jpnearl.com is moving to a new host. This blog entry will only appear on the old host. If you see it, then you’re still looking at the old location of jpnearl.com. Your ISP will catch up with the internet within 72 hours. 🙂
See you soon!
Update (3:10 PM EST): I’ve decided to wait until after our trip to Florida to do this maintenance. I need to pack first and I can’t be going away with my blogging software in flux! 🙂
I’ve been desperately been trying to avoid the subject this entire week but I can no longer hold my breath. In the infinite wisdom of the United States Government, the dreaded Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday at 2:00 a.m.
Now look it. It’s bad enough that we’re subjected to this flip flopping of the hours twice a year as it is. Since 1986 it has taken place the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October. Now in an effort to distract the American public further from things that really matter (“don’t look at that war behind the curtain!”), now we’re moving the clock around the second Sunday of March until the second or third Sunday in November (I don’t remember the specifics because in all honesty I wish I couldn’t care less.)
This new configuration of DST is part of the latest energy bill to get passed through Washington. Because of this new approach, electronic calendars and various clocks are going to be skewed for the next three weeks while we all decide whether we should eat breakfast or lunch before going to bed because it’s dark when it shouldn’t be and light when it can’t be.
I wish I could get away from the trouble by jumping a time zone or two but that would interfere with my college courses which I’ll probably have to take by candlelight because the timers on the classroom lights won’t know what time it is. Oh it’ll look like nighttime but in reality it’ll be 9 a.m.
Here’s how time is suppose to work: “noon” is when the sun is at it’s highest point in the sky. That’s what “noon” is. For convenience sake we use a rough estimate of this so that cities like Syracuse, N.Y. have the same “noon” as Toledo, Ohio, though in actuality “noon” should be several minutes apart.
But now our “noon” will be 1 p.m. By doing this, according to the government, we use less energy because we don’t use as many lights in the evening when we’re awake out playing in the snow. (Unless, as someone mentioned on their blog that they overheard in a conversation, the extra hour of sunlight melts the snow faster.)
So next week when you’re stumbling around in the dark, late for work because someone has frigged around with the clock, remember that it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. I don’t know why you should remember that but I find that it helps me get through the day.
The sky is clear, the sun is bright. A quick glance at the thermometer shows that it’s 10 degrees. Unfortunately that’s not in celcius.
What to do, what to do.
Enjoy the sunshine by taking a study break, cranking up “Domino Dancing” by the Pet Shop Boys and dancing in front of a window filled with sunshine.
Maybe next time I should get dressed.
Earl is out of town this evening. I’m looking forward to his arriving home tomorrow night. As usual, I’m not finding it easy to fall asleep with him away. Leaving me to wonder, “Is it bad to eat my weight in cheese before going to bed?”
I would KILL for a McDonalds Cheddar Melt right now but they haven’t served those up since 1997 or so. Fscking bastards.
I guess I’ll try going to bed.
I took a few moments to finish up a project I’ve been wanting to do. Using an extra webcam, an old blue and white PowerMac G3 and some nifty software, may I take a moment to introduce our “weathercam”.
This is a view of our backyard. Why did I do this? Because I can.
jpnearl.com is up and down like a yo-yo again today. I’ve been trying to post a blog entry, complete with pictures, since 9:00 a.m. this morning and have not been successful. I find this frustrating. Hopefully things will be better tonight.
We’ve used this hosting company for a long time. I think I’m ready to move to a new company though, at least for this site. Since I’m such a Mac Fan, I really want to move to a hosting company that uses Mac-based servers. Not that I have anything against Linux but if I’m going to drink the kool-aid, I might as well drink it in gallons.
So I apologize if the site has been wonky for the past couple of days. I hope to have the problem fixed soon.
The weather has been absolutely miserable today. The wind is blowing like crazy. It has been snowing all day. The driveway was filled up with snow drifts within an hour of my cleaning it out. I’m sort of sick of it.
Since I had to go to school tonight I had to venture out in this nasty weather. Naturally, I had forgotten to get gas for the Jeep when it was warm so there I was, standing at the gas pump fearful that my balls were going to freeze to my leg or something.
It was fscking cold.
Now I don’t know if this is statewide or some weird sporadic thing upstate, but in Oneida County we, as the most taxed citizens of the Empire State, are forced to stand with our hands on the gas nozzle while we’re putting a tiger in our tank. In most other states, usually warmer locales I may add, you can put the nozzle in the gas tank and prop it open with the little flappy thing and then jump into the car to keep warm. Then the pump will pop off when your tank is full and you can jump back out of the car and finish up your business.
Not here. They’ve (meaning “the man”) have taken the little flappy thingees off the gas pump nozzles. So there’s only two ways to prop the nozzle open so you can get in the car and get warm: 1. Bring a screwdriver and jam it in the nozzle which might not let it turn off automatically when its suppose to or 2. jam your gas cap in the same spot. Unfortunately most modern cars have their gas cap tethered to the vehicle now because people were leaving them behind or putting them in their purse. So we are left to hold the nozzle in rain, sleet, snow, wind and other weather related calamities.
I’m suspecting this is because someone, somewhere at a gas station went crazy and dowsed their spouse with gas and then lit them on fire or something and then sued the gas station owner. So naturally, because we do not let natural selection do it’s thing anymore and weed out the stupid people, we are all forced to act to the lowest common denominator.
I hate that.
It’s like these morons in New Jersey that won’t allow you to pump your own gas for fear of going crazy with the nozzle (like we’re going to drink out of it or something) and demand that an attendant scratch up your car with said nozzle instead. Usually while the attendant is smoking.
To make a long story short, my fingers are numb from pumping $37.50 worth of gas into the jeep and my patience is long gone. And don’t even get me started on the fact that gas has gone up 30 cents per gallon in a week for some secret reason that nobody knows about.
The company that hosts jpnearl.com must love me. I have been installing new features to the website that I’d like to start using soon (a new photo gallery system) but I keep crashing the server. I’m in Upstate New York, the server is in Pittsburgh. I keep sending them trouble tickets and they keep responding. They’re friendly enough though.
Hopefully tonight the dust will have settled enough that I can do a proper blog entry.
Earl and I made the trek to Albany yesterday to visit with our friends Sean and Jeffrey. Sean is the one I share a common ex with (from over 18 years ago, not that we are old or anything). He and his partner Jeffrey have been together for about as long as Earl and I have been. We ran into each other online a while back and decided that we needed to get together and just hang out.
Simply put, we had a smashingly great time. We arrived at their apartment a little after two, chatted, snacked and ate dinner, chatted some more and then all of a sudden it was after midnight. It was like we had known these guys forever. I’m looking forward to getting together with them again soon.
Living in a smaller city, I occasionally feel that Earl and I are out on some sort of gay fringe, because of the longetivity and honesty we have with our relationship. It frequently feels like others just don’t get us. Few believe that Earl and I have no secrets from one another. Many shake their heads when they see that we enjoy each other’s company all the time. I often feel like we’re too whacky for words for most. We’ve been together over 10 years yet it still feels like we’re on a honeymoon. It has never gotten old between us, the adventure has just begun. I sense the same with Sean and Jeffrey.
It’s fun to have others ride the rollercoaster with you from time to time.
Tonight’s Friday Night Jam is one of my favorite tracks. It reminds me of spring and just gives me a happy feeling all over.
Enjoy The Stellar Project and “Get Up, Stand Up”. Unfortunately, it’s a shorter version that what I’m used to but what can you do. If this was around during my radio days it would have been on the station 110+ times a week (once every 90 minutes or so). Our thanks to YouTube.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!
