Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Hurricane Driving
September 21, 2003

The hurricane driving was alright. Actually, we left on Thursday night to try to avoid the bulk of the storm, which was scheduled to hit Johnstown during the morning hours on Friday.

I think this was the second most frightening turnpike trip I’ve ever taken. It was dark, of course, and there was rain everywhere. Wind was blowing all sorts of tree detritus not just onto the road but into the air above the road, swirling in the driving vision of the headlights. I guess we had just passed the mountains having come out of the tunnels when we came to follow a minivan. It was out about 50 yards or so, and all we could see was its tail lights. At one point, it simply seemed to swerve smoothly but suddenly to the left. I thought to myself, “That’s odd,” and was thinking about following them just when I saw what was going on. A huge tree had fallen completely across the cruising lane. Luckily I saw that minivan, because I didn’t see the tree until we were almost upon it. Berta and I just kind of sat there silent for a few moments until I asked her, “Did you see that? Did that just happen?”

Chibis
September 17, 2003

Well, I've been searching for a book for a long time that would start out at a basic enough level that I could actually learn to draw.  I've finally found one.

Katy Coope writes How to Draw Manga, published by Scholastic.  She has many drawings all over the internet, particularly for fan fiction.  She has a web site of her own and participates in DeviantArt.

I live on an island
September 15, 2003

As I got in the car to leave for work today, I noticed an unusual number of cars speeding down our little road.  After the thunder and rain of last night, I expected there to be some flooding in the basement, and probably some flooding on the nearby creeks, but the routing of traffic was unusual.

So I got in the car and drove around the corner, and that's when I noticed the gaggle of people with umbrellas walking around.  Apparently, some poor idiot tried to get through the water with his van and didn't make it.  It seems it was much deeper than he had imagined.

New Satellite Receiver
September 11, 2003

We have been experiencing troubles recently with our DishPlayer, so we decided to replace it with a new PVR system before the fall TV schedule begins.

The DisPlayer we had was a good unit in its time, but it had many software bugs.  Primarily, it had more features than we needed.  The box not only received satellite TV, but it had MSN TV built into it.  Using the modem jack that comes standard on all satellite receivers, it could dial-up the MSN TV network and connect to the internet.  The somewhat clunky interface would let you surf (marginally) and get email on an MSN account.  Later software releases let you use MS Messenger to instant-message other people who were online.