Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.

TS Erika

It's September which means we're starting to get into the peak of the hurricane season. Yesterday the NHC announced TS Erika had formed but forecast models don't have it strengthening a whole lot.

DATA FROM THE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT ERIKA HAS WEAKENED A LITTLE... WHICH IS NOT SURPRISING CONSIDERING THE DISORGANIZED APPEARANCE OF THE SYSTEM ON SATELLITE IMAGES. MODERATE WESTERLY SHEAR HAS BEEN DISRUPTING THE CYCLONE BUT THE SHEAR IS NOT EXPECTED TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO PREVENT SOME STRENGTHENING DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO. THEREAFTER...AN UPPER-TROPOSPHERIC TROUGH FARTHER TO THE WEST IS LIKELY TO IMPART INCREASING SOUTHWESTERLY SHEAR ON ERIKA...WHICH SHOULD INDUCE WEAKENING. THE NHC INTENSITY FORECAST IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE PREVIOUS OFFICIAL FORECASTS...BUT BELOW THE CONSENSUS OF THE NUMERICAL INTENSITY GUIDANCE.

It'll definitely be something to watch after the weekend when I get back from Dragon*Con.

Blognic '09 planning

If it's September, that means time to start planning for another Blognic!

By my count this will be Blognic #4 and since Wannamaker County Park worked so well for the last two, might as well go there again (unless someone has other suggestions).

Now we just need a date. My thoughts for potential dates are the weekends of Sept 26, Oct 3, Oct 10 or Oct 17. Those just happen to be weekends I have free, but don't let that stop you from suggesting other dates. Personally I like the Oct 10 or 17 dates.

As usual, Blognic '09 will be a pot-luck affair for the whole family and by no means limited to bloggers so everybody's invited!

Dragon*Con: Way more fun than should be allowed

For the longest time, cons were those places where the weirdo hard-core geeks that dressed up gathered. Not the kind of thing I ever imagined myself wanting to go. Anybody who took their favourite show/character that seriously was just too bizarre to my brain.

Dragon*Con is really something that needs to be experienced. It's just too hard to describe, and any telling of the things that go on at Dragon*Con make it sound like it's just a collection of weirdos, freaks and geeks.

I went, and I saw. At the first panel I went to (Babylon 5), I squeed like a little girl. And then I got to meet and talk to Bruce Boxleitner, and I squeed some more. I saw celebrities like Lou Ferrigno, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, most of the Stargate: Atlantis cast, and many more. More squee'ing when I got Tracy Scoggin's autograph and photo taken with her (also a self admitted sci-fi geek). Photo with Felicia Day (OMGSQUEEE!!).

Yes, I became a total fan boy and one of them. Admittedly, I didn't really have that far to go.

There were lots of people dressed up in costumes and many that weren't. There were costumes from just about every genre, show and character you could think of. When my friends and I thought about a show or character that would be cool to see or dress up as, sooner or later we'd end up seeing someone else dressed as it.

But that's not all there is to Dragon*Con. There were the fan tracks that covered everything from your favourite sci-fi/fantasy, literature, arts, costuming to podcasting, science and space. Writers workshops, art shows, costume contests and of course the celebrity panels. There are way way way more things going on than you could ever possibly see at once.

Don't just take my word for it though. You should think about going to see it for yourself next year.

Pictures soon. Have close to 600 that I need to go through and weed out.

Time to get healthy

A note was waiting for me in the mail today with the results from some recent blood work I had done as part of my annual checkup a few days ago.

Good news: Mostly healthy.

Kind of bad news: Cholesterol is starting to get on the high side. LDL is getting close to high, and HDL is half of what it should be. Iron levels are also a little low too, so the doctor recommended an OTC iron supplement.

Guess some diet modifications are in order.

Dragon*Con photos

Some of the photos I took at Dragon*Con. You'll find the rest of them here.

Spartans from 300. These guys were pretty buff.

A group of bounty hunters posing for photos

Phil Plait (BadAstronomy) in one of the Science track sessions

Lou Ferrigno riding in the Dragon*Con parade

BSG Colonials

Ghostbusters

The Babylon 5 panels and Q&A sessions had me squeeing like a little girl.

The rest of my photos.

9

Went to see 9 at the Terrace Hippodrome tonight.

It's kind of a strange movie to describe. With Tim Burton as one of the producers, that's probably to be expected. All CG animation and quite well done. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where nobody is left except these tiny little doll-machines and one big giant bad guy machine. Not quite sure how they work or what makes them go, but it's not really all that important. The combination of tech and spirit in the story line made me think of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and a few other only vaguely remembered movies.

It's not a long movie at just over an hour and is pretty easy to watch. I quite enjoyed it.

4 stars out of 5.

Rerun: What were you doing September 11, 2001?

I posted this on my blog 6 years ago, 2 years after the events on Sep 11. I just thought I'd share it again.

September 11, 2001. It's one of those infamous days in human history where just about everyone can tell you exactly what they were doing when it happened or when they heard the news. Just like the Challenger disaster (January 28, 1986), or Columbia (February 1, 2003), or JFK (November 22, 1963). I wasn't around for JFK though.

I remember vividly what I was doing that day. It started off as a normal routine day, as it probably would have for anyone else. I had a couple of bone density units to survey that morning. I recall walking around the department, making my daily rounds. As I was finishing up, I happened to walk by one of the waiting rooms where for some reason everyone was clustered around the TV. It was a news report about how a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. My first thoughts were "Holy crap. Bad bad accident".

It wasn't a terrorist event yet. Just a tragic accident, a plane gone out of control and hitting the WTC. Went back down to my office to grab my equipment to start my surveys. Sent my wife a text message to her cell phone saying a plane had crashed into the WTC. She was in class at the time, but being from NYC I knew she'd want to hear about it. Then headed back up to Ultrasound where the bone density unit was.

There were even more people clustered around the TV now, and more events had unfolded. I remember telling the bone density tech asking me what was going on. Told her about the plane crashing into the WTC. Everyone was glued to the TV, but I had work to get done, so I set up the scanner. While I was waiting for it to start up, the news came that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. It was certainly shaping up to be a very odd day. What are the chances that two planes would crash into buildings on the same day...the same morning even.

Then, while I was testing, reports of the second plane hitting the other WTC tower were broadcast, and I started thinking that these were no accidents. After I finished, I went back down to my office, unloaded my stuff and went back upstairs to the TV. Watched the news for a little while longer and then headed off to see what other people were saying.

I didn't see the towers collapse until I saw the news after I got home. Everyone was buzzing that day. I don't remember what happened with the rest of my afternoon. I think I spent it talking with other people about what happened. All the news sites on the web were slow, or not responding, so there wasn't any info there.

My wife took the rest of the day off after she received my message. The rest of our evening was spent glued to various news stations watching the aftermath of the disaster. For several days after, the news was about all we watched. There was much speculation about who was behind the attack and why. The rest I guess is history.

Interesting times.

It has been said that there is an ancient Chinese proverb/curse that goes "May you live in interesting times", although the authenticity of this is doubtful.

Interesting times, I haz dem. Lots of dem.

A road taken

There are images rolling around my head that are hard to describe and difficult for me to interpret and integrate.

My brain is trying to process things it hasn't encountered before. The brain, it hurts.

I thought I knew where I was going but now, not so much anymore.

The desire to find a safe dark spot to hide away from everything is strong. Stronger than it's been for a long time. I need my Star Trek.

It's dark and I don't know where I'm going. Where's my flashlight?

Have I made the right choice? Moot question now that I've made it I suppose.

This is a strange place I find myself in. Regardless of how things turn out, this is sure to be a huge learning experience for me.

Enough sappy indulgence. There's homework to do now.

A choice

A choice needed to be made. Choice 1 led to exploring something new, and venturing outside the confines of my safe shell. Choice 2 took me back to familiar settings but with many things changed.

It was a bit of a rushed decision made in less time, with less information and under more pressure than I normally like. Never good circumstances under which to make choices that have a large impact on your life.

I chose the latter. It was not an easy choice to make. I still don't know if it was a good one or the right one, but it's one I'm committed to now.

I don't think I've ever felt quite so conflicted in my entire life as I have been these past few days. It does not feel very good to be like this.

Time will tell if I have chosen wisely.

I win at donating blood

Yay me!

I came in first place with 6 donations in the department blood donation contest that ended a couple of weeks ago. For my efforts I received this very spiffy looking plaque which is hanging on the wall in my office now (I had to move Brain to the bookshelf). For this year's contest, I kicked off my efforts last week with my 50th donation since being in the US (up to about 82 since I started donating).

Woohoo!

Blognic '09

October 17 was the date overwhelmingly selected by all three of you, so that's when we'll have Blognic '09.

Wannamaker County Park at the picnic area (over by the playground) around 11AM and pot-luck as usual. Bring the family and invite your friends (being a blogger not required)!

Not iron man

Well. It looks like I probably will not win at blood donating for this year's contest.

Apparently I've become slightly anemic, which would probably explain why I've been feeling kind of run down and tired lately. Whether it's from donating blood or some other cause I don't know yet, but the doc says I should probably lay off on the donating for a little while at least and recover a bit.

Willie Jewell's Old School BBQ

Last night was a Lowcountry BBQ meatup at the fairly new Willie Jewell's Old School BBQ up in North Charleston.

Willie Jewell's is located in a little strip mall almost across the street from Wannamaker County Park. It's not a very large place, but is pretty decent looking inside. Definitely not the hole in the wall shack type places you typically associate good Lowcountry BBQ with.

The menu has a pretty good variety to choose from, but I went for the pork supper plate, which turned out to be a pulled pork sandwich (with a pretty good sized portion of pork) served open face and two sides. I went for the baked beans and mac and cheese.

The pork was deliciously tender and very smoky. I think it's some of the smokiest tasting BBQ I've had so far. Just check out that smoke ring.

The sides were kind of meh, although the baked beans were pretty good. The mac and cheese seemed to be just macaroni with salty cheese sauce poured on it. Ok, but there's better out there. I got the impression that the sides were somewhat inconsistent. A few people in the group ordered the coleslaw which they said was really good before, but was pretty bad this time. The corn fritters, little fried nuggets of battered corn, were pretty tasty though.

The sauces are served warm in pump dispensers on a counter across from where you place your order. There are 4 sauces to choose from: traditional, sweet and tangy, classic mustard-based and a hot and spicy one. There's also ketchup and regular mustard too, but I don't recall seeing anything on the menu that you'd want to put them on. I probably just missed it though.

I went for the traditional and hot sauces. Don't think I really liked the traditional sauce a whole lot, but the hot BBQ sauce was pretty decent. It tasted like it might have been mustard based as well. Really though, the pork stands up pretty well on its own and didn't need any sauce at all.

If you're in the area and develop a hankering for BBQ, Willie Jewell's is definitely worth stopping at. Based on comments from the others, it seems like they still need to work on the sides to make the quality more consistent though. Prices are pretty reasonable though.

3.5 stars out of 5.

BarcampCHS promo video

BarCamp Charleston Promo! from Dan Conover on Vimeo.