The unique thing about today. . .

Subject: Thunderstorm + Volcano. . . at night!
Time: 12:40:33 AM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Cheerful

Strangest thing I've ever seen.  A volcano erupting during a thunderstorm at night.  http://megagalerias.terra.cl/galerias/index.cfm?id_galeria=30734  Surreal.  Otherworldly.  Beautiful, yet creepy looking.

I found a link to the quoted text of the DNS vulnerability explanation which leaked today.  This is actually a pretty good explanation.  http://beezari.livejournal.com/141796.html  At this moment, hackers are working to write software to exploit this.  That means you could be trying to go to your bank website and get a fake site which is capturing your password information.  It's a little scary what's possible with this vulnerability in the wild.  Half of the ISPs are not yet patched.  Is yours?


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Subject: Chicago pictures
Time: 9:28:58 PM CDT
Author:  rrchill

As promised, here are my Chicago pictures.  I only whipped out the camera when I went on a double-decker bus tour, which was worth the money and provided the perfect way to kill an afternoon in Chicago on a clear and beautiful day.



The deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's was really good with fresh ingredients.  I liked it as well as I like the pizza at Gino's East, almost.  Then I tried the deep dish pizza at Giordano's. It was pricey, but holy wow the amount of cheese they put on there is amazing, and they put the sauce on top like the other places.  You'd never know by looking that I got a sausage pizza.  There were whole patties of Italian sausage under the cheese under the sauce.



I also took too many pictures at the Blackhawks Convention, but being a hockey fan, I couldn't really resist.  Nothing special, just some interesting jerseys, outrageous jersey prices, and some really cool skills competitions.



See the whole set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chillkc/sets/72157606306340103/


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Subject: Sirius orbit
Time: 6:42:01 PM CDT
Author:  rrchill

The manual for my Sirius docking station at home said to aim my antenna toward the sky over Minnesota.  At certain times of the evening, it would start cutting out, so I tried to figure out why.  There was some confusing information in online forums speculating why, then I found this image which illustrated my problem. 

http://www.mts.net/~jwt/sirius-xmorbitanim.gif  

It's not one bird, it's three, and they're in a nifty elliptical orbit with a nice pivot over Canada.  I aimed the antenna a little more directly north, and that fixed the problem.


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Subject: Chicago Rules (in Summer)
Time: 1:06:15 AM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Thoughtful

Thanks to a sale on Southwest, I just got home from a little trip to Chicago.  It was cool to chill on a warm clear day in the spray of the Buckingham Fountains and watch the sailboats out on the lake with the skyline over my shoulder.  The last time I was there, I was way out in the suburbs in the worst part of the winter and it snowed at least six inches every other day I was there.  It's great in the summer.  This time I attended the 1st Annual Blackhawks Convention, which was hockey cool.  They had puck handling, passing, and shooting skills games set up, which were fun.  Silent auctions.  Autograph signing sessions.  Also, I attended a separate event, a seminar to help entrepreneurs organize their business, and I learned that I need to put my rental properties in a trust and form an LLC to manage them. . . for tax reasons and liability reasons.  I'll save a bundle!  I learned some fascinating tax strategies.  I learned about self-directed IRAs and how to get an IRA with a checkbook you can control for investing in your own ventures.  I wish I had this information a few years ago.  The legal fees are all on the front end, but the benefits will come at tax time, and when I die.  Death and taxes are the two sure things, so I may as well set it up right.

Chicago photos will be up soon.


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Subject: Colorado photos
Time: 12:37:21 PM CDT
Author:  rrchill

I finally got the vacation pictures uploaded.  The first bunch of pictures is from a cookout/party at Adam and JoLynn's neighbor's house.  His name is Jonathan, a flight attendant, the guy who organized the river rafting trip.  I don't have pictures from the river rafting because I didn't have a waterproof camera.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chillkc

Jonathan's pictures of the rafting trip are here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32039&l=bbca9&id=645981938


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Subject: Colorado Vacation recovery
Time: 3:43:29 PM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Happy

I took a weekend trip to Colorado to go white water rafting with friends.  I saw some majestic views and got a sunburn on my nose.  I met lots of great people and had a ton of fun.  Photos will be posted soon.  Here's a preview from a Friday hiking trip around the south rim of Roxborough State Park.


And a quick shot of the Rockies from Highway 103:




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Subject: Natural Gas Price Hike
Time: 12:08:25 AM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Annoyed



The gas company bumped prices by 20%.  That's unusual in the summer.  Now I'm paying about $50 a month for hot water and dry clothes.  This bill usually runs around $30 in the summer.  Maybe I should get one of those instant-on tankless hot water heaters.  Time to do some math.  This would reduce my gas bill by approximately $45 a month.  It would increase my electric bill by approximately $18 a month.  It costs about $490 shipped, and installation would cost around $250.  I would have to use it for 28 months to break even at those prices.  Maybe I'll just turn down the thermostat on the hot water heater a few degrees.


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Subject: Tools.
Time: 4:08:10 PM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Silly

Overheard near my cube, "It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools. . . and those guys were tools."

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Subject: A note from Mr. Cleaver
Time: 5:50:20 PM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Annoyed

I got an email from my Congressman today.  I like to know what's going on.  He seems as annoyed as I am. 

===

Wrestling Gas Prices

We all continue to struggle at the gas pump, and barrels of oil hit another all-time high today. Sadly yesterday the House failed to pass ‘Use It or Lose It' legislation for oil companies. The bill would have compelled the oil industry to start drilling or lose permits on the 68 million acres of undeveloped federal oil reserves which they are currently warehousing, thereby keeping domestic supply lower and prices higher. Complaints that more drilling permits are needed for yet more land ring hollow when compared to the thousands of currently unused drilling permits already issued. I think this will be back on the floor again soon and I am disappointed it didn't pass this week.

To provide even more incentive to reduce demand, the House also voted on legislation to lower fares for mass transit and expanded services for commuters.

We also passed legislation urging an investigation in a complicated but no less culpable reason for the high price of gas. The House called upon the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to investigate the role of oil speculators and the system that encourages artificially high future gas prices. The American people should not be punished at the pump for the actions of oil speculators, and the House called on the CFTC Act.  

Experts testified this week before Congress that the explosion of speculation in the oil futures market could be driving up prices from $20 to $60 per barrel.  At current prices that is an increase of 15-50 percent solely due to speculation.

In an underreported story, oil speculators are making money by betting against the American consumers at the pump. Reducing the price of gas, a global commodity, is hard enough without our own markets driving the price through the roof.

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Subject: Ronald Jenkees
Time: 10:22:22 AM CDT
Author:  rrchill
Mood:  Happy

I may be late to the game on this one, because Ronald Jenkees has over a million channel views, but Moodswung sent me a link to a song on YouTube, and at first, I thought it was a joke, some guy acting like an autistic spaz.  Then he started playing music on his keyboard and I realized he MUST be autistic, or at least a serious music nerd with a gift of creative genius and serious keyboard skills.



And this one validated his skill level for me. 


His YouTube intro is just great.  The studio mixed teaser-length versions are linked on his blog here.  Wow.


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