message should be tonight in the hotel.

2004-09-27

NWS Taunton Discussion BOSAFDBOX

0015Z -Short term (overnight and Tuesday): Not many changes needed to the forecast, but we will send an update later this evening to freshen up overnight wording. We are continuing to lean more toward eta with remnants of jeanne since gfs appears to be hanging on to a mid level vorticity max too long.

High cloud shield will dominate overnight, while at same time S to SE flow also brings in some low cloudiness before daybreak. Eta cross sections show quite a bit of stratus development which May be overdone, but either way it will be cloudy overnight. Expect rain to reach much of CT and RI around daybreak and quickly spread into Northern MA and Southern NH by mid morning Tue. Main shot of rain should occur from late morning into mid afternoon as the surface low passes SE of New England.

Total rainfall should average 1 to 2 inches with the greatest amounts in RI and SE MA. Flooding is not a concern aside from the usual minor urban and poor drainage problems.


Long term (Tuesday night through Sunday):
Remnants of jeanne will be at her closest to New England late Tuesday. As the storm moves out to sea the rain will end quickly Tuesday evening with clearing skies for Wednesday. Thereafter a large and cool high pressure area builds into the region, Passing overhead Thursday night and Friday. A cold front moves in Friday night and Saturday, Followed by another large cool high pressure area for the weekend and into next week.

0050Z Temperatures will be around 12ºC tonight, falling to around 8º Wednesday, and zero to +5ºC for later this weekend.

Aviation:
Vfr conditions this evening will give way to mvfr ceilings and visibilities before daybreak from areas of fog and low clouds, Especially around S coast. Eta cross sections actually show ifr ceilings becoming widespread toward daybreak, But this appears to be overdone and we were more confident in mvfr ceilings occurring. however ifr conditions should prevail Tue morning as the rain arrives with areas of lifr ceilings and visibilities in heavier rain. 00Z tafs were more pessimistic than guidance in showing improvement late Tue afternoon, Keeping mvfr ceilings into the evening. Expect vfr conditions to return 00z-06z Wed.


Benign conditions on the waters tonight. Buoys still reporting long period swells of around 10 seconds, But seas at or below 4 feet. Seas and winds on the increase Tuesday as the remnants of tropical storm jeanne pass by to the south of New England.

Winds and seas will still be up Tuesday night, slowly subsiding as we go into the later part of the week. Seas May actually increase Wednesday over the sea heights Tuesday as jeanne moves by, and northwest winds increase in the colder air moving in, to increase seas.


Box watches/warnings/advisories:

CT, None.
MA, None.
NH, None.
RI, None.
marine, None.

Tilos

I found this cool site called http://tilos.hu/ you can go there click on "English" Then select a day. Be sure you select the right day (in Hungary) you can go to this site to find out what day/time it is in Hungary they are on CET. Then click on a time and select your quality (24, 96, 128) and bam! a cool net radio from Hungary. Also I believe you should be able to save the files which come in half-hour blocks. So if you dig something you can save it -cool!


Busy day

Today I got up early, (for a change) stretched out and did some light weight training. Chowed down on some cheerios (dry) and went to work -still early. Worked until 1730 and I could have stayed longer packing for tomorrow (probably should have done so) but I just came home. Fixed myself some spaghetti and I think I will do some work here at home in preparation for tomorrow.
Packing tomorrow (avoiding the rain) and pick up Rhys at 1400. The drive to Sturbridge might suck and it may take longer than 4hrs to get to Newark, but we gotta get there. I will try and convince Rhys to eat at the same restaurant we ate at before. Last time I was down I didn't have the digital camera nor did I have the GPS. These will make the trip more tolerable. The particular area we are going to is off of the Garden State Parkway and the on ramps, off ramps et al are like a spaghetti bowl of roads. VERY confusing to the outsider. I am sure the roads around here can be similarly confusing to people not used to them.
So that's the plan. I will depart my office at about 1350 and then I will probably update the blog that evening (around 2300) from the hotel in Newark -complete with all the details of what happened in the spaghetti bowl.

2004-09-26


OLD photo of me back at Ft. Campbell on the firing range.

Testing out the Email thing

As I will be traveling next week, I am testing this email to the blog feature. I may have to do this in the future and it seems as if it is easier than the type in microsoft word, copy, paste, re-edit etc that I have done in the past (from Maine) plus using this I will be able to send to the blog at the end of each day rather than waiting to get back into civilization. -By civilization I mean places where I am not on dial up. Most hotels are still not offering "high-speed" internet access and using this E-mail feature looks like it will do the trick.

Now to tell you about the upcoming events. On Tuesday I pick up my good friend Rhys (the Welshman) from the airport. We from there drive down to Newark via NYC. We check into the hotel, and then we go and have ourselves a nice meal at one of the few good places still in Newark that isn't infested with crack-ho's, pimps, and junkies. Then on Wednesday we perform the work we are down there for, drive back to Boston (Rhys hates NJ -I can't say I blame him either) I spend Wednesday night at home while Rhys will be in a hotel. Then on Thursday, we go up to Portsmouth, NH to do another job. Then I haul ass back home to change, clean up and head into one nationally recognized retail chains for a job interview (night job). Then that pretty much is it. So updating this blog via E-mail should prove a valuable tool. Also the week starting 4 October. I will be near New Haven, CT.



2004-09-25


Our Pekingese Buttons. (I miss him too) :(

Back to the classics

Well I think its time again to take a break from electronic music and get back to some soothing classical music. (NPR made me do it)

Going to make a CD from the Harvard Summer Chorus:

Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Eja Mater Fons Amoris
Fac Ut Ardeat Cor Meum
Tui Nati Vulnerati
Fac Me Vere Tecum Flere
Virgo Virginum Praeclara
Fac Ut Portem Christi Mortem
Inflammatus Et Accensus

Now somewhere there is a missing track (#2) but that's ok the stuff is good and it was free so I am not complaining.

Dig this vibe new mp3 links

Dig this vibe
Big City Lover
The Kinetics

No I am not really a fan of rap but this track is ok. All I can think of is Passyunk Ave. in Philadelphia when listening to it. A place no one wants to be.

Meiso

2004-09-24


Is this art?

My attempt at being artistic.

scary

It is a bit scary at my office after hours.

Daniella just before she left on my birthday. :(

A Ragga link

On an unnamed message board, (out of respect -unless they want publicity -not that too many people read this) I found a link to a cool Ragga set. I would again, recommend using headphones with this one as well.

You have to like Ragga though. You either like it or you don't.

My daughter Daniella

2004-09-23


OK one more picture [roll eyes] This one was in the Yukon Territory in Canada. Taken around the 5th of Sept, 1997

I just thought I would start posting some older photos. This one is from Sept 2000 and it was when I was slightly more fit. -Arlington, VA

An aside

As an aside today is very beautiful outside. Sunny and warm.

Air Temperature 21ºC
Relative Humidity 61%
Wind Velocity 3.6 m/s
Wind Direction 141º

Perfect grilling weather.

That reminds me don't forget to catch the Harvest moon 2004-09-28 at 13.09UTC. Of course the moon will rise in Boston on 2004-09-27 at 22.26UTC and then set again at 10.31UTC on the 28th -so you won't be able to see the Full Harvest moon but the before/after effects will be cool to watch. Moon Transit is at 2004-09-28 04.23UTC.

Sore!

I am sore as hell today. I should have eased into running, cause now I am discouraged to run again. Hell I can't even walk without hurting. WTF? I stretched.
I need rest and recovery. I will be taking the next few days off.


2004-09-22

Running -sort of

Well I tried running again. Thing is it is hard to get back into it. I went to my favorite place (3.5mile course) and set out to complete it. I had to walk some bits but hell at least I broke a sweat and got my heart rate up for a little while -which is better than nothing. My new birthday shoes were probably thinking "Damn! we got bought by a lazy ass, we aren't going to be used like we were made for" Bet they were happy after tonight.

2004-09-21

We should have been on Mars already

Air Temperature 15ºC
Relative Humidity 78%
Wind Velocity 1.2 m/s
Wind Direction 007º

Was up watching a program on PBS about Archimedes a few nights ago (NOVA) (GBH's link) .They said that Archimedes was the first true discoverer of Calculus and also found the ratio for pi. Had his work been preserved and not destroyed in the dark ages we could have been on Mars by now. Calculus being the building block for everything from computers to space veichles and used in astrophysics.

Amazing! The world has generally agreed that Sir Isaac Newton laid the foundation for calculus. But if the scientists of the renaissance had known about Archimedes' writings we would now, in the year 2004 be at least 100 years ahead in science and technology.

Mad!

The program is described here.

...
Many of Archimedes' works disappeared during the Middle Ages, but some survived to help inspire the scientific revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries. One document that seemed irretrievably lost was his treatise The Method, which reputedly told how he achieved his brilliant results—secrets he revealed nowhere else...

Cool huh?



Chess boards.

Always a street performer here.

Harvard sq.

Harvard Sq. (JFK St.)

I dont think this is John Kerry's yacht but it may be close to it.

Got this in the mail

I invite you to SAVE 50% on two glorious, classic wines. And then, as you continue to savor, you'll continue to save...

Dear Wine Lover,
I have reason to believe that you dearly value fine wine. So I'd very much like to share one of the great joys of my life with you. It's a different kind of wine club, a Club of Classics.

So by now I am thinking of two questions. 1) How did these people get my address and 2) why do they think I care about wine. I think its great of course, but how did they know? It all sounds interesting and yes if I had some spare dough to throw away then yes I might consider joining this "club" but not now.


2004-09-20

He caved in!

The guy who did I found some of your life caved in! Which is quite upsetting cause I was very entertained by the site.

I think he/she should have just kept it going at least. Shame. A damn shame. I was very disappointed when they disabled comments, and now! well damn.

I hope someone else does the idea... You know, "finds" flash card, looks at photos, starts a Blog, posts photos with made up captions, hilarity ensues. I think the real reason he stopped it was because people were investigating all sorts, like the true identity of the people in the photos. It was found on slashdot.org

Well Oh well.


Boards of Canada

Came across another good find. The Boards of Canada are excellent. You can have a listen to them here.

I guess in the future I need to balance out a picture here, a post there.

I'll figure it out.

Apologies

OK I must first apologize that I posted so many photos. They were bogging down the site hardcore! You must go to the archives to see the photos.

Secondly, the quality of the photos, they were taken using camera phone quality... I can't be arsed to walk around all day with my camera.

And I will try and make things more user friendly in the future

-Chris

North End Playground
click photo to enlarge

19 mpg ...D'oh!
click photo to enlarge

This car looks nice... but...
click photo to enlarge

II
click photo to enlarge

Loads of people
click photo to enlarge

City Hall (looking up from below)
click photo to enlarge

Again with the outfits.
click photo to enlarge

Tried to take this guy's photo but you have to remember this place was packed wall to wall and the poor guy was busy, but in case you can't see he had a court Jester's outfit on.
click photo to enlarge

I was hoping the medieval manor would have some better food but they had some great outfits!
click photo to enlarge

Sunday... Ready to go back to Govt. Ctr.
click photo to enlarge

Haymarket T stop.
click photo to enlarge

The infamous North End "You-can't-park-in-my-spot-because-I-put-a-chair-here" tactic.
click photo to enlarge

What a F'in Mess!
click photo to enlarge

Haymarket, notice the asian guy looking for a deal...
click photo to enlarge

Haymarket
click photo to enlarge

Gross
click photo to enlarge

Haymarket -cleanup
click photo to enlarge

A random sticker...
click photo to enlarge

Something interesting
click photo to enlarge

From a Boston Herald Sept. 11th display.
click photo to enlarge

That burying ground. Posted by Hello

I have no idea where this is, it isn't the Granary burying ground, but I saw it as I was walking. Posted by Hello

People don't like to let you use their restrooms anywhere. And here I was desperate for a piss. Posted by Hello

The guy in the foreground (Blue Jacket) is the guy who handed me the blue "Beat Bush" paper. Posted by Hello

Got to Govt. center and damn! everything was shut down. Posted by Hello

North Station Posted by Hello

Photo of me taken at City Hall. I am updating my Profile photo with this. Don't I look cool? Posted by Hello

2004-09-19


TOB Ticket Posted by Hello