When was the last time you thought about a fireman? A policeman? An EMT? Why not take a moment today to do that?

Eight years ago today terror came to our doorstep, and a certain breed of men and women raced toward it to help their fellow man.  In the weeks and months following 9/11, people embraced emergency workers all across the country, even if they weren’t near Ground Zero, they were all brothers and sisters, and people remembered these people that work tirelessly in the backgrounds of our lives.

As time passed, as with so many things, people stopped thinking about them again, and I think it’s time we did again.

Each year on this date I write a post marking the memory of September 11th, but I think maybe it’s time we once again celebrate these people who work constantly to save our lives and protect us.  I admit my bias in that my paternal grandfather was a fire captain in Phoenix, AZ in my childhood, but that is my extent of connection to emergency workers.

So why not take a moment of your time and donate to a local emergency worker charity?  Do you drive by a fire department each day?  Why not take them some ice cream or treats?  (trust me, fireman will never turn down food)  Tell a policeman you appreciate them.  Why should we wait for the next disaster to remember these relatively unsung heroes of our world?

September 11th will never be a “happy” day again in the history of this country, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do something good with it for those around us.

I finally feel that my weight loss has settled, and I can officially tell you all that I have lost over 105 pounds.

Ever since I took my first airplane flight in 1988, I have asked for exit rows due to my height.  Being just under 6’4″, I need the extra leg room, and so I have always wanted to make sure I was in the row with as much room as possible.  In 2001 I was flying to Los Angeles to catch a plane the next day for Tokyo, and I had procured my precious exit row seat, but then something happened on the flight that changed things for me.

I asked for a seat belt extension.

I honestly had not realized how much weight I gained, and I was informed if I needed an extension that I could not sit in the exit row for other passengers safety.  I was moved to a normal seat and enjoyed the embarrassment of not only being moved, but realizing I had allowed my weight to spiral wildly out of control.  The seat belt extension was set at its tightest setting, I barely needed it, but need it I did.

For the next couple of years I played at losing weight, but was just never serious enough.  I also came to realize I had hit 400 lbs.  Seeing as I am built like a football linebacker, I never thought I looked that weight, but I was.  In 2004 I was on my way to Japan again, and I still needed a seat belt extension, but just barely.

In late 2006 I got serious about my weight loss, but it was a slow build, and I still wasn’t making a ton of progress.  Through out 2007 I built up more and more momentum, and I added in lifting weights towards the end of the year.  Also, when I began professionally blogging in July of 2007, I knew I would be sitting down more than ever.  I decided if I was going to be sitting that much that I had to get serious about exercise to counteract the stagnation of all that sitting.

As 2008 dawned, I got super serious (partially due to endless cheerleading by my friend M, which was always said with love and never, ever in a hurtful way).  When I learned I was going to Seattle in July of that year, I decided to try my hand at an emergency row again.  I was down to 365, and I knew at worse they would just move me again.

I sat down in my exit seat, fished for the ends of the seat belt… and they connected.  I’m man enough to admit I almost cried.  I had done it, I was back in the seat I wanted, but if anything, this just energized me more to work even harder.

By March of 2009 I hit 325, but I was having a heck of a time breaking through to a lower weight.  I went to the doctor and talked with him, and he ran blood tests on me which came back surprisingly good.  (To the point he admitted he had checked my name twice to make sure it was my results)  He suggested I take up walking, something M had been cheerleading endlessly, but I have problems with walking outside due to my allergies.  He suggested I join a gym, and he told me to set a temporary goal of 300 lbs, but an ultimate goal of 250.  I called him a couple names for setting the bar at 250, but I accepted it as a challenge.

My personal goal all along had been 300, and both my doctor and I laugh at the height/weight chart that says my optimum weight is 212.  We laughed to the point that he informed me if I ever came in the office at 212, he would be sending me to the hospital to see what was wrong with me.  So on May 1st of this year, I started going to the gym three times a week, and working out with free weights at home three times a week.  When I learned I would for sure be going to Boston to visit M in August, I decided to set a personal goal of 295 before I met her.  (105 lbs being an inside joke between her and I for reasons I won’t go in to)

A week before I left for Boston, I did it, I had hit 295.

I wanted to make sure it held before I said anything, but the new weight held.  I was ecstatic… and then realized I had to buy some new clothes before I left.  D’oh!

So, when I got to the airport in St. Louis,  I once again asked for an exit row, and not only did the seat belt work for me, I could tighten it.  (the picture above is from my return flight, I forgot to take one on the way there as I kept falling asleep)  My waist has gone from 60″ to 48″, and by golly I can fit in any airplane seat I want now!

The first night I met up with M was an endless stream of compliments from her over my weight loss.  And for the first time ever, I showed her a picture from my heaviest time period… even I could tell now how bad I had gotten when I look back at it now, and the compliments only increased after that.  I figured I might come back from Boston with a few pounds added on from all the eating out and such, but instead I came back at 294.  I blame the endless walking around the city with her for that.

Last night the scale read 291, but I never mark a new weight as official until I get the same reading three days in a row, there are just too many variables: water weight, what you eat, etc.  So, for now, I am still considering 294 my new official weight, and that means I have lost 106 lbs and have 44 lbs to go to my doctor’s goal weight.  I would imagine I have actually lost more than the 106 lbs in fat because I have more muscle mass than I have ever had in my life.  I actually have veins starting to pop out all around my wrists, my calves have gotten extremely defined and my neck has increased by an inch.

While there are days where I curse the working out, and the foods I have to skip eating (I haven’t had ice cream in well over a year… and I love ice cream), the results are obvious, and I feel better than I think I ever have in my life.  With each pound lost, it only motivates me more to keep on this path and get to that 250 lbs goal.

At the end of the day I do not blame any one but myself for the situation I got myself in to.  No one forced me to super-size those meals, no one pried my mouth open and shoved double quarter pounders with cheese in there, one hundred percent of what happened with my weight is my fault, and one hundred percent of getting myself in to shape is my own responsibility.  So as much as I may whine at times about it, it is myself I am whining at, and I have no delusions about that.

This hasn’t been a solo journey though, and I would like to take a moment to thank a few people who have helped along the way.

My parents – They have been extremely supportive, and while I know at times they have wished I would stop talking about this journey of mine, they have congratulated me as each new milestone has passed.  Thank you.

F – F is a friend of mine I meet each week for lunch, and while I am sure he would rather keep his name off my blog, I have to thank him.  After some changes in his life, and in what he eats, he has taught me much by example in how to make the correct food choices no matter where I am.  So, thank you, F, you have taught me more than I think you realize.

M – You have already been mentioned through out this post, but your constant concern and caring has meant the world to me.  No one has been a bigger cheerleader for me and this quest of mine, and for that you have my eternal gratitude.  I know I say the compliments don’t sit well with me because I did this to myself, but they really have been a huge help, and don’t ever think otherwise.  (Don’t worry, no one reads this blog any way, your reputation as an evil genius will not be tainted by this)

Some time this week, hopefully tomorrow, I will be writing up tips on what I’ve found works the best for me, and maybe it will inspire some of you.  Each person is different, but as I have pieced together my own program as opposed to following some cookie-cutter diet plan, perhaps you can find one or two suggestions from me that will help in your own weight loss journey.

So, I am back from my journey to Boston, and all I can say is… it wasn’t nearly long enough.

I got back from vacation last night around 7:30 PM and I just was not ready at all to be back.  Boston was a ton of fun, but of course the highlight was finally getting to hang out with The Dastardly Miss M of Scattercast fame.  Living up to her evil reputation, I am fairly certain she had an evil plot to walk me around Boston until my feet bled.  Luckily she had warned me of the amount of walking and I had actually started going to the gym to use a treadmill back on May 1st.  I can only imagine how bad it would have been if I hadn’t done that.

A lot more will be covered of what we did in this week’s episode of Scattercast, but in general, I had a blast, and I will definitely be looking to take a vacation more than once every 13 years.  It won’t necessarily involve M, though we did discuss possible scenarios for a second get together, but just in general I do plan on taking more time off in my work if for no other reason than to preserve my sanity.

I actually spoke with Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins about this via instant message on Monday night after M and I had parted ways for the final time before I left on Tuesday.  He and I both agree that while we love blogging, we are just working far too hard, and we have to both find more time to relax.  We also both agreed to remind each other of this on a regular basis so we don’t just slide in to our usual habits of working non-stop all the time.

So, yes, I admit it, I’m not getting any younger, and I need to take more time for myself.  Finding that time may not be easy, but I have to do something lest I go mad.

Thanks to M for snapping the accompanying photo of me.  Any picture of me is a rare occurrence, so enjoy the fact it actually happened!

I’ve always had an odd fascination with death, and more specifically famous deaths.  No clue why, I just do.  Typically I’m more interested in graves and stories that have to do with bizarre circumstances, famous murders, etc, but when The Diabolical Miss M offered me the chance to see the graves of famous people from the time of the Revolutionary War, who am I to say “no”?  (besides, saying “no” to one of her suggestions might have her dumping me in to a pool of her sharks… they have frickin’ laser beams on their head!)

So as we wandered Boston today, we hit up a couple of the famous graveyards in the downtown area that have some of the founding fathers of the United States, and the grave of Elizabeth Pain, the woman The Scarlet Letter was based on.

Besides seeing these amazing people who formed our country, I was struck by how much the tombstones seemed like something out of a Tim Burton film.  The iconography on them seemed like something right out of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and you almost have to wonder if Burton was influenced by seeing these or similar tombstones.

First up, Mother Goose… I’m not sure I was ever even aware she was a real person!

Samuel Adams… thanks for the beer, man. (Yes, I know he didn’t create it)

Ben Fanklin’s parents

Paul Revere’s tomb, couldn’t believe how tiny it was!

Apparently I wasn’t alone in my shock as they added a second marker next to the original.

Okay, this is John Hancock’s grave, and I’m sorry, but I will leave it up to your imagination why I could NOT stop snickering.

Elizabeth Pain… do you see a subliminal “A”?

And finally, the moment you have all waited for… a picture of “M” on this very blog!

What can I say? She’s quick… like a cheetah.  (and, yes, this “picture” of M is only funny to longtime readers of this blog or listeners of my podcast)

Yes folks, that is an actual picture of me in Boston. This photo is a rarity for two reasons: I can’t remember the last time I posted a picture of myself on this blog, and it is also serves as evidence of me being on vacation.

I’ve talked about the vacation on Scattercast, but not in a post.  I haven’t taken an actual vacation since Labor Day weekend in 1996, and even then I ended up doing work.  My trips to Tokyo, while fun, were always about work.  Any trips elsewhere in the USA were about work.  This trip to Boston is all about relaxing.

As you may or may not know, depending on how much you read the site, Boston is the home of the Diabolical Miss M, my best friend and occasional guest on Scattercast, so hence why I chose Beantown.  (It is amazing how many odd looks people have given me about choosing Boston for a vacation… deal with it)

Due to unavoidable circumstances, she had to be out of town one day while I was here, and that just happened to line up with my former employers at Mashable hosting an event at the downtown Hyatt.  For lack of anything else to do, and wanting to meet more of the people I worked with there, I headed on over to the #hyatt4good event.

It was nice to finally meet Adam Hirsch (COO of Mashable), Sharon Feder (Managing Editor), Brett Petersel (events director) and Josh Catone (features editor).  Funny story about Josh, he and I basically switched jobs when I left Mashable.  I went to SitePoint.com where he had been working, and he came to Mashable as Features Editor, my old job.

Thanks to Brett for taking the picture of me last night, and, yes, the green strap across my chest is my 24 bag, i.e. the “Satchel of Doom”.  Sadly I was lacking explosives in its current load out… however, it is handy for carrying your camera, notepad, spare business cards and so on!  So I was kind of like “executive Jack Bauer”!

It was nice to get out and actually talk technology and trends with people face-to-face.  Big thanks to Michael Sprague from CommUniversity for sending me some info on a nifty new BlackBerry app that is in closed Beta.  (and check out his site, great idea for people trying to select what college to go to)

Anyway, I’m here until Tuesday, and then back to the grind.  Although it may be hard to tell I’m on vacation since I am still doing all my blogging jobs each day, I really am!  I mean, I actually sat down on the dock behind my hotel yesterday, and just… sat.  I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve done that.  No laptop… nothing to write with… I just sat and looked around for about 10 minutes.  Then the humidity drove me away, but hey, at least I did it!

Reflections can happen at the oddest times, like when you log in to your blog to think about what to write for that day.

Whenever you log in to a WordPress powered blog, you see the main Dashboard page, and one of the things it shows you is posts you did on that same date in past years. Well, a year ago today I was in Seattle, WA (and writing thoughts about the city that did not please all of my readers) for the SummerMash event hosted by Mashable, and that made me think a lot about the past twelve months.

First off, I guess I have never made this overwhelmingly clear due to the number of emails I still get about it every week, but I’m no longer at Mashable.  I searched my archives and see that I only made one very tiny mention of it in a post, but I have left Mashable effective April 1st of this year.

I wasn’t fired, and I didn’t exactly quit, Pete Cashmore, the owner of the company, and I kind of reached an amicable understanding that we weren’t perfectly matched any more.  I had been hired to do list posts (you can still see the archive of my work), and after having done around 400 of them, I was feeling very burned out on them as they are extremely mind numbing work, and Pete felt we had pretty much played out the category due to the speed with which I had worked through the available list subjects.  He did offer my the chance to stay on with the company after I expressed my desire to just make a break of it, but I needed a change of scenery.  So, no hard feelings on either side, we just weren’t in the same places work wise any more.

So, I walked out of Mashable, and… had another job doing lists at SitePoint within a day or two.  Yes, I am still doing lists because I seem to have the ability to withstand doing them.   I have no clue why, but I seem to be one of the few people in the tech blogging industry that can take the grind of doing them, and believe me, they are a grind.  As SitePoint is far more technical in nature, the lists are extremely different from what I was doing at Mashable, and due to the amount of research I need to do for each one, I only have to do one a week compared to the four a week I had been doing previously.

I also went back to BLORGE.com whom I had worked with previous to signing my exclusive contract with Mashable.  I had been told I had an open invitation to return, and sure enough I dropped them an email saying I was available again, and I was back with them in the very first reply.  While they have shuffled me around a bit as they try to rearrange their writers, I seem to have settled in to seven posts a week at Tech.BLORGE.com and two posts a week at Photo.BLORGE.com.  I am also doing some lists for them (what can I say, I got it, I flaunt it), but they are at a pace of my choosing, so there is no pressure on doing them.

You can also find me here on this site every day, and every day at StarterTech.com.  I am starting a couple of more blogs (announcements very soon, and they are actually up and in “testing mode” at the moment), my work with The Cynical Bastards and I just applied for another blog that I won’t name as I doubt I will get the job, but boy do I want it as I read it every day.

So, yes, a year ago I really didn’t see myself leaving Mashable, but it really was the best option for both parties when the time came up to renew my contract.  And I know this seems like a lot of work I’m doing, but I think I’ve got juggling down to an art now… although I do have to occasionally look up at my white board where I write my schedule and go, “Who in the hell am I blogging for today?!?”, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I like changing up what I’m writing each day, hopping around keeps me a bit more fresh I feel than doing lists and only lists, so I think I’ve found a good balance now of lists and regular articles.

Now, lets see where I am a year from now…

Yes, my hometown got hit by a tornado tonight, and, yes, my family and I are fine.

About 5:45 PM my grandmother called our business office to alert us tornados were in the area.  As our house is only a few hundred feet away I orderd mom and dad to head home and get themselves and the dogs to the basement.  I opted to stay at the office to shut down computers and I would join them in a few minutes.

I admit I took my time as we get tornado reports every year, but they usually end up being nothing, but as I stepped outside the rain had stopped and so had the wind.  The air was completely still.  For those of you who live near tornadoes, you know this means you really have one coming.  As I had gone to the gym today, I had my car with me, so I hopped in it and probably broke a land speed record getting down to the house.  Mom was in the doorway waiting to see if I was coming and I just yelled for her to go now, there probably wasn’t much time.

We did get all the dogs and ourselves down to the basement and then started listening on the radio for reports.  There was a total of four funnel clouds in our county, two of those were within striking distance of Kirksville.  The one that concerned me was the one coming east at 30 mph from Novinger, MO which, if you go in a straight line, would bring it awfully close to my house.  It veered someone what to the North and ended up touching down a few miles north of us.

There are conflicting reports if there were any fatalities, but for sure some homes were destroyed, and a car dealership is beat up pretty badly with cars overturned and the building’s windows blown out.

Here is the official press release from the city:

(Kirksville, MO)  — The E911 Dispatch Center has received reports of four tornados that touched down in Adair County this evening.  Two of these cells were located near Novinger and were reported at approximately 5:48 pm.  An additional tornado was reported in Kirksville at approximately 6:00 pm.  The Fourth tornado was reported in the Troy Mills area.

The tornado in Kirksville touched down in the general area of Industrial Road and continued through Jim Robertson’s and to the general area of Bobwhite Drive.  There have been numerous reports of substantial damage in the immediate area of this storm path.  At this time, The City of Kirksville has not received any reports of fatalities and an few reports of minor injuries associated with this storm.

The Local Emergency Planning Commission activated the Emergency Operation Center at approximately 6:15 pm. All emergency personnel that have been called into service should report to the Department of Public Safety at Truman State University, Franklin Street.

Highway 63/Baltimore has been closed from the intersection of Baltimore and Highway 6 West to Highway T.  The public is advised to stay clear of the area.  There are power lines down and emergency personnel are on-site.

The only noticeable damage for us was when I returned to the warehouse to record CobWEBs tonight, my desktop wouldn’t boot. After talking with Dell, it seems static built up in my system and we got it working again in under a half hour.

Unfortunately, others in Kirksville were not as lucky.

UPDATE: This post is getting far more traffic than I anticipated as people are looking for updates on what happened. For actual news I suggest you check KTVO TV 3 and the Kirksville Daily Express for all of the latest local coverage.

Update 2: At least two people out in the area of Jim Robertson’s Chevrolet (see flipped car pic above) were killed.  No names have been released at this time.

Update 3: I’ve made a post filled with videos of the Kirksville tornado and its aftermath.

It’s times like this that I think back to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“Don’t Panic”.

I won’t bother explaining the quote.  If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you get it.  If you haven’t done either, you still get it… it’s like a universal quote.

The insanity that is circulating around the recent outbreak of swine flu is staggering.  You couldn’t bat an eye on Twitter this weekend without someone talking about it.  Blogs are writing endless posts about what to do.  Television shows are being interrupted to bring you the latest news when an a confirmed case is reported…

ENOUGH ALREADY!

We get it, there is a flu going around… it is transmitted via human-to-human contact… people have died.

You know what this reminds me of?

THE FLU!

Yes, it is a bit worse because this one came out of the blue, and we do not currently have a vaccine for it, but, then again, sometimes the vaccaine is worse than the flu for those who remember what happened in 1976.  In short, the vaccaine ended up killing a lot of people, and the pandemic like spread of the virus they predicted never materialized.

I do think it is wise to inform the public, “Hey, this is going on, you need to be careful, wash your hands, don’t go to work if you’re sick”, etc, but these are common sense rules everyone should follow.  Course, if they did, then I wouldn’t have had to write a post like Social Etiquette While You’re Sick just last month.  Do make sure you go back and read that because it is filled with basic tips that may keep you healthy during any flu outbreak.

What gets me is how the media is just making this worse.  They are acting as if no one has ever died from the flu before.  So, I went and looked up the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports on flu mortality rates.  Here is the excerpt for just the 2007-2008 flu season.

As of June 19, 2008, 83 deaths associated with laboratory-confirmed influenza infections have occurred among children aged < 18 years during the 2007–08 influenza season that were reported to CDC. These deaths were reported from 33 states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin). Among the 83 cases, the mean and median age was 6.4 years and 5.0 years, respectively; seven children were aged < 6 months, 16 were aged 6–23 months, 18 were aged 2–4 years, and 42 were aged 5–17 years. Of the 79 cases for which the influenza virus type was known, 51 were influenza A viruses, 27 were influenza B viruses, and one had co-infection with influenza A and B viruses. Of the 63 cases aged 6 months and older for whom vaccination status was known, 58 (92%) had not been vaccinated against influenza according to the 2007 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations. These data are provisional and subject to change as more information becomes available.

83 deaths in the United States alone. Where were the experts on TV to tell us how we should protect ourselves? Where were the flashy graphics? Where were the news conferences by elected officials? What about the travel warnings by other countries? Oh, that’s right, it’s because this happens every year.

There is an old saying in journalism, “if it bleeds, it leads.” Here you have a pre-packaged story for lazy reporters. You have deaths… in an exotic locale… a snazzy, brandable name (go and try to find a Swine Flu related domain name that isn’t taken… I dare ya) that is easy to say and can invoke fear because it’s short and weird sounding… hey, wait a minute, didn’t we play this exact same scenario out with Avian flu? Oh, and wasn’t it SARS a few years before that was going to kill us all?

Again, I am not saying you should be cavalier about this, do take precautions, I’m just saying they should be no different than the ones you should take every flu season.  And as for the people in the media… stop being lazy.

I think the Japanese have an awfully good idea when it comes to social etiquette while you’re sick.

If you’ve ever been to Japan, or even watched something on TV that shows every day life there, you are sure to have seen at least a few people wearing surgical style masks.  They wear them for multiple reasons, but the main one being it means they are sick with something and they are trying not to give it to the people around them.  As someone who gets sick fairly easily, I have always loved this idea, but somehow I don’t ever see it getting taken up here in the United States unfortunately.

I am currently suffering from a case of bronchitis, and after the doctor’s office this morning i had a couple of unavoidable errands I had to run.  I gave serious thought to wearing a mask because apparently the type I have is viral, but seeing as one of my stops I needed to make was a bank (although every teller there knows my name), I didn’t think walking into a bank with a mask on might be the smartest of ideas.

So, barring a sudden shift in American thought process where we all start wearing masks, there are some common courtesies I see people break all the time that would be so easy to remember if they just thought about it.

Things To Do To Prevent Getting The Lastest Bug/Not Spreading It Around

Turn your head and cover your mouth when you cough

As someone who worked in a retail store for years, I couldn’t believe the number of times people coughed in my face.  Is it really that difficult to turn your head, or at least cover your mouth?

One hand for coughing,  one hand for everything else

As I’m right handed, I always make sure to cough into my left hand as I use my right hand to open doors, handle items in stores and so on.  Sure I’m still infected, but at least I’m attempting to reduce exposure.

Cover your hands when you push a cart

This is easiest in the winter, but since that is when most people get sick, it works.  If I’m wearing gloves, I leave them on as I shop so I’m not handling the cart with my bare hands.  If I’m grabbing packaged foods in the grocery store I don’t worry too much about the gloves, but if I’m picking something like fruit, I take off the gloves and reach for the highest items in the bin as 1) I’m tall enough to reach them and 2) that means they haven’t fallen down the bin yet reducing the risk of exposure to infected hands.  A lot of stores or also now offering sanitizing wipes to wipe down the cart before you use it, since they’re free, do it.

Wash your hands, Wash your hands, Wash your hands

Do you have any clue how much you could reduce the spread of colds and flu if you just washed your hands more often?  I wash my hands numerous times through out a day, and I carry hand sanitizer in my car so I can wash my hands off quickly after leaving a store.  Hand sanitizer does have a draw back in that it can kill off good bacteria also, so do use it sparingly.

Don’t scratch your eyes or rub your nose

The quickest way for any virus to enter your body is through your tear ducts or nasal passages.  Unless you’ve washed your hands (see above), then keep your hands well away from your face.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the best ways to prevent yourself from getting sick, and Americans especially need ot learn this rule.  I am definitely one that lacks in sleep, so I’m certainly not guilt free in my health.

Things To Do If You Catch Something

Chicken Soup

Sure it seems like something your mother just said to you as a child, but it’s true.  Good old chicken soup will always soothe the soul and help your immune system.

Spicy Foods

I stumbled across this trick when I was in Japan in 2001 and came down with bronchitis just as I arrived.  (Yes, I get bronchitis very easily)  I stepped across the street to a MOS Burger as it was an easy walk, and I was unaware my burger came with a mayonnaise laced with chili powder.  I ate the burger, I could tell there was some sort of chili powder in it, I walked out of the establishment, and within seconds… evacuated one of the largest coughs I’ve ever had from bronchitis.  (I’m trying to be tactful)  The next day the same sequence of events happened, and I was sold on having mildly spicy food any time I was sick after that.  And it works!

Follow The Other Rules

If you have to go out, think of the people around you.  Somehow I doubt any of them want to be sick, just like you didn’t want to be.

Why You Should Follow Any Of This

I realize this list makes me sound a bit of a hypochondriac, but I’m really not. These steps are all simple and become like second nature to you once you start doing them.  Sure the mask would still be one of the simplest solutions, but since I don’t see that happening any time soon, you can at least take some small steps to help those around you, as well as yourself.

What are your tips for staying healthy?

This raccoon situation has gotten ridiculous.

Remember back on February 16th when I said I got rid of the problem coon?  Well, as we suspected, it wasn’t alone.  We did eventually catch another… and a very confused possum… but we could still hear one up in the attic of my warehouse.  So, just today we figured out how to seal the holes they were using to come and go, and got our trap wedged through the attic door to try to trap it.

I go home for dinner, come back an hour later, and I hear the trap vibrating like crazy.  Pop the panel to the attic, and sure enough, we have one.  HUZZAH!  So after wrestling him out and properly disposing of him (he’s fine, just had to relocate him to our other property), we settled in for an evening of catching up on work.

… -scratch scratch scratch-

Yep, there is still ANOTHER coon up there!

#$*@!

So, back up the ladder I went, reset the trap again, and now it’s just a waiting game to see how long it takes to get this one.  All I know is I am fed up with raccoons!  They are annoying pests that had made my life miserable thsee past few months, and I just want them gone!

-pant-

Stupid coons!

Listeners of my podcast, Scattercast, will be happy to know… COON HUNT 2009 IS OVER!

Peanut butter (non-tainted) is what finally got it.  We had placed it in the the trap around 6:15 PM, and by 8:10 PM… well, you can see the results to the right.  As I have been saying on the podcast, the trap is a “live trap” and causes the animal no harm beyond scaring them.  You can click the image for a much larger view.

This isn’t a fully grown adult, but it sure isn’t a baby either, so no taking it away from it’s mom, and highly unlikely it had any young ones of its own.  (No clue on the gender, and I wasn’t looking)  Hopefully the terrorizing of the cat is over, and also the tearing up of my warehouse attic!

I knew from the moment this story broke that video would eventually show up of the crash, followed by the first few minutes. As always, YouTube delivers.

In this day and age of camera phones, video survelliance, webcams and every other imaginable way to record a video, it was inevitable that we would see actual footage of US Airways Flight 1549 actually impacting the water.  While watching a plane crash may seem morbid, of course this time it is uplifting and inspiring.  Capt. Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III is to be commended for his ability to bring the plane in the way he did despite losing all power.  If not for his skill as a pilot, this could have been a horrendous tragedy, and instead he turned it into a moment of triumph.

My only concern at this point is the amount of praise that is being heaped on Capt. Sullenberger.  I am certainly not saying he isn’t worth the praise, quite the contrary, it just worries me.  In the past, people have not been able to handle the attention they receive after such an event, and I am hopefully that he can.

However, I digress, this is about the video of the actual crash.  Duncan Riley over at The Inquisitr posted it after finding it on YouTube, and it is quite the show.  Shot by a fixed camera on the Hudson run by the U.S. Coast Guard, you can see the actual plane impact at approximately 2:03. By the time the camera zooms at 2:40, you can already see people on the wing, which I was fairly impressed by. The first boat pulls up the plane at 6:03, and I think huge kudos are owed to all of the boats that pulled up to help, and especially the quick response time they made it over there. All told the video is 10 minutes, with no sound, but it is well worth watching to get an accurate view of how things actually went.

Truly amazing, and so thankful that everyone made it out alive.

As a side note, leave it to a journalist to ask one of the stupidest questions I think I have ever heard at a press conference. While watching Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference shortly after the crash, an unidentified reporter asks, “Have they recovered the black box?”. Bloomberg shoots her a look that was tame compared to my deep laughter at the question. The plane is intact, where in the world do you think the black box is stored that it would mysteriously be the only piece of the plane missing?  “You know, in retrospect, perhaps we shouldn’t have installed the black box on the outside of the belly of the plane, Bob.”

For the record, they are stored in the cockpit to the best of my knowledge.  However, in a hectic press conference with people trying to get out all the info they could as quickly as possible, somehow I doubt that would have been my question.