Monday Meanderings - 10.22.2012

I was reading an article in Sports Illustrated (I get Barb's hand-me-down copies) and the writer referenced "directional colleges." I had never heard this term before and commented so to Barb, and she figured out that it referred to schools and universities with compass directions in their names, like East Carolina, South Florida, Central Florida, and a team we watched Tuesday night, North Texas.

But the implication in the SI article was that such schools are lesser lights, so what about WEST Virginia? And NORTH Carolina, and SOUTH Carolina? Further research seems to indicate that the "directional" label only applies when the state itself does not have a direction in its name. Therefore West Virginia is NOT directional, South Florida IS. That seems to work okay until you consider that SOUTHERN California cannot be considered a lesser school by any standard. I guess there are exceptions to every rule.

By the way, we saw a TV interview of some Texas Tech players that had been in a heated argument about whether West Virginia was a state. This was prior to playing them; afterwards, they probably felt that they could draw any conclusion they wanted.

When we replaced the carpet in our house a couple of years ago, we contracted for three annual cleanings. When we requested the service on the first anniversary, it took multiple phone calls, a trip to Home Depot, offering burnt sacrifices and an act of congress to get it scheduled. So I was prepared this year; I started a month early, thinking it would take at least that long to finally get someone to agree to put us on the schedule. So Tuesday morning I called the warranty service (Home Depot), they took my information and Tuesday afternoon the cleaners called and Wednesday they came. And I was all prepared for a really big fight to get this done! Now if we could just get the furniture positioned back where it was.

Thursday was a gorgeous day, and I was on my own for lunch, so I decided to walk up to a little Mexican food restaurant up the street.  Up is the operative word in that sentence; unlike the treadmill, the route to this restaurant involves an upward gradient virtually all the way. I thought the trip back would be much easier, but I guess fewer Tacos al pastor might have helped that.

And I leave you with a picture that should need no explanation.

Yes. It IS a fork in the road.

Update on "Need a Place to Stay in Austin?"

One month to go before F1 Race Week and the nearest available Hotel/Motel rooms are in San Antonio! On the TV news this week a representative from Marble Falls, 60 miles down the road, said all the rooms there were booked.

But in spite of the demand, I think my plan to rent out the house during Race Week may not work out the way I hoped. You may recall that I had seen a number of properties come on the market for a one-week rental at outstandingly nice rates. We are talking 5 and 6 digit numbers here! Of course, these were outstandingly nice properties, so I was prepared to back off on the price just a touch; say, high 4 digits.

Well, my best offer to date is from a third cousin twice removed who said if the refrigerator was really well stocked, he might go as high as $20 bucks. He said three bedrooms and a couch was good for him, his wife and the seven kids; the mother-in-law and all the nieces and nephews might have to bunk in the camper in the driveway. I also found out that the twice-removed part has to do with prior evictions. Not looking good.

To make matters worse, I found out that our greedy City Fathers set the fee for the Short-Term Rental Permit at $476 bucks! And they wonder why only 19 permits have been issued when they expected 1,500! According to the paper, about half of the $476 registration cost is a $241 standard fee by the city’s planning department to notify neighbors of nearby projects. I figure I can walk next door and tell the jerk neighbor who parks his boat in front of my house for a whole lot less, but that still leaves $235 that I would have to shell out.

This is harder than it looked.

What's hot and what's not

From time to time I pull up the official Google Stats on my blog just to see what interests people. I've mentioned this before and you may recall that for a very long time, the most popular blog - at least from the standpoint of the number of people who clicked on it - was about the dude who runs up and down the grassy median beside an HEB store.

Over time, however, interest in the Running Man has declined; in fact it has now fallen to 3rd place in the all-time list. Currently, the overwhelming clicked-on champion is the blog about the album of old 78 records that I found amongst my aging LPs. In the almost two-year period since that blog, more than 818 people have searched for "old records" or "78 RPM records" on Google and clicked on the search results.

Interestingly, if I perform those same searches, I find that the vast majority of the results are asking about, or promoting old records for sale, and asking about the value of old 78's. In fact, I never found my blog entry, but I did find that Google cataloged the image of the 78rpm record that I used to illustrate the blog (and that I stole borrowed from some other Internet source). If you click on the image, it takes you to the The Mystery Album blog entry.

One other interesting aspect about this favorite - almost all of the searches originated in Europe, notably Russia, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, in that order. Maybe the used 78rpm record market is hot over there.

The Sleep Study  is now the second-favorite blog, with some 395 page views. I tried several searches with that topic myself, but never could connect with my blog entry. I did find, however, a Huffington Post entry that told of a man who DIED DURING A SLEEP STUDY! See! There's a good reason why I'm never going to do that again!

Now in third place, the Keeping Austin Weird - The Running Man blog has 268 page views. He still runs up an down, or shadow-boxes on the nearby Sonic corner, but I gues that's sooo last year!

An interesting forth place contender is Traveling in Comfort the story about the the canvas water bag my family carried on vacations, and the swamp-cooler air-conditioner that was attached to our car for a trip to California. More than 171 people have found that story after serching for keywords. For example, yesterday a user on the Softbank Corporate site in Kanagawa Japan visited this blog after it was returned for his search for "swamp cooler." I guess since there is a rumor that Softbank has purchased Sprint, maybe things are heating up there.

By the way, I used "swamp cooler" as a search argument and gave up after looking through 65 pages of returned sites. I guess the guy in Japan has way more time to waste than I do (and I have quite a lot!)

Monday Meanderings - 10.15.2012

Longhorns. Mountaineers. Cowboys. Texans. Sigh.

Saw a news report that said 25% of all women in the US were on medications for mental illness. That's very alarming. That means that 75% are untreated! And if you are reading this, it also means that my wife has not read this blog yet.

The other evening we were dining in a nice restaurant and a young woman near us was talking on her cell phone the entire time. She was on the phone when she ordered, she was on the phone while she ate her meal, and as we left, she was ordering dessert while still engaged in her phone conversation. She didn't disturb us - she spoke quietly throughout the call - but what must that have sounded like on the other end of the conversation?

A caller identified only as Donna phoned radio station Y94 in Fargo, ND. Donna has some problems. Over the last few years, she's been involved in several deer-related car accidents, and with her frustration reaching a tipping point, she decided to call to voice her complaint on deer-crossing signs. Namely, "Why are people placing the signs in high-traffic areas? Shouldn't we be encouraging deer to cross the road in low-traffic areas rather than on highways?" The radio hosts calmly tried to explain the actual purpose of the signs, but Donna was having none of it. "The government can guide deer to lower traffic areas," she says. We're sure they're working on it, Donna. Thanks for your call.

I daily scour the Internet to learn of the latest devices and Apps to help me navigate the complications of life, and this week I want to share with you the best of the best. You will say, as did I, "How have I lived without this?"

Have you ever lost a sock? Even worse, ever put on socks that seemed to match at first and later you realized that they aren’t actually a pair? Fortunately, there's an app for that. The Blacksocks brand has recently come out with a set of products called “Smarter Socks,” intending to solve all our sock woes with an app, a sorter, and socks with built-in chips, called Plus+ (not to be confused with Google’s social network). Once you’ve purchased this kit, the chips will track various things about your socks: how many times you’ve washed them, which foot they belong on and an ID number which will help the sorter determine its proper match. Every time you do laundry, simply scan your socks with the Sorter, and it will tell you which socks should go together. The cost for this life-saving convenience?

The starter kit,  consisting of 10 pairs of socks with Plus+ and the Sock Sorter -  retails for $189. I know you are just as excited as I am about this. No need to thank me - it's the least I can do for my loyal readers.

Best of Lufkin Daily News Police blotter for September

More from our favorite police department - by way of Texas Monthly

September 24  
A man reported finding a driver’s license in his yard while mowing.

September 23
Criminal trespass and obscene display or distribution was reported by a woman. She said someone had been knocking on her window during the night Saturday and that she later discovered pornography in her mailbox.

September 21
An intoxicated man was seen walking around with a large knife in his pants.

September 21
Bushes were damaged Thursday.

September 16
An adult reportedly threw a block of cheese at a child Saturday.

September 15
A man was arrested on a charge of public intoxication after he was found trying to bathe himself with water on the road.

September 12  
Food items were destroyed inside a restaurant broken into overnight Tuesday.

September 9  
A complainant reported being tapped on the forehead during a verbal altercation Saturday.

September 6
A man reported finding a fist-shaped dent in his truck roof.

September 2
A mailman told Lufkin Police that he was threatened by a homeowner who threw a toy at him Saturday.