Journal Entries
I'ts Electifying.
Posted Jun 25, 2006
Friday night was *interesting*...
My housemate and I got home from work to find that the garage door remote was not functioning. This was in the middle of a fairly intense rainstorm, so a power outage was not unexpected. The interesting thing was that the light on our porch was still on. We park in the driveway and go inside. The power seems to be out in half of the house. We turn the breakers back on for that side of the house, and test the garage opener in the garage. Still not working...
We investigate the intense odour of ozone in the house. It seem concentrated in my housemate's bedroom and the living room.
Long story short, we've lost the following things to a power spike:
Garage door opener
Home entertainment system (DD and surround sound (completely fried as we found out upon taking it apart))
Cable modem
Cable box
Television
Speaker system
Networking switch
Firewall
This is what we know of *so far*...
I've a new home entertainment system how, I can't live without movies.
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Latest reply: Jun 25, 2006
29 April 1944 - 24 Jan 2006
Posted Jan 24, 2006
My father died early this morning. He would have been 62.
My dad is gone and I don't know what to think. I am completely lost at the moment. My world has turned upside down. My biggest fear about moving away from my family has been realised. They need me there and I am stuck here...
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Latest reply: Jan 24, 2006
Hypatia gets my vote, why not yours?
Posted Sep 15, 2005
A5645531
Hypatia is receiving my vote for h2g2 president. The Ozark party is by far the best party to vote for.
As your Archbishop, I encourage you, strongly, to vote. And when you are voting, be sure to vote for what you know is the best party out there. Vote Ozark, Vote Hypatia!
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Sep 15, 2005
Marv's Bi-coastal adventures
Posted Jul 22, 2005
Now that I have been back for three days I figure that I should write a bit about the weekend I spent in California.
Friday.
I have a rather early flight (0630 EDT). This means that I have to be at the airport even earlier and awake earlier still... The plan was to wake up at 0300 so I could have a lesuirly drive to the airport and grab some breakfast on the way. This was not to be. I get up later than I wanted and had to haul ass just to get to the airport, where I fail to find the parkign entrance and have to go all around the place till I get back to the place to park. I just miss the shuttle to the gates as I pull in so I have to wait for 15 minutes. I run to the counter to check in and barely make it in time to get my boarding pass.
The flights from RDU to Houston and then on to Orange County were uneventful (thankfully).
I call MR as soon as I land and she tells me where to meet her. I make my way down to the baggage claim and meet up with her. It's always great seeing old friends.
MR had told me that she wanted to go to Ikea while I was there to have me help her with some boxes. I was happy to do so. We then procede to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. In-N-Out is a great hamburger. If you are in Southern California you must try it! We bring the Ikea stuff back to her apartment and begin building it (which translates roughly to me watching her build it).
Close to 1700 we get picked up by MR's friend C. We all ride over to Courtesy's apres work bar. As we walk up to the bar I spy Courtesy's famous dome. We walk up behind him and announce our presense. We enjoy a few beers with Courtesy, C, MR and another of MR's friends. It then gets close to the time we have our reservations for at The Marrakesh, so we head on over there.
At the marrakesh we make some calls to Soeasilyamused who was scheduled to join us. She arrives with D, latish but not terribly so. We all dig in to a meal that defies description. This is my favourite restaurant in the world here....
Dinner winds down but not till after we are treated with Courtesy dancing with the belly dancer (sea, did he keep that tip?). We then head over to Courtesy's to have some drinks and generally relax. By the time everyone winds down and exits stage left I am faded as I have now been up for 24-25 hours.
Saturday.
I stay with Courtesy for the first couple of nights. He and I decide to head on over to a local mall to do some looking around as well as to wait for MR to meet us to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We walk all the way down it's length, turn aroudn to deposit my camera bag in his truck, and then return to the theatre to wait for MR. We enjoy the film greatly. We then head out to Seal Beach to hook up with dw2, Courtesy's brother and some friends. We go to a great mexican joint just off the beach and enjoy great food, great conversation and great weather. I take a walk to the pier at sunset to take pictures. I can't wait to get the film developed and I hope it was not ruined by the airport scanners. That evening is back to Courtesy's for cocktails and pool with dw2 and friends.
Sunday.
We took a trip to a music store where I found an interesting CD and a great book by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. We then went to Long Beach to visit the aquarium of the pacific. We had some appetisers at a restaruant right across from the aquarium. Sunday was a very relaxing day for the most part. We then met up with a non-guide friend from San Deigo for dinner at a chain chinese place with good lettuce wraps.After dinner Courtesy had to head home as he had work the next day so my friend S and I went with MR to her place for some evening conversation.
Monday.
Some family friends happend to be about 50 miles south of Irvine due to the son (about a year older than me and very severely mentally disabled) being in the hospital. MR graciously drove me down there to visit my family friends. After the trip to the hospital we called Courtesy up to arrange to have a bbq at MR's. He comes over after work and we enjoy more great conversation and food.
Tuesday I fly back to RDU. Nothing great to tell there, save that it was the most uncomfortable I have ever been on an aircraft.
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Latest reply: Jul 22, 2005
Life's a beach
Posted Jul 4, 2005
J&J, my room mates, have some family in town for the weekend. They decided to go to the beach at Wilmington, NC for the afternoon. As I had to work this put me in something of a quandry: do I go alone and hope to catch up to them, or do I not go at all and wait for another day? I decide to go ahead and go to the beach after I get off of shift.
As I head toward the freeway I call J and ask him they are still there. Apparently they are still there and can't find anywhere to park. I decide to head on out there and hopefully meet them there. Keep in mind that this is a long way away from Cary, something like 150 miles...
So I get on the road and then I get another call. J is on the phone and says that they hate it there because the parkign and traffic suck and they are on their way back. This is another quandry for me. I can go ahead and go and have some fun and take some pictures (My primary reason for wanting to go in the first place) or I can turn around and head home.
I decide to forge ahead. I drive along, stopping for gas at a small town somewhere between Raleigh and Wilmington. I've a couple of hamburgers and some water along for travel food. I listen to my radio (XM Satelite radio is the bomb for road trips) and just haul on down the highway. I get down to Wilmington where I have to stop for emergency batteries for my mobile, as it's charge is dead by the time I get there. I get the batteries and keep heading toward the beaches. I get to Carolina Beach and find a place to park near a public beach access path. I walk out on to the beach and hang out looking at the ocean. The Atlantic is a somewhat different puddle than the Pacific that I know. The beaches are different too. Different shells in teh sand, different sand altogether, and somehow a different atmosphere than I usually equate to the sea.
I walk in the surf for a while and then head back to my car, damp and sandy. I get in my car and keep heading down the beach. I get to Fort Fisher, where I stop to take some pictures and walk around a bit more. I then turn around and start heading back. Along the way I spotted a couple of places to eat, so I decide to try one of them. The first place I stop at has no parking and I did not feel like walking more. I head back down to the firt place I saw, a small Mom and Pop cafe just off the beach. I sit down to a Southern dinner of chicken and dumplins (sic), hushpuppys and stewed potatos. I finished off with a sundae made with home made ice cream.
Then I start heading back to Raleigh.
Just in Wilmington I call J again to see if they made it home. Turns out they are still miles away from home. They got stuck in a traffic jam of people leaving the beach for a couple of hours. I very well could have passed them on the street and just missed them. They are adamant that they will never go back there again. I think that their timing was the problem. I can't wait to go back.
The drive home is fairly uneventful. I stopped off again to top off my gas tank and rolled on down the freeway.
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Latest reply: Jul 4, 2005
marvthegrate LtG KEA
Researcher U28338
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