They say we are under a Winter Storm Watch tonight with up to seven inches of snow expected. Earl and I readied the back patio and made sure we were ready by gassing up the snowblower.
Ironically, it is gorgeous today. I decided to take some photos in the back yard celebrating how I feel today. The big guy expressed his pleasure with my decision to go back to the big ‘stache.
So I am back from my Big Geek Adventure. I decided to skip the social networking thing for a couple of days and kind of just go searching for myself while I was roaming around exploring. I saw a lot of leaves, had an incredible bike ride (in which I forgot the camera) and spent some time assessing where I am in my life at 41+ years old and where I want to go from here. I feel more grounded and complete than I have felt in a very long time. I have plans to be implemented and I learned a lot about myself in many different areas of my life. I knew I just needed to get out so that I would be able to clear out my head.
Yesterday I made the long trip home in one big chunk. I drove nearly 700 miles to get back home, taking 12 hours to do so. Traffic from Washington, D.C. to York, Pa. was out of control due to weather. Once I got north of Harrisburg, Pa. Mother Nature decided to throw her comments on the drive and I found myself driving in snow. The hilltops had about an inch of snow but the roads were just wet. The scenery was incredibly beautiful as I made my way through the twilight. The snow gave way to wet leaves above Scranton, Pa., by the time I was about an hour from home the roads were dry and the sky was clear.
The Jeep doesn’t accommodate the iPhone very well so I opted to flip around the radio for most of the ride. I found myself landing on a country station and ended up listening to country music for the entire 12 hours on the ride home. (That cheering you hear is from my mother.) I haven’t really listened to country since I left the radio station in ’04 but I really liked what I heard.
One song that all the stations played in their “new music” category was Lady Antebellum and “Need You Now” (YouTube link). I really like this song. I found the artist and title using the Shazam app on my iPhone to identify songs for later purchase. If you’re not familiar with Shazam, it allows you to point your mobile device at a speaker and take a sample of a song and then it will identify the artist and title of that song for you. You need to have an internet connection while you’re doing it. The iPhone app works brilliantly and allowed me to purchase from iTunes if I was so inclined. It also tweeted my discoveries, so if you were following my Twitter updates you’ll note that I was discovering a few country songs here and there along the ride. I reprogrammed my radio when I got back home and I now have the local country stations just one button away.
This afternoon I am in Lynchburg, Virginia. I am currently sitting in a Panera enjoying a (relatively) healthy lunch and using the wi-fi for a bit. The drive has been spectacular today. I’m taking mostly back roads; the leaves are just starting to change in these parts and the sun is shining brightly. It’s around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
I spent last night in Winchester with our friend Thom (see ‘Thoughts Made Bald’ in the blogroll). Thom and I have chatted for a number of years online and Earl and I have met him in person before. We both enjoy cycling and more importantly, Thom holds the distinction of being the first reader of my blog to ever reveal himself to me, way back in 2001.
Thom has been feeling a little bit under the weather for the past couple of days so we didn’t go for as long of a bike ride as originally planned, but yesterday afternoon we took a respectable jaunt around the area. He has warned me over the years that he’s not a fast rider and was worried that I would be bored. The bike ride worked me out a little more than anticipated because if anything, he is not a slow rider by any means. Our ride went at a pretty good pace. It was good to ride with someone else.
After the ride we relaxed a bit and grabbed some dinner. It was a good night and he was an excellent host. Earl and I look forward to returning the favour the next time he’s passing through our area (he makes a yearly jaunt to Quebec every summer).
This morning I was up and about and on the road, opting to head through Central Virginia. Right now I’m on the route I believe we took back in 1976 when my family was down here bringing my aunt back home to Blackstone, Va. ‘Tis true; I have roots in these parts (I told my friend Shirley that some of my kin lived here) and I’m enjoying the exploration off the beaten path.
It’s a well-established fact that I am a road geek. Driving the roads is what I do for enjoyment and this is what fuels much of my adventure time. Today I walked on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It wasn’t the first time that I have done this.
Here, I made a little movie for you.
After walking on that abandoned section of the Turnpike, I stopped at a lookout over where I was standing. The view was beautiful.
By the way, I mention in the video that I would give the directions on how to get where I hiked up onto the road. It’s pretty easy. From Breezewood, Pa. (Turnpike Exit 161), take US Route 30 East to PA Route 915 NORTH. Take 915 NORTH a few miles to your first turn on the left, which will be Oregon Rd. This is a barely maintained road so you might want to have a sturdy vehicle. Go in a couple of miles to the Oregon Camp buildings and park along the left side of the road. There is a barrier to prevent motorised vehicles from entering the public trail, just follow the trail about 3/4 mile to the roadway. You’ll literally merge on as if you were merging into traffic.
Here’s the view from the hill atop the tunnel. I remembered to smile for the camera this time.
After heading back to Breezewood I jumped onto Interstate 70 south and then took US Route 522 South through that sliver of Maryland, a suggestion of West Virginia and now I’m in Virginia. I’m going to meet up with Thom in a little while for our ride; I’m hoping the weather clears up because right now it doesn’t look like ideal riding weather.
Gold is the prevalent colour in the Southern Tier this year.
Today I began what I am calling the “Big Geek Adventure 2009”. I left The Manor around 3:00 p.m. with a Jeep full of goodies: a few days worth of clothes, a lovely lunch pail packed by a thoughtful husbear, a duffle bag or two of geek stuff and toys and most of all, my cycling gear.
I am on vacation this week. Earl is not able to take all of this week off along with me, so with his blessing I am on a multi-day roadtrip. Some people don’t understand how I can go on vacation without Earl. I’m not vacationing to get away from Earl by any means. He knows that I like exploring by driving endless hours on miles and miles of road, wandering aimlessly here and there and he enjoys helping me indulge in this, hence my ride this week.
I was going to try to wander today by sticking to two-lane roads but after taking nearly 2.25 hours to drive 80 miles I was losing my mind, so I decided to change my route a bit and take scenic freeways. Believe it or not, we have scenic freeways in these parts. Once the weekend is over and such, the Sunday drivers should be back at home lapping up spoonfuls of Sominex and leaving the roads fairly clear, so I’ll start the two-lane road thing again in a day or two.
I have a destination planned for tomorrow; I am meeting up with our friend Thom in Northern Virginia for a bike ride, hence the bike in the back of the Jeep. Thom and I have talked about riding together for a number of years and haven’t been able to make it happen, so this is a good chance to see him again and to finally go on that bike ride. I’m looking forward to seeing him.
My first change in course was to turn west at Binghamton along NY Route 17, which is Future Interstate 86 (at least where I was). Here Route 17 follows along the Susquehanna River for a bit, and one of the rest areas are conveniently situated on the banks.
After a bite to eat from the aforementioned lunch pail, I headed west to Corning and then turned south along US Route 15, which is Future Interstate 99 in these parts. We apparently have a bright future ahead of us. Along Route 15 I quickly left the Empire State behind and ended up in the Keystone State, where I headed straight south through Central Pennsylvania. Tonight I am spending the night in Breezewood, Pa., known as the place where you have to exit Interstate 70 to get onto Interstate 70 after driving by a bunch of motorist friendly establishments.
By the way, I have been here before. The room is configured the same but the curtains are different this time around.
Tomorrow morning I intend on continuing the trip to Thom’s in Virginia. My Twitter (see right hand column) will be kept up to date and I am on a geek experiment during this trip: I have only a Windows 7 computer to use for my tech needs. I will be writing a review of my Windows 7 experience in a couple of days on my geek blog.
Now, to get some sleep.
Update (10/12/2009 00:20) — I’ve started my Windows 7 experience on my ‘geekdom blog’, which is now called ‘From Mac To 7’. You can see it here.
I love the English language. My abilities in the language are not the model of perfect syntax but I strive to speak and write well by utilising the skills I learned as a youngster and continue to learn each day. I try to talk English more goodly when I talk.
I was recently reading an article about the rapid demise of the proper use of English among students. College professors are shocked at the appearance of words such as “AFAIK”, “LOL” and the like are showing up in term papers. Students are now using text-messaging shorthand in lieu of forming complete sentences. The nuances of the language are rapidly falling away. Why describe something with a colorful, elaborate prose when you can plunk it out in terse, utilitarian, plain ol’ black and white on a tiny keyboard?
With the advent of spelling correction and the like, people are paying less and less attention to their spelling and in many occasions are using a program where they aren’t autocorrected. This drives me insane. I admit that I have my share of spelling and grammar mistakes on my blog. Due to my history of writing advertising copy, I tend to write as a person would speak versus how a person would read and that informal style tends to carry over to my words here. I write casually but I try really hard not to be casual with my spelling, as there really isn’t a formal and casual way of spelling a word. So I’d like to take a moment and review some of the basics that really get on my nerves:
lose vs loose
“Emma wanted to lose some weight so her pants would be loose.”
“Matt played with the loose change in his pocket.”
“I won. You lose.”
Here is how I remember: when you lose something you want to only lose one ‘o’. When you’re loose, you’re probably having double the fun.
desert vs dessert
“J.P. and Earl went for a Jeep ride in the desert.” (note: we were not driving through an ice cream sundae.)
“I think I’ll have the apple pie for dessert.”
Here is how I remember: There is one desert in the U.S. and once in a while I wish I could have two desserts.
their, there and they’re
“They’re happy that their mobile home was still there after the tornado.”
‘They’re’ is a contraction of they are. “They’re excited about winning the lottery.”
‘Their’ is possessive. “It’s their kid that is screaming.”
‘There’ refers to a place. “Put the couch over there.”
I just remember that one, though I occasionally mix it up when I’m typing quickly.
Ironically, one of my most favourite “Pet Shop Boys sounding” tracks is not by the Pet Shop Boys at all.
Here’s Electronic with “Disappointed”.
So I’m heading off the work and I pull out of our driveway onto the road. A few houses up a neighbor comes flying out of his driveway in reverse and pulls out right in front of me. I slam on the brakes and wait for him to get oriented to the road and let him take off on his merry way in front of me. He quickly glances in his mirror with ‘a look’ at me as he speeds off.
Ten seconds later, a deer comes bounding out of the woods, slams into his car and goes butt over head, landing on his roof and denting it in. The deer is stunned, stands on the car, jumps off and takes off on his merry way, not even looking back at the red car that he just ran into.
Karma.
I don’t know if you know this about me or not but I’m a bit of a control freak. I have a tendency to insist that things happen on my terms. I like to know what is happening when, where and why at all times. I even want to know the ‘how’. This tends to extend to all aspects of my life, including the geek side of things.
Facebook is all the rage right now. With a few simple clicks of the mouse and some pounding on the keyboard in the right places, I can virtually dial up a quickly growing number of people from my past and present and see what they’re up to and where they are in their life. I think this is a brilliant thing about social networking because it makes the world a little less global and in a way a little more intimate. I’m sure that my Facebook profile has shown my in-laws more about me than they thought they would ever know. I have found old high school friends that I had completely forgotten about. I recently also found out the details of another random person in public, and to me that’s kind of scary.
It was a year or so ago that Earl and I were at one of the Saranac Thursday nights. I commented to Earl that a gentleman standing not too far from us was kind of hot. He didn’t really agree with me (he wasn’t really Earl’s type) but he could see where I would think he was hot (it was because of his bold moustache, in case you’re wondering). I overheard a friend call him by his first name. It put a name to a face.
The other night I couldn’t sleep due to on-call and while I was waiting on hold for a certain telephone company to do something about the issue I was having, I was clicking around on in Facebook reading various profiles and the like. I remembered that name that went with a face and decided to do a search on his name and the city we live in. I now know his full name, his age (he’s 31), the fact that he is straight, has a girlfriend and is a single father and what types of music and television he likes. I also know that he was recently hired at a technology based company as a salesman. Had he not protected his profile to be completely viewed by his friends only, I would undoubtedly know his cell phone number and more about him.
To me this is a little bit out of my control barriers. And no, I wasn’t stalking the guy; I was testing a theory by using the two bits I know about the guy: his first name and what he looked like. I have done the same before with a waiter at Applebee’s.
I think Facebook is a great way for us to connect. I really do. But the service is free and yet it’s making tons and tons of money for the owners of the company. I believe they are doing this by data-mining and selling appropriate ads tailored specifically to you. This makes me a little nervous. I became even more nervous when I received a call yesterday telling me that my “fat whacker” like pills were on the way. I had no idea what the caller was talking about and asked where they got the idea that I wanted these pills. Their response?
“From Facebook.”
Um, no. This is where I draw the line. So after this blog entry, I am ceasing the automatic cross-posting between my real blog and my Facebook profile. If you want to see my real blog, you can gander at jpnearl-com and see what I’m up to, on my own terms and on my own server. My cell phone number on my profile has been modified to one that I can easily control (it’s my magic on how I do that).
I’m going to play the social networking game on my own terms.
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!
