Day: October 5, 2006

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Lost – no, not that one

So I had an interesting experience this past Saturday. I am driving Cathy and crew over to her mother’s house so that Noah and I can steal the Dodge Neon since the Jeep was still in pieces on the driveway. Cathy, Sarah, Amy, Evan and Tommy had to go to the ice skating rink after dropping Noah and I off. I had forgotten my cell phone and would not be able to walk her through the back roads if she needed help.

I was verbally giving her a rundown of directions that I thought would get her there most directly with the least amount of chance for getting lost. See, her parents live in this neat little spot of town that is centrally located but somehow not directly connected to anything. Getting anywhere, except the interstate, involves a back road. Well, suddenly I did not know where I was. I could not remember how I got there and I had turned the car around but I only vaguely remember making the turn. It seems liked I was driving in a bright light and the conversation I was having with Cathy didn’t even make much sense at that point. As I re-oriented I almost turned back toward our house instead of the inlaws. It was very bizarre and surreal.

I think what happened was that I started to visualize the directions I was giving Cathy a little too much and started following my own directions. Good puppy.

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Lost – Spoilers

The wife points out that it takes roughly 2 weeks to brainwash someone.

What’s up with the speaker in Jack’s cell? "It hasn’t worked in years." Screwing with his mind? Or was something trying to communicate to Jack unbeknownst to The Others?

I don’t think Zeke "came out of the closet" but merely told Kate that he wasn’t interested in her.

SCORE! The speaker says, "Let it go Jack." in his father’s voice.

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Lost – Spoilers

It’s bugging me that I don’t have time to write a review so I’ll spit tidbits here and there.

  • The escapee that released Sawyer was the plumber at the beginning of the show. The plumber was Ethan.
  • I believe some of you (and others) are giving The Others too much credit with regard to Jack’s dossier. Nothing terribly revealing in the info. They have been spying on our people and Kate was obviously tortured so she probably spilled info.
  • Here is a Lost glossary – needs more work
  • They never intended Sawyer to be fed polar bear food. Just a left over gizmo from a previous tenant.

See also and also and also. Just incase you don’t know or have forgotten, ABC has the show online for free along with Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Six Degrees, The Nine, andThe Knights of Prosperity.

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Hard Lessons

Sarah is the student council historian this year. So for her birthday, we got her a Kodak EasyShare Z730 camera. I am very impressed with the camera.

One of my mantras to the children that they hear moaned out several times a day is "Don’t put it down; put it away." Sarah does not follow this at all. Her world does not operate by our laws, our physics, nor our logic. And, she leaves droppings wherever she goes. If she visits a friend, socks, trinkets, school notes, or something will have to be picked up several days later.

She took pictures in art club after school yesterday. Art club is supposed to end at 4:45 and we picked her up at 5 (the time she always comes out of the building anyway). She had set her camera beside her stuff then picked up her stuff to rush out leaving the camera behind. She realized this 15 minutes later at Target. Since the school would have been locked up it made no sense to go back but I got her there early this morning.

Apparently she was the first into the classroom but no sign of the camera. The teacher doesn’t recall seeing it and it hasn’t appeared in lost and found. It may still turn up but, sadly, the odds are against it. What is worse, the list of suspects is small: custodial staff, the few remaining art club students, and teacher. It should be easily recovered.

I feel bad for Sarah. I grew up with a belief system of trust. I believe people should be trustable and honest. If I find money or something like a camera, I seek out the person that may have lost it. I try to do my part as a citizen. Yesterday as I parked at Target the lady with a child in the car beside me was unloading the last few items from her cart. I waited then asked if I could take her cart for her. It was the right thing to do. If a person took Sarah’s camera with no intent to return it, that would be the wrong thing to do. I only hope that this does not scar Sarah’s trust in people or influence to not do the right thing because she has been burned. I want her to care enough to take the person cart rather than declare it SEP.

Now, the angry dad in me wants to jump to conclusions, secure the school security tapes, and go after somebody.

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7.7 Earthquake to hit Knoxville on June 19, 2007

Welcome new readers! Please consider adding the Reality Me feed to your favorite news reader. You can follow me on Twitter @djuggler. I also highly recommend reading Domestic Psychology.

Mark your calendars! The New Madrid fault line will slip! "Southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee would be among the hardest hit areas." The last time the New Madrid (1812) slipped the Mississippi River flowed backwards (see map showing waterfalls) creating Reelfoot Lake (Eagle Cam and history and info) and rung church bells in Richmond, Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts.

The probability of magnitude 6.0 or greater in the near future is considered significant; a 90% chance of such an earthquake by the year 2040 has been given. [Source]

Memphis could very well be the next Katrina! So, how do I know that a 7.7 will hit on June 19, 2007?

A mock earthquake – drill – June 19, 2007 will register a magnitude of 7.7 and last 34 seconds, encompassing the entire New Madrid area. Southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee would be among the hardest hit areas. [Source]

The Associated Press released these details of the drill on August 18, 2006.

Kevin Turner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah (images) and the Honeywell International Plant in Metropolis, Ill., (links) which produces uranium hexaflouride, are both near the fault line.

Each could produce devastating fallout in a major earthquake… [Source]

Recent earthquakes in US: CERI Check out all the recent activity in East TN! A previous blog entry regarding New Madrid.

Update: Will the Big One hit West Tennessee again?

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Off the wagon – Gimme the juice!

My first cup of coffee was at age 10 or 11 in Café Du Monde (wikipedia entry) eating beignets.

The cafe is open (has been since Oct 19, 2005) and trying to contact its employees. If you took in some Katrina victoms that are related to or know of people who worked for Cafe Du Monde, please let them know.

We are still trying to make contact with many members of the Cafe Du Monde team. If you are an employee of Cafe Du Monde please E-Mail us to let us know that you are O.K. and fill us in on your future plans. [Source]

That cup of coffee was horrible. I switched to hot chocolate and stayed away from coffee for nearly a decade.

In college I was very involved in dorm life. I became the treasurer of the Clement Hall Resident Association. I ran movie night introducing double features with animated cartoons during intermission. I would start of with a series of cartoons then we would show a popular movie, do a cartoon intermission, and finish the evening with an esoteric cult flick (wish I had written the names down). I also had a bootleg of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (before it was released to video) and we would periodically watch the show on Friday’s at midnight complete with a virgin call but not with the full regalia. Eventually I took a job as a desk worker with shifts of midnight to 4am and 4am to 8am. Later I would become a Resident Assistant for the 8th floor.

As a desk worker, sleep would call. Change would tinkle into the vending machine and coca-cola would keep me awake. Soon it felt like all the money I was making was going into that machine. One night the coffee pot caught my eye. It was ever present and best of all free. I tried it. Didn’t really like it but it worked! And better than the Coke. I was renewed! And hooked.

At my peak, I was drinking 2 pots of coffee a day. I would brew one in the morning and another about 8 in the evening. I thought all that shaking was due to unstable ground (Knoxville is on a fault line discovered in 1993). When I started having serious dizzy spells, I cut way back on the coffee. 4 or 5 weeks ago I stopped drinking coffee altogether. Since then I have had 3 cups. I also had a very minimal number of soft drinks. In recent years, I have had very little alcohol to drink.

A full pot of coffee sits on the counter now. Thanks Target! Stopped in Target last night to get dinner supplies and they had my coffee marked way down. I grew weak. I bought it. Today I shall be perky!

See also RHPS fan club.