Sprung....

Spring has indeed sprung; a week after the vernal equinox the weather is finally more spring like. I awoke to a beatiful, sunny day with the sounds of singing birds. Our expected high today is 69º; I don't expect much snow to be left on the ground when I get home tonight.

Today I was able to finish The History of Tom Jones - A Foundling by Henry Fielding. Amusing by today's standards, it was most certainly shocking, and perhaps scandalous, when it was first published in 1749. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, despite taking a bit to get into. In fact, things didn't start picking up until about 100 pages into it. Once things got going, though, it was a very entertaining read. In my opinion, it has stood the test of time much better than, say, Jane Austen's Emma.

Next is King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard. This particular edition was published by Reader's Digest, and illustrated by Walter Paget. I'm not familiar with any of Haggard's work, and have heard little of the book itself, other than that both the book, and its hero, Allan Quatermain, have been the subjects of numerous movies.

Update

Here's an update on the feral cat issue, with multimedia goodness.

No yolks!

The PETA shenanigans continue, this time in India, where they're black-balling Easter eggs.

Bull!

Here are some long-overdue shenanigans from those whack-jobs at PETA.

Blogosphere....

Amy has made the migration to LiveJournal. I checked things out over there, and was not impressed. It seems like a nice little community, but you need their software in order to blog. They tout this as an advantage, since you don't need to open a web browser to post. I see this as a disadvantage: with Blogger, you can post from any computer with a web browser without installing any software. So until I get a server and my own domain name, Blogger it is.

Since Blogger's commenting engine leaves a lot to be desired, I've been sticking with HaloScan for that service. I hopped over to HaloScan the other day to see if there was anything new. Lo and behold, I discovered they were beta testing these things called gravatars, or "globally recognized avatars." For those not in the know, an avatar is a little picture or icon used to represent you in chat rooms, on message boards, and now, apparently, in blogs and blog comments.

Thinking this was rather clever, I decided to activate gravatars in HaloScan, so you might want to go out and get one. It seems like kind of a neat way to leave a more personalized stamp on your comments, though not that I get many.

Checking out the Gravatar website, I found the proprieter to be a fairly interesting fellow, especially since he's running a contest celebrating the 100,000,000th gravatar served. He's well over that now, of course, but it's interesting to see that kind of positive response in the blogosphere.

I wish I was able to somehow have that kind of impact myself. Unfortunately, so long as I'm relying on such services as GeoCities, Blogger, Blog*Spot, and HaloScan, I'm kind of limited in what I can offer.

Birthday....

Today would have been Dad's 58th birthday.

Boing!

We've now passed the vernal equinox, marking the astronomical (and astrological) start of spring. However, we've yet to see any truly spring-like weather, with the exception of a day here and there. In fact, our weather hasn't even really been "normal" for this time of year. We've been a bit on the chilly side.

The good news, though, is that I spotted a couple of red-winged blackbirds on my morning commute. True, they're one of the first birds to return in the spring, but it's a good sign nonetheless. I'll be looking forward to the other signs of spring, including warmer weather, green grass, and spotting that first robin.

Duh.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Mee-ow!

The crazy cat lovers come out of the woodwork as a local ecologist studies the impact of feral cats on birds. As any objective scientist should, he has carefully studied the issue, and refuses to take a stand either for or against the "hunting" of feral cats, or, more properly, a property-owner's ability to kill a feral cat on his property. He's received death threats from people too fanatical or too ignorant to carefully read the study, people who think he supports the hunting, and blast him for that, or people who blast him for not taking a stand against it.

I'm finally going to say it, in big, bold letters: What the hell is wrong with Dane County? This county is so chock full of bleeding-heart liberals and tree-hugging hippies that they can't see outside their narrow tunnel of vision. The man did a freakin' study, humanely, I might add, and people are treating him like he's the Antichrist. Get a life, people! Clearly, these people don't understand the damage that tame domestic cats can cause on birds and vermin species, much less feral cats. Pound-for-pound, domestic cats are the deadliest hunters in the cat family, capable of preying on anything smaller than them, and likely to do so, not because they need to, but simply because they can.

Have any of these people even seen a feral cat? They’re not the soft, cuddly cats that pad around the house. They’re lean, scruffy, bedraggled, skittish, and mean animals a short step away from wildness. I'm guessing that most of the people crying foul are city-dwelling pansies that have never seen the brutality of living in the country, and if that's the case, that explains a lot about life around Madison.

What's new?

Today I was able to finish When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin. It features typically snarky Carlin fare, much in the vein of Napalm and Silly Putty. Some of the material is recognizable from his routines, but his latest book seems to deviate from that a bit more, featuring material that could work in a stand-up setting, but probably works better on paper. The major theme, if there is one, seems to be the dumbing-down of language, thanks largely in part to political correctness. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what Carlin had to say about it.

Next on the list will be The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. This edition was published in 1964 by Random House, and features illustrations by Lawrence Beall Smith. I don't know much about the book, other than that it's highly recommended, and that it was probably pretty scandalous for its time. I'm also hoping that its 721 pages take a while to read.

Doctor, doctor!

It's a sad testimony to the state of affairs when we read articles like
this. When did it become so wrong to treat a patient instead of just their illness? To use common sense? To have compassion? To be a decent person?

Luckily, some physicians are taking matters in to their own hands, putting their money where their mouth is, and retaking control.

Lost....

Caly and Jim came in to town Friday for a wedding on Saturday, and they left earlier today. They stayed with Maryanne and me. I think they enjoyed their brief visit, but I'm sure they would have enjoyed it more if U.S. Airways hadn't lost their luggage. Twice. At the same airport.

Moral of the story: avoid U.S. Airways, and if possible, connecting flights in Philadelphia.

What's the buzz?

Today I was able to finish Dan Brown's Angels & Demons. I enjoyed it, even having read The Da Vinci Code recently. Just when I thought it was going to get formulaic, Brown manages to add a twist throwing me completely off guard. Well done.

Next on the list is When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin. The book has been somewhat controversial due not only to its title, but because of its cover: imagine Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" sans Jesus, and Carlin himself seated at what would be Jesus's left, clearly waiting for a pork chop. We'll see what irreverence is held inside the covers.

Verdict....

Today I publish the results of the poll. I'm not sure the final result was ever in doubt. There were nine votes total cast, which is less than I'd like but more than I expected. With a victory of five to four, it has been decided that "Garfield" will be dropped from my comics page.

It doesn't bother me that much. In the time that the poll has been going, I think I've only read one strip that I found funny or amusing. Most of the jokes have been stale and recycled. For really good cat-based humor, I suggest you check out "Two Lumps" or "Get Fuzzy."

"When in Rome...."

So next on tap for my literary enjoyment is Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. I thoroughly enjoyed the latter, and the former seems to be promising as well.

And today's the last day of the poll, so if you haven't voted already, now's probably a good time. The results, and potential consequences, will be seen tomorrow.

Complete....

I finally finished The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe today. I'll admit I did not read the criticism portion, and only read some of the poetry. However, I read all the tales, and enjoyed the endeavor, as time-consuming as it was. Poe was clearly a writer of great talent. Much of his work falls in the category of what we now call speculative fiction, while much of his work is much in the vein of mystery and suspense. Most of the tales are fairly dark, but now and then a fairly amusing tale can be found. Very few of the stories were disappointing though, being brought to some kind of satisfying conclusion.

I don't know what shall be next. We'll find that out on Monday.

And don't forget to vote in the poll! You've only got until the end of the month.

Framed!

Some time ago GeoCities changed their ad square, causing either a floating square to appear on the right margin of the page, or a framed version of it that could be minimized. Normally this wouldn't bother me; since GeoCities is the host of my web page, and I don't pay them, they can pretty much do what they want.

Now, since I can't publish via FTP to GeoCities unless I pay them, I ended up having to host my Blog elsewhere. When I decided to redo the front page of the site, this left me with adding Java Script to automatically redirect traffic to this front page as it would not be hosted at GeoCities.

Things were fine for a while. The GeoCities ad square would only appear on pages hosted by Geocities, and not anything hosted elsewhere. Alas, things quickly changed, and even my front page, hosted at Blog*Spot, was getting an ad square; GeoCities was loading my site, then framing the content loaded by the Java Script.

Well, I had enough of that: I did some Googling today and found some fantastic code from ASP Web Pro that breaks out of frames automatically. They're my new heroes.

The walls....

Here's an update on the Door County Justice Center hoopla:

Construction of the administrative offices has been halted temporarily at the new Door County Justice Center, while county officials address a problem with the steel studding that supports the walls.

The issue, as well as problems with the way Door County discovered the mistake, were discussed publicly Monday during a meeting of the county Ad Hoc Building Committee.

At the outset of the meeting, Ken Fisher, chairman of the committee, summarized the problem in a nutshell.

“We spec’d out for 20 (gauge steel) and ended up with 25,” a lighter gauge steel, Fisher said. “The thickness is pretty close to double the difference between the different gauges of steel.”

The problem with the lesser gauge is it creates a less stiff wall designed to support drywall, not plaster. The issue then becomes the wall deflection, or how much the wall moves horizontally when pushed by a certain amount of force (such as by hanging cabinets on one side of the wall but not the other). The concern is that the less stiff wall created with the lower-gauge steel will create too much deflection, resulting in hairline plaster cracks.

“We either say stop the project and tear all the walls out and put the 20-gauge in as we ordered, or we move forward from this point on with some way that will be acceptable to us and that we can all live with,” Fisher said about the decision the committee faced Monday.

Thom Miron of Quantic Architectural LLC, who designed the building and was retained to oversee the project through to completion, explained that the base bid for the Justice Center walls was for drywall with 25-gauge steel studs. Instead, the county chose an alternate plan using veneer plaster on the walls.

When that decision was made, Stubenrauch Architects – the now-defunct company Miron was with when the Justice Center was designed – increased the stiffness of the wall to, basically, the 20-gauge steel stud.

“When we discovered the 25, the flag went up,” Miron said.

After looking at ways to stiffen up the wall to prevent the deflection, the remediation agreed upon between Miron and general contractor Miron Construction (no relation) was to brace the studs between 10 and 12 feet.

“All the remediation work was based on that,” Miron said. “Because of that, we felt like we were on the right track. We asked the stud installer to confirm some of these things through their engineers, and that’s still going on.”

But Miron said the plaster installers assured them that the studs, with the bracing, were sufficiently stiffened.

“I would like to think that this proves that this wall, from a plastering standpoint, is sufficiently stable,” Miron said.

County Board Chairman Charlie Most directed the work be stopped last week when he discovered the problem, and Miron confirmed the contractor has pulled everyone out until the committee decides the county’s next move.

At issue for several of the committee members, as well as for Most, was that the county couldn’t be sure the bracing was in its best interest, because the county wasn’t given an opportunity to take part in remediation discussions once the problem was discovered.

For example, committee members said, once the problem was discovered, the most desirable remediation would have been replacing the incorrect studs with the correct studs, as per the specifications.

“The decision that was made was one to keep the project rolling,” Most said. “It was the cheapest, quickest solution, not the best long-term solution.”

The difference in cost between the 20- and 25-gauge steel was about $12,000, according to a briefing timeline prepared by Jude Genereaux, county administrator. A concern raised Monday was whether the contractor purposely used the lower-grade steel.

“Why would anybody try to snooker on $12,000,” Fisher said. “When you’re talking about that small amount of money, I’ve got to believe it’s an honest mistake.”

The problem was discovered by Miron Jan. 3, but the county didn’t learn about it until Feb. 14 by a person Most described in a past interview as a “whistle-blower.”

During that interim, Supervisor Biz Virlee pointed out, the Ad Hoc Building Committee met four times, giving Miron ample time to come to the county to appraise them of the problem.

Miron explained that he wasn’t going to bring it to the committee until he’d found a solution. Once he learned “the solution was a lot simpler than I thought,” he said, he wanted to wait until they could verify county credit for the solution.

“That’s when Charlie (Most) found out,” Miron said.

Miron said he had made a “bad decision” and allowed the issue to mushroom by not telling the committee as soon as the problem was discovered.

“I sincerely apologize for that,” Miron said. “I just thought this wasn’t that major of an issue.”

The county hired independent engineer Mike Till last week to review the work and prepare a report on the bracing remediation. The committee decided to meet again at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the County Board conference room to discuss Till’s report before it makes a decision about how to proceed.

To the lists....

Here's another list that goes hand-in-hand quite nicely with the video game list: Mobile PC's Top 100 Gadgets of All Time.

Wakka wakka

Check out 1UP.com's list of the fifty essential videogames. Think of it as a lesson in video gaming history.