Blue Haired Fury

In the gaming industry, I'm considered "Back Of House." Under normal conditions, I do not deal with "guests" at work. I usually only interact with employees. And even then less than a third of all employees have any kind of computer access.

Today, I learned why I don't deal with guests. I made the heinous mistake of walking the gaming floor in the middle of a massive, prolonged outage. Because one of the gaming-related systems was offline, the guests could not use the ATM-like kiosks (there are almost 40 of them on the floor) to cash out. They couldn't get their money without going to a cage, waiting in line, and getting a flesh & blood person to cash them out.

In the 21st Century, old ladies are no longer patient. They do not want to wait to get their hard earned money. They do not want to have it counted out three times and then handed to them one bill at a time. Old ladies want a quiet, efficient, blazingly fast MACHINE to spit out their money out on-demand.

As soon as one of them learned learned "the computer guy" was on the scene, they flocked down on me like a pack of vitriolic harpies. It was a bitter, acid-filled, one-sided conversation. The angry masses berated me for my lack of skillz and my inconsideration for forcing them to suffer the indignitity of manually cashing out.

They put curses on my children. They openly chanted and prayed for my quick, painful demise.

All I could do was nod stupidly and say, "Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am."

I'll never go down to the gaming floor again. I fear the blue haired fury.

MOVIE: The Band's Visit

This is a small movie. Very diminutive in scope and quite lacking in budget. The characters are mostly flat. The setting is an un-noteworthy Israeli desert town. And the whole movie spans a single day and night.

Fortunately, The Band's Visit is much larger than the sum of its small parts. Stripped of all pretense and cruft, it is a clean, uncluttered story centered around Tewfiq, the leader of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, and their unexpected, overnight delay in a slow, desolate city.

Things I thoroughly enjoyed:

• the clone-like appearance of the band members' uniforms
• everyone speaking in mottled English
• the informal and lighthearted aspects of Dina versus the rigid formality of Tewfiq
• "My Funny Valentine"
• The band members going in different adventures but all ending up at Dina's apartment

Very crisp. Very clean.  Subtle, unintrusive direction. Fluid acting. Unpretentious dialog. Satisfying and pleasant ending.

Great date movie. But too slow for the kids.

Rent it. Enjoy it. I did.

Plethora

Lovely plethora of activity today:

After more than nine years of computational effort, I broken into the top 4000 SETI contributors today. #3996 out of 1418448 user to be exact. I'm generating almost 10,000 work units a day. I should be able to break into the top 2000 with my current systems. But the top 1000 will be tough. I'd need a big boost to get there. But maybe I can work some magic. My stats are here.

My younger brother, Jason, wrestled with his first cancer screening this morning. He did real well afterward and was back to normal by lunch time. No signs of any problems. And he was all worried about nothing. I think he said he won't need another screening for five years. I'll probably get another one in three years, if not sooner. The amount of discomfort required for the exam is greatly outweighed by the knowledge that you're cancer free. And colon cancer is nobody's idea of a good time.

Speaking of good health, Cindy is back to firing on all pistons. In response to a bunch of questions I received about the whole adventure this past weekend:

• Yes, it was the same thing that happened a couple of years ago. Her potassium levels dropped and her heart came close to not having the essential elements required to do its job. 
• Yes, she was on potassium supplements. In fact, she thought she may have been taking too much. Good thing she didn't cut back... 
• As far as I know, the solution was to give her intravenous potassium for three days.
  
• She shares the symptoms with her mother. But her mother didn't have similar issues until she was well past 55.  I think it is a genetic pre-disposition toward insufficient potassium absorption. But I'm a computer goon, what do I know?

 On the other side of the equation, looks like I'm going to require a THIRD round of prolotherapy for my shoulder. The first round resolved problems with my anterior deltoid. The second round worked on my rotator cuff. And (hopefully) the final round will fix my subscapularis muscle. Not keen on thinking what comes next if I'm not good after that.

And this just in... ...Meg got a DOLLAR from the tooth faerie!

MOVIE: Deep Water

Deep Water is a modern day reflection of Homer's Odyssey. By Homer, I mean the Greek poet. By Modern Day, I mean the 1960s. And by Reflection, I mean a well-told documentary about the events surrounding a much celebrate sailing race around the globe.

Being a fan of good story telling as well as obscure tales, I was mesmerized by Deep Water. I had never heard of the forlorn Donald Crowhurst or his lonely endeavors. But I was drawn into the pageantry and suspense of the race. I can not begin to fathom the sense of anticipation created around the world as the racers sent in their all too infrequent updates via radio telegraph. And surely it was the "HELO WORLD" heard across every civilized country when Crowhurst eventually came up for air. But I get ahead of myself.

Deep Water is directors Louise Osmond's and Jerry Rothwell's completely factual documentary about the events before, during, and after the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. Nine lone sailors took up the call to complete a solo trek around the world via sailboat. Bear in mind, this was 1968. No interactive radio. No GPS. Nothing but one man per boat with only their wits and determination lending them to the finish line.

Last to arrive on the battlefield is the hero of this neo-Greek tragedy: Donald Crowhurst. For his chance to touch fame and glory, he abandons his wife, leaves his children, goes heavily into debt, and departs all alone into the race as the obvious underdog. For him, like Odysseus, it isn't the journal it is supposed to be.

With real footage of the race, newspaper clippings, and well narrated portions of Crowhurst's journals, the plot of the race slowly unfolds. The battle to the finish line is every bit as epic in scope as anything from Homer. The multiple endings for the different racers is baffling. And the suspense behind Crowhurst's tale carries through, even in a modern light. Without spoiling any elements for potential viewers, I'll leave it at that.

For a documentary, Deep Water kept me glued to my seat. The pacing was excellent. Almost a touch long in the middle. But not distracting. The direction is wonderful. Osmond and Rothwell weave a very clever web with all the clippings and murky audio and grainy photos and nautical maps. Fantastic atmosphere set and maintained throughout the movie. A constant revelation of intriguing events and surprises. And ultimately the ending did not disappoint.

Definitely an entertaining date movie for a rainy night. Possibly something older kids would like. Well worth the price of a rental. I'm very glad I caught this obscure film before it faded into the twilight. I'd recommend it to anyone with a thirst for interesting history.

MOVIE: Half Nelson

I picked this flick up because I really enjoyed Ryan Gosling's performance in The Believer. (Have to review that some time.) In Half Nelson, Gosling plays Dan Dunne. He's a zealous, free thinking teacher at an inner-city junior high school in Brooklyn. Well, that is his day job. It pays the bills. By night, he's an utter junkie. Crack, crank, coke. Washed down with some booze. And some hookers.

Throughout the movie, he teeter totters between his roles. Valiant champion of forgotten children by day, villainous dredge of society by night. A modern day Jekyll & Hyde.

The acting is incredible and utterly invisible. It is like watching a prolonged episode of A&E's Intervention. I hated the guy. I loved the guy. I wanted to wring his neck. I wanted to carry him in my own arms to a hospital. Very satisfying acting on all parts.

The direction and pacing are top notch. Very quick movie. Very flowing and seamless. Great writing. Engaging. Realistic. Contemporary. And phenomenal dialog.

Easily one of the most intriguing movies I have rented in recent months. Not something for the kids, but certainly worth the price of a rental and a bucket of popcorn for a date. I wish I had caught it one night at the theater with Cindy. We could have had diner and wine afterward and compared thoughts. Awesome flick. An unsung victory of a movie.

MindSpring Revisited - Chris Miller

Trying to describe Chris Miller to somebody who doesn't already know him is like trying to describe Reggae music to a deaf person. He is one of the slipperiest characters since Keyser Söze and seems more likely to be found in a Hunter S Thompson novel than in one of my adventures. But I spent the better part of four years with him at MindSpring, being the coyote to his road runner. Looking back, it was more of a cartoon chase than a job. And every episode was funnier than the next.

I caught up with Chris, today. The phone had an odd ring when it connected. That was due to him being in Sweden. He was roaming the streets and trying to get directions to a meeting. Fortunately, between harassment of unexpecting Swedes, he had some good advice for me and we may end up meeting in Savannah next month. Miller hasn't changed in a decade. The only difference now is that he has some foreign coyotes to beep at.

For the curious, here is Chris' "Where Are They 'Springing Now" update in his own words:

• How were you involved with MindSpring? Tech Support Desk
  Tech Support Mngr
  Call Centers Director
  Harrisburg Director
  Network Installer
  Network Planning Provisioning and Installations
  Dir Enterprise Systems Management
  Dir NOC
  VP NOC

• What was one of your favorite adventures at MindSpring?
  Landing in H'burg and setting the H'burgers free from the wicked witch.
  Hiring masseuses for the Hburg holiday dinner in the dungeon to give half naked massages at the table to Charles, McQ and JonR

• Share a memorable event from MindSpring?
  Charles singing at company meetings
  the back deck party we had
  'Spring events around the country
  McQ getting pied on the back deck

• What is something other SpringHeads might not have known about you in those days?
  Hhm, I think it was pretty well all disclosed

• Why did you part ways with MindSpring?
  I never did.  MindSpring parted from me when Gary Betty took over.

• What are you up to these days?
  Social/Economic Entrepreneur
  - city branding
  - urban dev
  - econ dev
  - strategic foresight
  - technology consulting
  travel - Africa, Scandanavia, Europe
  sailing - E. Coast

• Did you learn any lessons at MndSpring that you still carry with you?
  CVB's have been an integral part of all my for and non-profit endeavors since.  Also learned that results kick process in the ass everytime.
  

Win some, lose some

Good news. Cindy is home. She had a stress test early this morning. Treadmill and such. Heart rate reached 155 bpm without any problems. Her ticker passed with flying colors. And all is well in potassium land. So the doctors let me bring her home around 3PM. One big happy family again.

Bad news: Meg lost her second tooth today. Eating Cheetos during snacktime. One minute she has orange fingers. The next she's cleaning up a canine. She isn't keen on posing just yet. But I caught a nice image of the setting sun coming through the front blinds. I'll get a picture of that snaggled smile soon enough.

Hospital Blues

One more night (hopefully) for Cindy.

Her potassium is still low, though it has come up a good bit. The doctors want to keep her (surprise!) for another night and give her a stress test in the morning. The thinking is that her levels will have returned to normal and they'll have the results of the test for reference.

Anyway, I took the kids up there to visit. Then Liam hung out with his friend Thomas. Meg hung out with Gigi (Cindy's Mom.) And I picked up groceries (Super Walmart.)

We all miss Cindy and want her to come home. I'm sure she has the hospital blues by this point.

Illness At Every Turn

I'm still sick. And my meds make me loopy.

Meg is still sick. But she's on the fast track to recovery.

Liam is much better. Almost good as new.

Cindy's potassium is collapsing. It's down to critical levels again. They admitted her to the hospital a couple of hours ago. Have to get it back to normal levels. I hope she'll be home tomorrow.

Should be in for a fun week.

FOOD: Monterey Grill in Biloxi, MS

I watched them slowly build Monterey Grill / Cafe / Cantina , on Pass Road, in Biloxi, MS, across the better part of six months. So the property is brand new. Means it is very nice and very clean. Some interesting murals, too. I especially liked the fact that there was a full length glass partition between the bar (ie: smoking section) and the rest of the place (non-smoking.) Since we took our Meg and her cousin Alex, it was nice that we didn't have to worry about sitting too close to the bar. A smoke free dinner is a great dinner.

I had the "Monterey Special" which is three burritos prepared with three different ingredients and covered with a cheese sauce. The first burrito was of the fairly traditional steak (ground beef?) variety. Good stuff. Liked the seasoning. Liked the flavor of the meat and the cheese. Didn't even spice it up with salsa. The second burrito was my favorite: spinach! Never had that anywhere else. It was fantastic. Very tender spinach. Great idea, if they came up with it. The third burrito was chicken. Nothing surprising or overly interesting about it, though. Paled in comparison to the first two. Next time, I'm going to try to order ala cart, with two beef and two spinach, with red sauce on them. (Mister Parker at the office recommends the red sauce!) And I didn't like how NOTHING else came on the dish. No beans, no rice. Nada. Could have been a better presentation, too.

Cindy had the shrimp burritos. She was a big fan. Said the tortillas were very fresh, the ingredients were very fresh, and the shrimp were not only huge but also well prepared. And her dish came with several extras. Much better presentation. All told, she loved it. She said it is her new favorite Mexican spot. Well worth the extra travel time.

The kids had cheese quesadilla. I think they mainly enjoyed being out, being together, and not having any boys around to distract them and be silly.

Cindy and I had a drink from the bar. She had a clever frozen drink that I can't remember. I had a margarita on the rocks. Both were good and adequately priced.

The price of the meal, as a whole, wasn't too bad. With the tip it barely broke $50.

We'll be back. Maybe this weekend.

Visit From George

My former boss and long-time friend, George Williams, drove through Gulfport on his way back to Atlanta, and paid me a visit. It was great to see him and we hung out for a couple of hours. Had some BBQ. Watched some football. Talked about geeked-out security shizzle.

Good times. Certainly made me miss the proximity of my friends while I was in Atlanta. Too bad I couldn't get them to relocate en masse to MS. The whole hurricane thing is a put-off though.

Rumors Of My Demise

I took some time off from writing. Just too many pins in the air and not enough resources to juggle them all.

Bad news: I'm dreadfully sick. Bronchitis, bordering on possible pneumonia. The Nurse Practitioner could hear crackling in all of my right lung and the upper lobe of my left lung. She actually asked me if I was a smoker!

It started on Saturday. I woke up feeling like my throat was shredded. As if I'd been coughing for a week. But I hadn't coughed at all. Very odd. I just suffered through it. Sunday was worse. Added coughing to the mix. Probably the beginning of a sinus infection migrating into my chest. Monday was much worse. The fever hit. Barely measured at 100 degrees, but felt much higher. Very lethargic, very achy, and very hot. Did not enjoy it. It continued today.

But I went to the medical building and got some help from Nurse Posey. She hooked me up with a breathing treatment, some drug samples, and a shot of steroids, to speed the healing. Let me say for the record: that shot HUUUUURT! I actually jumped when he hit me in the "hip" with it. (For some reason, medical professionals say "hip" when they mean "buttocks.") After she hit me with that juice, it felt like I had an angry monkey fist in my back pocket for hours.

Hopefully, all of the meds will help me out and I'll be back at work tomorrow. Had to leave early, today. Took a two hour nap. Seemed like 6 hours has passed. Best sleep I've had in days.

Goods news: Contiued to work on several of my projects. The adventure with Roger is moving along. The house is coming together, too. Worked on the hallway this weekend (crown molding!) And Cindy has been wrapping up the painting in the bathroom. Labor Day marked the official One Year point of working on the house. Not as far as I'd like to have come, but we've got three rooms done, and have four more to go.

This Olde House - Hallway Trim Work

I finished the sheetrock and mud and paint in the hallway a while back. Now it is time to work on the trim work. I'm going to put in some 8 inch crown molding, 6 inch baseboards, and 8 inch corner pieces.

Of course, everything starts with a trip to Lowe's. And I had to drop several hundred bucks on material. None of which would fit in my truck. I had canter-lever the long boards out the window!

I bought the corner pieces in order to avoid having to cope the angles on every corner. I like to think I'm good at working with trim. I'm not good at coping angles, though. The one time I tried, it took a long time to produce very unimpressive results. Pre-fabricated corners install in minutes and look great.

I also plan on fixing a gap between the kitchen and the hallway. There used to be a useless door there. I removed it and opened up the whole area. But a weight bearing board still hangs down about a quarter of an inch below the rest of the sheet rock. So I bought a nice piece of wood normally used to separate gaps in floors and plan to use it to span the gap on the ceiling.

One or two days to install the trim. One or two days to spackle and sand. One day to paint. Then have to find some new lights and paint the ceiling.

TFtE Gets Wordle-ed

My abundance of sleep from earlier this week is plaguing me. Nigh on midnight and I'm wired.

Fred, from One Project Closer send me this link: Wordle.

According the site: Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

I pointed it here. And it wordle-ed my mad rantings. I wish I could feed it all my posts. It's clearly jaded by my recent entires about hurricanes.

Wish I could sleep.

Long Drive In

Highway 90 (a road traversing the length of the entire Gulf Coast) re-opened this morning. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it wasn't good. Gustav certainly extracted its toll on the beach.

The first (and obvious) thing to notice was the mounds of sounds on both sides of the road. I'm guessing they were about three feet high. Tons and tons of sand blown off of the beach and onto the highway. (A close look at the background shows one of our lighthouses!)

Once I actually cruised into Biloxi, the beach became littered with vast expenses of odd brown debris. Seriously, I have NO idea what that stuff is. I didn't see anything like it in Gulfport! Seaweed? Clumped up grass? It looked like tattered old ropes. Miles of it.

Certainly don't envy whomever has to clean up that mess. They've got several days (weeks) worth of work ahead of them. Hopefully some kind of mechanized unit that can be driven around the beach all day. But they don't exactly make "Cleanup The Beach After A Durricane" style lawn mowers.

Finally, almost to the office, I caught sight of some of the serious debris. Snapped a picture of a big mound of the stuff. I'm guessing it approaches eight feet high. Maybe twenty feet round, at the base? A hulking jumble off wood, pipes, boards, and metal beams mixed with tons of soggy earth.

Of course Katrina was easily 300% worse than this. Where I only saw a couple of mounds of debris from Gustav, Katrina created unbroken MILES of debris, walls of it, almost ten feet tall, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Gustav could have been much worse.

Hopefully we won't get anything worse this season.

Slept

A surprising change: I SLEPT!

After the first day of re-opening, I went home to do three things: eat half a meal of prosciutto ravioli, crawl into bed, and go to sleep at 8PM. I rarely get six hours of sleep. I'm thrilled to get eight hours. But last night I proceeded to sleep for an unimaginable ten hours.

Guess I needed it.

Certainly enjoyed it.

Biloxi's Open For Business

Driving into the office, I noticed almost no damage worth mentioning. Only a lone, tattered Taco Bell sign littering Pass Road. Otherwise, Gustav was only marked by the surprising number of businesses that remained closed in its wake.

Then I noticed three reoccurring themes.

• First, all major name brand stores (KMart, Burger King, Shell stations, Dominos, etc) were closed. I think it is due to the fact that they serve the lowest common denominator of clients. They are quick, cheap, and employ cheap labor. And I bet their staff fled town since their job was worth staying for. 
• Second, the smaller and locally owned restaurants were all opened. And they were all PACKED! I think it is because they cater to local clients, have established themselves with the community, use fresher ingredients, and have a more dedicated staff that cared enough to stay and return as soon as possible. 
• Third, every single liquor store in the city was open for business. I won't dwell of the social repercussions there. But it made for an interesting drive to work.
  

Pre-Opening Silence

Drove into the office this morning. Past two checkpoints. Right up to the front door. The barest skeleton of a staff. Aside from Security (guarding the place) and Engineering (repairing the place) we had about 20 people to occupy three million square feet.

The gaming floor continued to sleep. Completely unpowered, protected by waist-high rope barriers, and guarded by extra security, in case somebody (somehow) slip onto the floor, power up a machine, and play a game of chance without MS Gaming's express consent. Such activity is expressly forbidden and carry fines which could bankrupt small nations.

The main atrium was equally devoid of life. A couple dozen front-desk spaces neatly covered with plastic. Their PCs powered down. Nobody but us within ear shot. Normally the place is a fulcrum of activity. Abuzz with guests and high rollers.

In the pre-opening silence, I caught some interesting details that I had never noticed before. We have REAL GAS LIGHTS. Not flickering electric bulbs, but dancing gas-powered flames under glass. All the trim work on the front desks is made from wrought iron. Not painted plastic. Real, hand-work metal. And I really enjoyed the signs next to each station. They can spin to different positions allowing the staff to adapt their location based on the need of the guests.

During the morning, they mostly read, "Check Out." In the afternoon, they are spun to read, "Check In." But today, all of them, every last one, read, "Next Window Please."

For the next couple of hours, we hear you knocking, but nobody is home.

And Afterwards

And afterwards, we're only a little worse for wear. Maybe four hours of punishment. Lost power for a micro second,  several dozen times. Lost cable for a micro second, several dozen times. Otherwise, the experience at my house was not unlike a severe thunderstorm. And the results were similar.

The front yard had some excess water, closer to the front of the house. Nothing unusual there. It will likely be gone by this time tomorrow. Some debris along the walkway, but it is small. The kind of stuff the kids can  collect.

Along the edge of my property, there's about two inches of water. Again, nothing I haven't seen before today. I think the neighbor has more debris in her yard than we do. On the corner is the remains of a fence of hers. It was flattened during Katrina. She never fixed it. Anyway, the water there will take a couple of days, but it will go soon enough, too.

My backyard did pretty well. Almost no debris and the flooding didn't  get too wonky. About six inches of water at the deepest point. It will run off by the time I have to mow it again.


As far as the Mississippi Gulf Coast goes, here are some of the bits I caught on the news:

• Highway 90 (still under re-construction!) fell beneath two feet of seawater. It is officially closed until 5PM tomorrow, for cleanup.
• The Gulfport Yacht Club had some significant degree of flooding.
• Waveland lost power pretty early, upwards of 14000 people affected.
• Long Beach lost power, too, but only for a few minutes.  
• Biloxi had a 9' storm surge late in the game. Likely going to be a lot of cleanup as a result of that.

My money says I'm back to work by mid-day tomorrow. Business as usual. And we'll be on the lookout for the next storm.

Gustav's Landing

I didn't know he was upon us. No unusual wind. No strong rains. Almost quiet as Gustav began to roll across the Gulf Coast. If Cindy had not sent me a text message, I may have slept another hour.

Peeking outside, it looked as calm as it sounded. No flooding in the yard, not even along the far side of my property. No debris littering the driveway. My car hadn't floated away. And the street was surprisingly clear and completely free of looters.

Might as well fuel up and get ready for some hot recovery action. There will be trees to dice, widows to rescue, and orphans to shelter. At least that is what CNN leads me to believe. So, I grab a NOS and an energy bar. Breakfast of champions. Just me and Gustav. He's cleared for landing.