"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.

Blowing the whistle....

Since the Door County Advocate website kind of sucks, and I can't link permanently to individual articles, I'm going to qoute this one for your reading pleasure.

If trumpets, followed by shouting, brought the walls of Jericho down, could whistle-blowing, followed by shouting, bring the walls of the Justice Center down?

That could have been the question of the week, as county officials, having learned from a “whistle-blower” that the Justice Center walls aren’t what they should be, met with contractors, subcontractors, engineers and the architect, trying to figure out what the heck happened, and what to do about what the heck happened, with the Justice Center walls.

At issue are the steel studs that support the walls. These studs were supposed to be constructed of 20-gauge steel in order to support plaster. Instead, 95 percent of the studs were built of 25-gauge steel, which doesn’t support plaster. (The lower number is the stronger gauge).

“The difference in the cost of the material is not really significant,” said Charlie Most, chairman of the County Board. “What’s significant is the deflection, which is the amount you can move the wall, and whether it will live up to a standard over time.”

Though the walls won’t fall down and could be braced to give the studs plaster-bearing support – the contractor’s solution for the problem, the cost of which which would be borne by the contractor – Most said the architect and contractor didn’t handle the situation correctly.

“Monetarily, it’s not a serious issue, but I think how the problem surfaced to the County Board and myself is of great concern,” Most said.

The contractor learned of the problem in January. Instead of notifying the county, it began remediating the problem, Most said.

“The county was not ever informed of the problem; the architect didn’t inform the Ad Hoc (Building Committee),” Most said. “We found out through a rumor, a whistle-blower.”

By not telling the county, the problem was compounded, Most said, because workers continued to plaster the walls even after the problem was discovered.

“On the second floor, about 75 percent is wallboarded, and of that, probably about 50-60 percent has been veneer plastered,” Most said.

If the county had been told of the problem when it was discovered, there would have been more options when it came to remediation, such as replacing the lower-gauge steel with the higher.

But now that so many of the walls have already received the final plaster stage, Most said, changing out the studs isn’t likely an option.

“If you wanted to put your foot down and wanted to go to court, you could do that,” but the project would be delayed two to three years while the case was fought out in court, Most said.

“So I would say tearing the walls out completely really isn’t a viable option,” Most said.

County officials met with the architect, the contractor, subcontractors and a private engineer this week. Now, the Ad Hoc Building Committee will meet to discuss the issue at 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21, in the third-floor County Board conference room at the Courthouse.

“I think what you have now, at least on my part, is a serious breach of trust between the county and the general contractor and the architect,” Most said.

A spokesman for general contractor Miron Construction Co. Inc. could not be reached for comment. Thom Miron, the architect who designed the Justice Center, and who was retained by the county to oversee the project through to completion, said he’s fully aware of the situation but didn’t want to comment until after the Ad Hoc Building Committee meets Monday.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal, but it’s up to them,” Miron said.

When asked if the county should have been informed about the problem right away, he said, “It’s a matter of opinion.”

Why is this such a big deal? Because the county remodeled the courthouse a mere 10-15 years ago. Due to changing state requirements, the county decided to update the courthouse by building a new one, in a different location, instead of remodeling the existing one, or building a new one on a vacant lot right across the street from the current courthouse. Instead of waiting for the state to require the changes and being able to reply "Show us the money," they decided that the taxpayers would foot the bill. Fast forward a bit through recall elections, heated debates, letters to the editor, and the like, and the county board got what they wanted: a new courthouse on a new parcel of land.

Now we encounter this snafu, in which the fuckups at Miron used the wrong materials and decided not to tell any one. In fact, they now have the gall to call it "a matter of opinion."

Are we looking at another remodeling project in 10-15 years, or will it be sooner?

The polls are open....

So I've gotten a few more votes in the poll, but while there's a definite trend since I started it, I can't yet say there's a clear-cut winner. In the meantime, Garfield has only had one amusing strip since I started the poll. I'll run the poll until the end of the month.

Don't panic!

I know where I'm going to be in early May.

Updates....

I figured I'd better post again before it becomes a full week since the last time I posted. Not much of note has happened for me to post about, so this will be a rather boring post.

The last I checked, the poll was slightly in favor of "Garfield" being dropped, though there was only a one-vote lead. So please vote. You know who you are.

Blogger has made some changes to their own commenting engine, so I might take another look at that. I kind of like HaloScan, but they don't notify me when there's a comment unless I pay them. Greedy bastards.

Dust in the wind....

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the day marking the beginning of Lent (or Lenten) for Christians. I agreed to go to church with Maryanne, and got marked with a smudge of ash on my forehead. It bothered my allergies slightly, and I had to wash it off right away when we got home.

Because we would be gone, we ended up taping That 70s Show. It was a good episode, though why they waited so many seasons before setting an episode at a Packer game is beyond me. Nevertheless, while it was clear that it wasn't Lambeau Field, it was at least close: the seating was bleachers and not individual seats, and the general atmosphere of a game was there. One glaring inaccuracy was that nobody was eating brats.

However, Bobby Flay was in Milwaukee for Food Finds on last night's episode, and he did have a brat.

No comparison....

Andy Baggot of The Wisconsin State Journal draws the line on all the comparisons being made between Bill Belichick and Vince Lombardi. According to Baggot, there's no contest, at least not yet.

Security!

Anybody out there opposed to Bush's plan for reforming Social Security should read this before forming their opinion. Of particular note is the quotation from none other than FDR himself, which includes this:

Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans. [Emphasis added]

It is clear, and has been for some time, that FDR never intended Social Security to be a sole source of income for anyone, but an additional source of income. It is also now clear that FDR also intended it to be temporary.

Nevermore....

Today I finished The Swiss Family Robinson. It was OK. While I can see the inspiration of the far superior Robinson Crusoe, the fact remains that the book is obviously written for children. While Crusoe is at least somewhat believable, The Swiss Family Robinson is less so, to the point of being incredible. The family encounters such a variety of creatures, many of which I don't even think are found in the East Indies where the family is shipwrecked, the one would imagine that they were actually shipwrecked at a zoo. The incredible ease by which they adapt to their surroundings, and the lack of difficulty in creating not only necessities but luxury items as well, are both sufficient to leave the adult reader scratching his or her head. It might be something good for your second- or third-grader, but children much older than that might find the story a little too fantastic, perhaps even contrived.

Next is The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. This particular edition is one of those massive hardcovers that can be had inexpensively from Barnes & Noble and are frequently cloth- or leather-bound. I'm familiar with some of Poe's work, including such poems as "The Bells" and "The Raven" and such tales as "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Tell-Tale Heart." I've enjoyed what I've read thus far; I'm expecting to enjoy the rest of Poe's work.

Cast-aways....

So I said that today we'd all find out what my next book is. It's The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. This edition is published on Knopf's Everyman's Library imprint, and features illustrations by Louis Rhead, an Art Nouveau period artist. The book is supposed to be inspired by Robinson Crusoe, which I've read (twice) and enjoyed.

And since the vote whoring seems to be working... don't forget to vote in the poll. There's a total of six votes so far, and I'm only aware of four people that visit on a regular basis, and I'm one of them.

The blood of Christ....

This afternoon I finished The Da Vinci Code. Whew! It was a much faster read than I thought, mostly because it's so damn good! Fantastic pacing, excellent use of flashbacks, good dialog, and a complex, character-driven plot.

As I stated before, it contains some factual elements, but is a work of fiction. Is its analysis of the Grail legend correct? There's a lot of books out there that support the same theory, but nothing conclusive has been discovered yet. Putting that aside, Dan Brown cleary did his research, because everything that is based in fact is very accurrate.

I don't know what's next. I have an idea of what I'll start on tomorrow, but you'll have to tune in then to see what it is.

And vote in the poll.

Februum....

February takes its name from the Roman ceremony of Februum, a ceremony of purification. Places of worship are cleaned and repaired, and ritual paraphernalia are cleansed, repaired, and polished.

It's ironic, then, that this month, named for a festival of ritual cleansing, is such a dirty month. Due to some warm weather and a lack of fresh snow fall, the snow banks have begun to shrink, becoming dirty and dingy, exposing brown earth and dead grass, and forming mud.

Spring doesn't officially start until the vernal equinox, and with it hopefully bringing a promise of rebirth. Early spring, though, doesn't always hold this promise, and while the comparably warmer weather is a welcome respite from the cold grip of frigid January, the gray and overcast skies are depressing and overbearing.

Don't get me wrong: I'm thankful January is over, and February is a short month. I would just much rather it be March, with spring just around the corner.

On a different note, it seems my pleas have helped somewhat: I've picked up a few more responses in the current poll. If you haven't done so already, please vote.

There's also a new restaurant review. If you live in south-central Wisconsin, you might want to check that out, too.