Server
I need a new computer for my web server. Does any one out there have an old PC that is around 800 Mhz. or so? Even if it will not boot Windows. I intend to put Linux on it anyway. I'm at the end of my tether.
I have some options, but they all suck.

Things that are pissing me off right now
* Our wedding rehearsal is ruined by an act of god. (Frigging hurricanes)

Invitations
Stamps
Organizing

* Things ruined during the hurricane.

Pinocchio (a special toy bank from Elle's father)
Web Server (The power supply appears to have given out. It is going to cost around $400 to $450 to replace.)

* Untold expenses because of the hurricane and other factors.

Gas prices (I want to go to four/tens to help on the commute costs.)
Three to four mandatory days off work without pay.

* No one understands what I say. I have to constantly repeat myself for everyone.  This is really REALLY getting on my nerves.
* Elle has enough energy to run four adults out of their minds in three days cooped up in a two story house.
* I feel useless far too often. I cannot drive a car. I cannot drive a nail worth a damn. I cannot find a better job. I cannot sing.

Things that make me happy right now
* Nat
* Elle
* No one got hurt during the hurricane.

And now, back to my life.

Some good news
Well, It just heard some good news on channel 13 here in Houston. There is a convoy of fuel trucks on the way to town. They should make their stops some time before morning. Bill gave Nat and I five gallons of gas this afternoon. He got the fuel for his generator, but he did not need it. We made a stop at a small store on the way back to may parent's place and got some ice cream.
I made a bunch of calls today and it looks like every one I could get hold of was in good shape.
More to come.

Day Three (the aftermath)
Well, there just isn't that much to report from Missouri City. We are all safe so far. Every one is well. The neighbors down here are picking things up. We took a quick drive around and we could find no damage to speak of. Jen said there were reports of a few downed power lines at Cartwrite and Murphy.
There is not a single drop of gas to be had in Houston. People are speculating that the price of gas is going to spike. I'm glad I ride the bus. I may put in a request to work four tens to save money on gas. They don't need to know about the bus.
More later.

Cynthia's Pictures of Rita
Cynthia, the big show off, has some pictures on her blog. I'll get my server back up as quickly as I can.
Cynthia 1
Cyntha 2

Day Three
I’ve called around to most of my friends who have stayed. We are all very happy that the storm took a bit of a right tern. I feel bad for those folks, but this town just Isn’t ready. Adam and Laurie are finally ready. We just finished bringing everything inside, or at least putting it somewhere protected from too much wind. I’m looking at the radar and watching the news intently. I’m not sure how to interpret some of the information.
Traffic looks much better. We went back to the apartment for some powdered milk and supplies. The airport is just clearing out right now. Any planes left are just heading to El Paso. Nothing is open now. That seems like the news can only talk about one thing at a time. Yesterday it was the traffic. Today it is the fact that nothing is open. A bus blew up on the way to Dallas.
There are rumors of a curfew, but I’ve heard nothing official. We still have power for the moment, but who knows how long that will last. I’m not sure how long it will be before another post. I’m taking some videos.
Elle has been up all day. The rest of us have tried to get some rest. Elle will not hear of it. If it isn’t a fit because someone had to leave the room, it is a full diaper. Ah, to be young again.
My mom is behind me in the computer room typing away. I assume she is typing an email to a relative. It seems like every one we know is calling us saying “come up here.” It is pretty nice to have that kind of support.
My contacts have basically stopped working for the moment. I cannot ware them before my left eye gets all gummed up. I’m just warring my glasses. The prescription isn’t as good. Hopefully it is juust not a factor during the storm.
I’m tired. I will take notes and videos of the storm if I can. Every one please leave comments. I may not be back on for a while.

Day Two
OK, I suppose it isn't day two for every one. It is day two for me. My father and I put up shutters on the front windows. That is the way their house faces North East. Ken, Heath and their families are hunkered down a bit north of us. Adam and Laurie are staying in their house. Ken is leaving town. Chris and Sarah are leaving.
Working with my dad
It was a lot of fun helping my dad build those shutters. I drove a nail for the first time in years. I flattened several in the attempt. I’ll put up some pictures. Right now my server is unplugged, sitting on a shelf in our apartment. While we were putting up the shutters my father said it reminded him of Night of the Living Dead. We left slits in the wood to see out of. They look like they are just about the right height to shoot the zombies in the head.
Next door neighbors
My dad is the local DIY guy. I think five different neighbors came over asking for one kinf of help or another. He is a good Christen so he helps every one.
Adam called
I spoke with Adam last night and he seemed quite flustered. He was worried rightly about the strength and direction of Rita. He had some friends over and they were all going over options. He seemed much better today. He and Laurie had ventured out looking for ply-wood. Adam says the city is cleaned of the pulpy gold. They ended up with some kind of sheetrock backing board that is water proof, but brittle. That was all that was out there. He is worried about the fence behind his house. Those seeder fences are a bit like sales in the wind.  We have promised to stay in touch as long as possible.
Traffic
Some heads are going to roll. The freeways are jammed tight. It looks like some people will be stranded when the hurricane hits Saturday morning. President Bush is supposed to fly over Houston and get some before snapshots some time tomorrow. I’m not sure what good that is going to do. There were tankers on the news stuck in traffic, surrounded by cars that were out of gas. It is depressing. Cynthia just left a message. Her and her boyfriend got as far as Spring I believe it was on the back roads. They were on their way to Arkansas. They turned around and are on their way back. How many stories are there like that I wonder?
I’m dog tired. I’m going to write a bunch more later.

We are at my parent's place. For a while we were packing up to go to San Antonio, but those plans didn't go through.Thank goodness we had plenty of gas in the car. Half the gas stations were closed or out of petrol. The other half had lines around the block. The ride over here had that 28 days later feel. Every one was running red lights. People were on the edge of civil unrest. There were cars conked out in the middle of the road. We still have to go back for the cat. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. It is going to be Road Warrior meets the Perfect Storm tomorrow. The eye is supposed to cross land at around 2:00 am or 7:00 am Saturday.
I've spoken with many friends. Some are staying and others are leaving. There is a news story on that says a JetBlue plane has a landing gear problem. The front landing gear is stuck and the plane will have to land soon. There is an expert on TV right now saying pilots train for this kind of thing and there will be a happy ending. I hope so.
Things are funky all over.

Rita
I was sitting at work all day today worrying about the juggernaut in mid pounce as I type. Rita is already a class four (at or above 135 mph winds) hurricane and shows every sign of gaining strength as it crosses the relatively warm waters of the gulf. As bad as it sounds, I almost wish it would hit Louisiana again. Come-on, the damage has been done there. Houston is not much better off than New Orleans when it comes to flooding. The water will reseed after a while here. It will take a couple of days. Our apartment complex floods. I was worried when I moved into a first floor apartment. Now, I'm going to find out if the gamble was worth it. Even if we leave, all our stuff will simple sit there.
Options
1) Family. My parents will take us in if they do indeed stay. They are not much further from the ocean than we are. They do have a second story on the house though.
2) Friends. I've burned some bridges lately with friends. This limits our options.
3) Hotel. We will most likely not be able to find a hotel if we travel to Dallas, Austin or San Antonio. I bet most everything has been reserved already.
4) Stay put. I envision standing in waist deep water inside my home and cursing every member of government while shivering in the dark and secretly blaming myself.
I do not look forward to living in a shelter somewhere with a 2 year old. Nor do I expect anything to survive even minor flooding of my apartment. We will simply be out of nearly everything to our names. No insurance. No savings to speak of. Just broke, homeless, carless and destitute.

Exhumed
This movie SUCKS!!!!! I wouldn't ... Oh, forget it. Just "yuck".

Hurricane Rita Links

Submitted by John Little on September 20, 2005 - 2:58am. Forecasts/Advisories: The Weather Underground National Hurricane Center NOAA Storm Tracker Houston Media: KPRC - NBC Affiliate KTRK - ABC Affiliate 950am KPRC Streaming Audio Houston Chronicle Houston Blogs: Blogs of War H-Town Blogs Weather Blogs: Dr. Jeff Masters Steve Gregory John Little's blog Blogs of War

I'm not 100% sure where that list originated. I'm hat-tipping both blogs sited.
It makes me sick. I go hunting for Rita links and get two useful hits. I hit a blog and find like ten useful links that have been up for over a day. humph.

Ramen Site/Blog
It is official, there are people out there with too much time on their hands. Check out the Official Ramen Homepage. Wikipedia on Ramen. It says it has been up since 1997 and this is the first I've heard of it. I'm ashamed of myself. Where is the SPAM page?

LUG forever
Thought provoking. And, no, I'm not talking Linux User Group. Lesbian Until Graduation. I did not hear this term until I was past college. I kind of new some of that was going on, but I had no name for it. Here is an interesting view of what has happened over the decades. It looks like there is some backlash from the acceptance in main stream entertainment. Noting kills cool like splattering it all over TV and the Internet. AKA shoving it in people's faces, trying to make money off the culture. I may choose to blame this for not getting laid in school. Yes, I like it.

Yikes
That last post got some interesting response. I love a good debate. I say that I'm not very interesting. I do not find myself all that noteworthy. I blog because it satisfies some need that I cannot put my finger on, not because I think people like to read it. However, I do check my SiteMeter stats semi-hourly.
I got some private response too. I wish I were a better person. I'm never going to be all things to all people. That is not what the criticism is all about. It's all good. Life is just a series of events. One must learn from them all. One must then continue to the next event.

Trip
Friday afternoon Bill, Elle's grandfather, comes by to pick up Elle. We Get some things together and basically hang out until Saturday. We get up at 11:00. We briefly attempt to ride with the other car from Houston to Austin. We get separated. We get to Austin and get lost. We make nine phone calls and turn around a couple of times. We end up finding the hotel. The hotel lady said they were out of the size room we asked for so they had to give us a free upgrade. I have my suspicions that Adam cashed in some miles or something to get us the bigger room because we were not in the best of mood. We checked in and headed over to the party. Ethan, I hate to say this where you will get hold of it, but I felt like every one there, besides the people I've known all my life, were a bunch of snobs who couldn't stop bragging about themselves. So we just left and went the hotel to hang out. We didn't even say goodbye. The hotel was about the best part of the whole weekend. We just got back and Bill is here right now dropping off Elle. I hope the rest of the day turns out better.
Nat and Bill are making plans to put Elle in school.
Adam and Laurie had to get back early today to make a Texans' game. They took off at like 7:00. I had a hard time getting Nat up at 9:00 to make check out time. She doesn't like getting up regardless of time. On the road, my dad gives me a call. Someone gave them four tickets to the same Texans game. There was no way we could make it in time so they ended up giving the other tickets to the next door neighbor.
I can't wait to go back to work so I can relax.
Did I mention that I didn't take a single picture or even take the video camera out of the bag.

Weekend
We are off to Austin Saturday. We will be back Sunday. I hope to get some photos and maybe a video or two. I'm sure you will hear about anything right here. Wish me luck.
My parents are having a garage sale this weekend. They made a bundle this morning. Tomorrow they are right back at it. We took over a bunch of stuff we just want to get out of the apartment. We sent over a coffee pot, a bunch of kid's shoes, cloths, a thing to hold a sliding glass door shut, a push scooter, and a bunch of phones. It is amazing hoe many phones we have built up over the years between us.
We will head out to Austin in a caravan of friends. I think they are all riding in one car. We are taking our car because they need to come back for the Texas vs Rice game Sunday. We want to sleep in. I intend to soak up some sleep and good vibes in Austin. Hopefully, that will follow me back to Houston.
Sunday we need to find a way to clean the carpet. We also need to get the baby bead over to my parents because our house guests will not fit with it in Elle's room. I can't wait for that. There are still some boxes laying about the place. They just need to go to storage. I fear we may have trouble coming back from Austin. It is a long drive.
Catch all of you back here Sunday, or most likely Monday.

BLUAAAAGHKKK!!!
Why bodies typically float face down in water.

Test yourself, and tell us what you come up with!
Click here to test your PHYSICAL characteristics.

You scored 12 Strength, 9 Constitution, and 8 Dexterity! All stats are based on the original D&D system of 3-18. 3 being tragically weak and 18 being olympic level ability. Odds are you will be more towards the middle for most things (the middle being 10-11), as that is where most people should be. If you scored above 18 in any skill, I highly suggest you go back and read the directions closer. Especially if you scored above an 18 strength, you need to take the test over and only answer ONCE on the first page. Taken properly, it is not possible to get above an 18 on any stat. Get the other half of your stats at this companion test. I am open to suggestions for improving this test. Please message me if you think I am not taking something into account, or have any questions for how I calculated scores. My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 30% on Strength You scored higher than 6% on Constitution You scored higher than 1% on Dexterity Link: The D&D stats - Physical Test written by mojograham on Ok Cupid

Click here to test your MENTAL characteristics.

You scored 10 Intelligence, 13 Wisdom, and 3 Charisma! All stats are based on the original D&D system of 3-18. 3 being tragically weak and 18 being olympic level ability. Odds are you will be more towards the middle for most things (the middle being 10-11), as that is where most people should be. If you scored above 18 in any skill, I highly suggest you go back and read the directions closer. Especially if you scored above an 18 intelligence, you need to take the test over and only answer ONCE on the first page. Taken properly, it is not possible to get above an 18 on any stat, unless you' over 70 years old. Get the other half of your stats at this companion test. I am open to suggestions for improving this test. Please message me if you think I am not taking something into account, or have any questions for how I calculated scores. My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 1% on Intelligence You scored higher than 37% on Wisdom You scored higher than 0% on Charisma Link: The D&D stats - Mental Test written by mojograham on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Wow, I suck.

Misdirection
Woman walks into a bar with a duck under her arm.
The bartender asks "What are you doing with that pig?"
The lady answers "Excuse me, this is a duck."
The bartender says "Excuse me, I was talking to the duck."

Relationship
So, how are Nat and I doing? We are great. We have hit a couple of speed bumps that nearly broke us up. More than a couple of these speed bumps have to do with parenting. I don't know what I'm doing. I admit that. I need help and guidance from Nat and other parents. (not you mom) Beyond that, we are great. I can't explain the feelings I have for Natalie.
I've had some people tell me my tone has changed on the blog. Well, it has. Ever since a post I made a couple of months ago that mentioned some privet matters between Nat and I, the blog has been mostly business. It will probably stay that way. I'm not going through that situation again with Nat. Many things have changed. That is perfectly normal. I was not perfect before and I will still not be perfect after.
I think we are over the hump on wedding expenses. There are some things that still need to be covered. I just need to pay off the credit card and rebuild my savings now. I hope to start a collage fund next year for Elle and any other children Nat and I have. I need first to find proper insurance. I cannot imagine having a child without insurance.
I tell you, coming home to a family is nice after a day of work. There are more good things than bad. The bad things aren't that bad.