Cottleston Pie

A group from my company spent today volunteering down at the Capital Area Food Bank. (And other groups were volunteering elsewhere as part of an annual "Day of Caring" event.) It was fantastic. We were doing food salvage in an assembly-line environment. I was stacking full boxes of food on the appropriate pallet and when the pallets were full, I logged the full pallet, plastic-wrapped it, and took it out into the warehouse on a pallet jack. I also did various other tasks, running stuff that needed to be moved around on pallet jacks. And I spent a chunk of time taping new flat boxes into shape. Maybe 80 of them? It was a lot.

It was a nice change of pace and I had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year. I'm glad IBM let us do it today on company time (in that way, it was a significant donation).

I well may not need to wait all the way until next year of course if I do it on my own time (there can be logistical difficulties with this, but not completely insurmountable I would guess). And my dept may do some different activity next year (we did a different activity last year and it didn't work out nearly so well). I wish the the CAFB weren't very much on the opposite side of the city.

I had the pleasure of seeing two great movies this weekend. I've spotted Out of Africa on the shelves of video rental stores for years. I finally saw it. Brilliant. The extras on the DVD are excellent as well. The film stands on its own, but stands taller when thinking about the themes: of possession, control (which cuts both ways: wanting some control of what we love and loving that which we can't control), and love (not just of and between people, but of ways of life and of continents).

I should probably write a letter and suggest it for the big screen as a summer movie classic at The Paramount. It would be great on the big screen. Even better if you've a honey, 'cause it's quite the romantic flick.

Speaking of which, I also had the joy of following that up with State and Main. Hilarious. Um, now where to I find a cute and quirky bookstore owner like that? ;-)

Destination

The Texas Flower Gardens , also known officially as the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary are the northern-most coral reefs near the U.S. They're about 105 miles directly south of the Texas/Louisiana border. The reefs sit down about 20m (65 ft) deep at their top and descend from there, with lots to see in the 20-30m (65-100 ft) depths.

NWS Forecast

GMZ080-192130-
NW GULF N OF 25N W OF 90W
INCLUDING FLOWER GARDEN BANKS NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY
1030 AM CDT FRI AUG 19 2005

*THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT
W OF 94W SE TO S WINDS 10 TO 15 KT. SEAS 2 TO 4 FT. 
E OF 94W SE TO S WINDS 10 KT OR LESS. SEAS 1 TO 2 FT. ISOLATED TSTMS.

*SAT AND SAT NIGHT
N OF 28N WINDS VARIABLE 10 KT OR LESS. SEAS 1 TO 2 FT. 
S OF 28N E TO SE WINDS 10 KT. SEAS 1 TO 2 FT.

*SUN
VARIABLE WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 1 TO 2 FT. SCATTERED TSTMS.

Pre-boarding

I arranged a trip with my local dive shop (LDS), Tom's Scuba , as part of my advanced certification training. We'd meet down in Freeport, Texas to board the M/V Fling or the M/V Spree at 8:30 pm on Friday, 19 August 2005. My instructor, MW, was also the group leader from Tom's for our group.

On Friday at 2:30 pm, I left Austin for Freeport, Texas. I didn't know how long it would take, and I didn't want to run into traffic. The boat boards at 8:30 pm, no earlier or later. I took 183 to 71 to I10 to 36. It took about 3.5 hrs to get down there. 205 miles.

I had a couple hours prior to boarding, so I parked in an empty commercial parking lot and did some reading from a dive training book I had with me. This is what I'd planned to do since I imagined that I'd be plenty early.

After some time, I had a knock on my window. The police had come to check me out. Sitting in a car reading in an empty parking lot is apparently a suspicious activity. The funny thing was when the policeman continued to seem suspicious after I said that I was reading the "Deep Diving" book in my hands, with a scuba diver on the cover, and was waiting for the boarding time to take a trip out to the Texas Flower Gardens on the M/V Fling or M/V Spree. Freeport, Texas is a small place where divers descend all the time almost year round to take these boats out to the Gardens. How weird that he looked like he didn't recognize what I was talking about. In any case, after a few more questions, he left.

As the light began to fail around 7:30 pm, I went to find the actual boats. I found them, but no sign of MW or anything that would let me identify anything as Tom's. I still didn't know what boat we were on yet. So, I sat in my car between the docks for the two boats and read some more. Closer to boarding time, I took a little walk by the boat docks and found MW who'd been wondering where I was. Uh huh.

Tom's web site did not have a link to the boat's web site which would have answered some of my questions, such as how the parking situation works. Also, I could have filled out the long Gulf Diving release/waiver forms prior to arriving.

Boarding

We were on the M/V Fling. At 8:30 pm, after a very brief intro to procedure, we boarded. First with some personal item to place upon and thus claim a bunk. I wasn't particular and got a top bunk in one of the bunk rooms amidships. There were four single-bunks in the room. Turns out, the two bottom bunks were taken by a couple other Austinites who had booked via Tom's and with whom I tended to hang out during the trip, SM and BB. The last bunk was taken by another dive leader. There were three dive leaders on board, one from each of the three shops who had booked the groups (the boats only sell spots wholesale to dive shops). On the boat, the leaders' primary duty was to do tank refills between dives.

The bunk number is one's identity on the boat. Even when or if the crew learns someone's name, on all the non-alphabetical lists of names (such as keeping track who jumped off the boat in dive gear), they want to know the bunk number.

After claiming a bunk, I loaded the rest of my gear, including claiming a tank spot. Since I was diving Nitrox , a tank rental was included with the Nitrox fee and I put my stuff by one of the Nitrox tanks.

After that, it was into the dining room to finish up the paperwork: hand in the release/waiver forms, tell them my bunk number, show them my c-card with Nitrox credential, and prove that I had a surface signaling device (aka safety sausage). I didn't know I'd need an ssd, but I had one, and had I not, they'll loan you one while holding your c-card ransom.

Underway

The boat cast off toward the gardens and we were called into the dining room for a long briefing, standing room only, so I was glad I had gotten a seat. The briefing went on at length about sea sickness and how to handle it (like: even if you don't get sick, take a 13 gal vomit containment device (aka VCD aka trash bag), in case you need to hand it to someone who needs it or protect yourself if you're on the bottom bunk). Captain Ken Bush gave the briefing. We had another captain too, but he was quite quiet. Unlike ex-school principal Captain Bush. There were two galley hands, Mike and Scott. And two divemasters, Mike and Steve.

There were 32 of us diving passengers on board. Only three of whom were women. (And all of whom were married. Though I found myself interacting with all three of them. You'll read about KW shortly. BB was a joy who also works at IBM. JB was cute, didn't smile much, and had a surprising but pleasing Mississippi accent.)

The only thing left was to go to bed and wake up at 6 am the next morning at the West Bank. Several people were already beginning to feel sick.

Saturday Pre-dive

I'm not a morning person. Getting up and ready at 6 am was tough! I did get up a bit early and managed to use the bathroom and shave then, which is good because things were a bit frantic as everyone worked to get ready as they woke up and the seas tossed us about.

The seas were not that rough, 1 to 2 feet, but enough to cause some stumbling and some people to have continued sea sickness. At some point, I heard some people saying that the movement of the ladder was as rough as they'd seen. The ladder movement was much more significant on a previous trip to Hin Daeng and Hin Mouang (Red Rock and Purple Rock) in 2003. There, my sister, dad, and I came up to find our boat rolling in 3-5 foot seas, I think. This 1-2 ft stuff was easy. I've no idea what people were talking about on this trip.

All us Nitrox users had to analyze the gas in our tanks to make sure it was as expected. Mine was a slightly rich 33+%, which is what it would be for most the fills. As we filled out the Nitrox log, I noted a similarity of names..."MW, are these your parents KW and LW?" I don't know why he hadn't mentioned it earlier. The four of us would dive as a group. My instructor MW and I as official buddies and MW's mother and father, KW and LW, as official buddies, but of course, MW kept a sharp eye on his parents. The four of us got along quite well for the whole trip.

Saturday, Dive #1

Dive #1, 2005-07-20, 7:07 am, EAN33, 24 minutes, 26.8 m max, 19.8 m avg, 30℃

The currents for the first couple dives were quite strong on the surface. The trick was to immediately swim to a "down line" (rope that crossed the path of the current from stern to where it was tied off to the mooring line about 30 ft underwater) and pull oneself along it and down under until the current had dissipated about 40 ft down. The entry was a giant stride from a deck about 5 ft about the surface of the water. It looked higher. I thought the entry was a bunch of fun. I jumped in at 7:07 am.

The lines were rough on the hands in the strong currents. We were down just 24 minutes. I didn't record gas usage, but I had plenty when we surfaced, maybe as much at 1400 lbs. (We started out with ~3000 lbs and the recreational diving guideline is to ensure one climbs up on the boat with 500 lbs. Divers tend to say "pounds" as short for "pounds per square inch" aka "psi") MW's father used his air (nitrox) pretty quickly. Both MW's parents appeared to have a inefficient bicycle kick style, plus a lot of arm usage, but his mother seemed to do better with her air. (It's been my observation generally that woman have substantially better natural air consumption without any obvious reason. My guess is they have less oxygen consuming muscle-mass. Some muscles, like upper-body muscles, just consume oxygen underwater without much contribution to the diving experience--until it's time to pull oneself up on the boat.) In any case, this short dive was an outlier. We managed to get times of 35-45 minutes on all subsequent dives.

Coming back up the down line, holding for a safety stop as we were tossed in the current, which made holding depth tricky, and then holding on extra time while waiting for a ladder line to become free did quite a job on my hands. I'd thrown my water-skiing gloves in my dive bag, just in case (the same one's that I forgot to bring to Maine this summer when I went water skiing!). I wore them for every future dive.

Hanging onto the down line in the current was also a game of dodge-the-jellyfish. I didn't know if these stung, but I didn't want to test. I learned topside that at least some of them do sting, since Mr. SM had been stung on the face. On later dives, several others suffered minor stings. It was good to be wearing a full suit (3 mil) and, on all future dives, gloves. A skin-hood would have been nice to have too, just to be extra protected, but I managed to avoid any stings in any case. The in-water temperature was 30℃ (86℉) and I was comfortable. I wore 14 lbs of lead, which was probably just a little heavy.

I had a little fun getting on the boat. A divemaster on the deck immediately wants to know: bunk number, bottom time, and max depth: #13, 24 minutes, 26.8 meters. "Huh?" "26.8 meters. 30 1/2 meters is 100 feet." I think I was the only one using meters. "Can you switch to feet?" "No." The divemaster was friendly about it. It wasn't really a problem. Just threw him for a loop -- and the other divemaster just laughed at the whole exchange.

I can switch my dive computer to use feet, but then I lose the granularity of depth control that I like. I'd learned this explicitly when I tried switching to feet while doing some limited-vis, no-top-or-bottom-reference navigation training ("flying on instruments") just that past week. Seeing my depth change per 0.1 meter (about 1/3 ft) gave me much indication when I started to drift up or down and allowed earlier and easier correction.

Underwater, the reef was mostly hard coral. There were some of those neat, colorful "Christmas tree worms" that disappear in a shell when you wave your hand near them. Of those I could identify by name, there were lots of parrot fish, large angel fish, trigger fish (but not protecting nests), butterfly fish, trunkfish, pufferfish, and barracuda. Lots of friendly barracuda, some of whom got pretty up-close and personal. :-) That was most of what was seen on all four of the day dives on Saturday, as well as various other interesting fish that I cannot name.

After all other divers were on board, two were still missing after being recorded down for a long, but not unreal, 45 minutes. The divemasters were beginning to worry a little though and starting considering that they might need to run a search. Then we noticed a dinghy coming over from the Sea Searcher II . Yep, there were three boats out there at the West Bank: M/V Fling, M/V Spree, and Sea Searcher II. And two divers came up on the wrong boat. The boat with a different parent company. The boats were not that close together. Those guys travelled some distance.

Surface Interval

There was a mandatory 2.5 hour surface interval between dives. I took a nap on every interval! People were relatively quiet and low key for all the surface time until all the diving was done and we were motoring home. Even then, people were talking more and were more animated, but it seemed naturally low-key crowd overall.

Saturday, Dive #2

Dive #2, 2005-07-20, 10:15 am, EAN33, 39 minutes, 27.4 m max, 18.3 m avg, 30℃, SI 2h43m prior

Similar to the first dives, but the seas were a bit calmer. The surface current was still strong, though not as deep, and there was a weak current on the reef itself. The current on the reef was noticeable, but not a problem.

At the end of the dive, with my gloves on, it was really fun to hang on in the fast current. Climbing out of the water, a big clump of seaweed on the surface came floating right to me. I saw some fish, so I plunged through as I reached for the boat ladder. I saw two large brown fish feeding inside the clump. It was awesome. I couldn't identify the fish.

Saturday, Dive #3

Dive #3, 2005-07-20, 2:07 pm, EAN33, 35 minutes, 21.6 m max, 16.2 m avg, 30℃, SI 3h11m prior

During lunch time, we moved over to the East Bank. It took a while and at one point we stopped a while for no discernible reason. Did we get lost? I don't know. For some reason the M/V Spree didn't come over to the East Bank. It had headed directly to Stetson Bank, where we would be Sunday. That's all the divemaster that I asked knew.

The current on the reef was stiff and this dive was quite a bit of work! I think this is the only time I surfaced with 500 lbs.

Saturday, Dive #4

Dive #4, 2005-07-20, 5:30 pm, EAN33, 42 minutes, 22.9 m max, 17.1 m avg, 30℃, SI 2h47m prior

On this dive, we were amongst the first in the water, and us being near-first was the trend for the rest the trip. The current on the reef had lightened again, allowing another more relaxed looksee. We saw a couple sea urchins in holes in the reef.

Saturday, Dive #5, Night Dive

Dive #5, 2005-07-20, 8:52 pm, EAN32, 43 minutes, 21.6 m max, 17.1 m avg, 30℃, SI 2h37m prior

Armed with my new dive light, a backup in my pocket, and a chemical glow-stick on my tank, my crew and I descended. Pulling myself along the down line while holding the light proved tricky. I turned it off for a bit so I could let it dangle on its lanyard from my wrist without spinning around and shining light in others eyes.

The reef was much more visibly alive. The hard coral opened up and waved their little tentacles about in the water. The coral bottom was covered by all kinds of little hermit crabs in colorful little shells. There were pink translucent shrimp, small and large. The shrimp eyes glowed bright red as they reflected my light back. I saw a small crab, with a diameter a bit bigger than a quarter. I also saw a big crab that was maybe 15 cm (6 in) in diameter. I saw a big lobster that scuttled back to where I couldn't see or follow, but it wasn't big enough for him to completely hide and the front of his face peeked out with his large antennae waving around. I also spotted a long fuzzy-looking worm-like-thing. It looked a bit like a Christmas Tree Worm but was at least several inches long (the ends weren't visible) and was black and gray. The urchins that we saw earlier were out and about.

After this dive, I wandered for a bit to the top sun deck (moon deck?) for a short bit where MW, his parents, and a few others were all talking. And then I descended to sleep.

Sunday, Dive #6

Dive #6, 2005-07-21, 6:54 am, EAN33, 33 minutes, 28.7 m max, 18.9 m avg, 29℃, SI 9h18m prior

Overnight, the boat moved to Stetson Bank.

Sunday morning turned out a bit crazy. I got up just a couple minutes before a divemaster came below yelling, "Everybody up! Dive briefing at 6:45!" I went to analyze my now-full Nitrox tank and discovered...24%! Not good. I analyzed someone else's: 33%. The analyzer was working. Someone had refilled my partially empty Nitrox tank with air! (Air is ~20.9%) That's why we use the analyzer. Not a problem except that there was so little time to get ready. Fortunately, a full, extra Nitrox tank was available so I was able to swap my gear to the new tank without waiting for a drain and then a fill, which would have taken a long time. It took long enough what with discovering and handling the problem and then moving my equipment onto the new tank. Remember, my group was moving to get down early.

The plan was just to do two morning dives on Sunday, and things were hectic enough, so I skipped a shave. I also noticed during those two dives that my mask was leaking much more than ever before. Oops. I don't think that that was a coincidence. I'll have to keep that in mind for future dive trips.

Stetson doesn't have as much coral, but had some nice, different sea life. We saw a large spotted moray eel, maybe a meter or so long, both free-swimming along the bottom and also in a hole. We also saw a cute small one of the same in a hole right near where the boat's mooring anchor (the Garden sites have large, implanted U bolts for permanent moorings).

Sunday, Dive #7

Dive #7, 2005-07-21, 10:02 am, EAN33, 45 minutes, 29.3 m max, 20.4 m avg, 29℃, SI 2h34m prior

Last dive of the trip. There was now a bit of a current that took some effort to overcome. I saw a good size scorpion fish. For this dive, LW and KW went up a bit earlier than MW and I who continued until I indicated we should go back because of my own air. I thought we'd be swimming back against the current for a short bit back to the mooring U bolt. MW started ascending almost in place. The boat was right above us!

Home Again

We motored back and arrived at the dock a short bit before 6 pm. I unloaded my stuff into my car and drove home: 3.5 hrs, 205 miles, with just one brief stop for some red beans and rice at Pop-Eyes for a dinner that couldn't be beat.

Final thoughts

I definitely don't need to pack as much. I brought a lot of stuff that never left my bag. I didn't get to see any mantas, spotted eagle rays, turtles, or any sharks at all (not to mention whale sharks)! I know people see such things at the Gardens, so that just means I've probably another trip in my future.

I don't have an underwater camera. Thanks to Dave Read who let me use his excellent Flower Gardens photographs for this report.

Oh no!

It's like this:

• I'm awfully fond of New Orleans.
• I read "Drowning New Orleans" in the October 2001 issue of Scientific American. The Table of Contents reads, "A major hurricane could swamp the city under 20 feet of water, killing thousands." The article described the vulnerability of New Orleans in no uncertain terms. One direct hit by a slow, strong hurricane could be devastating. I don't have the article readily available, but I remember thinking, "Atlantis." It made quite an impact on me.

  (Article summary from SciAm's web site.)

  THE BOXES are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."

  New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh-an area the size of Manhattan-will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one million people inside and another million in surrounding communities. Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would cut off the few escape routes. Scientists at Louisiana State University (L.S.U.), who have modeled hundreds of possible storm tracks on advanced computers, predict that more than 100,000 people could die. The body bags wouldn't go very far.

  (hide)

• I read AP article "Hurricane Katrina Gains Strength as It Heads for Gulf Coast" (no longer available online) and I see the map below.
• Therefore: I'm anxious. :-(

Update 2005-08-28, noon: I've now been tipped off that Katrina has moved from a Category 3 to a Category 5 with 160 mph sustained wind (that AP article on the NYT site that I linked above keeps changing). And my "strike-probabily" graphic above has been updated:

Update 2005-08-28, 5 pm : Mandatory Evacuation Ordered for New Orleans as Storm Nears . Unfortunately, if the sea floods the NO basin, it won't drain on its own. The article makes an interesting point about how critical the region is to our supply of imported oil.

Update 2005-08-29, 10:30 am : I'd been wondering how the Superdome would stand up to being used as a storm shelter. While presumably designed to withstand a lot with minimal damage to itself, it wasn't designed to be a shelter. This AP article gives some details about how it's all working out: Superdome's Roof Is Peeled Away in 2 Places (this AP article keeps changing too). Sounds pretty good so far. Pretty impressive that they cannot hear the howling winds inside the structure.

Bonny fortune for the city: Slight Shift Prompts Hopes That New Orleans May Avoid Worst

It has begun: High Winds and Rain Lash New Orleans and Southern Mississippi .

Update 2005-08-30, 11:30 pm : Needless to say that I'm happy the storm veered east of NO. Had if veered west, given the way it was spinning, the damage would have been so much worse than it was. New Orleans Escapes Direct Hit, but Most of City Is Inundated

Of course, the city has courted disaster: After Centuries of 'Controlling' Land, Gulf Learns Who's the Boss. And every year the protection of the delta, such as it is, continues to decline. (I think coastal erosion is a fascinating topic; one of my favorite lectures at Uni was a guest lecture about that topic by Orrin H. Pilkey .)

Not unrelatedly, I found it hilarious to read a quote in one article of a New York visitor to NO who was amazed at the looting he saw. He thought that NO was a "classy city." No, no. NO is a mixed, but significantly poor, improvised free-for-all built on a swamp. Much like NYC actually, but with less money and ambition (which, the current storm notwithstanding, is not to imply any less success).

In Austin, the Red Cross is setting up some additional shelter. Refugees of the storm can't afford to continue to stay in hotels.

Update 2005-08-31, 11:30 am : As the news relates, the relief of yesterday was premature. The delicate infrastructure of the levy system sprung leaks and waters are rising again. Surviving the Maelstrom Was Only the Beginning for Some

The refugees in the Superdome are being transported by 475 busses to the Houston Astrodome where they maybe be able to camp out until December or later! Wow. Bus Convoy to Move Thousands From Superdome to Astrodome . Naturally our imbecilic Texas Gov. has a couple quotes which I find embarrassing.

Update 2005-09-01, 10:00 pm : It's a horror. When traffic is decent and the roads intact, the distance from my house to Metairie is only, exactly, 500 miles. 8 hours. So, I've this feeling of being so close. Yet so far. Except for rising gas prices, I've seen no real impact.

For the first time, I gave directly to the Red Cross. If you're reading this, then I imagine that you're a friend or family and can probably afford at least a $25 donation to the Red Cross . Let me encourage that, less than a dinner for two at a moderately priced restaurant. I'm under no illusions about the reality and limits of caring. My own. I did donate. But not all my savings. In a way, that would be irresponsible to do, poor planning just as NO itself was rendered so vulnerable by decades of poor planning.

Today I saw President Bush say on film, "I don't think anybody anticipated breach of the levies." Bush might not think so. But he might just not think very well or very kindly. Many have anticipated the breach in the not-unlikely event of a hurricane. Louisiana Senators on the news have said how they have given speeches on the floor year after year asking for money for the levies and related infrastructure. It was never enough of a priority to receive financing. So, the country gambled. And lost. It will cost more now to repair than it would have cost to maintain.

I have not personally checked the congressional record to verify the Senators' statements (is it available online? would anyone care if it were proven true?), but I'm inclined to believe them. Certainly the hurricane researchers at LSU have been warning about the city's continuously increasing vulnerability. There's plenty of reason to vote no-confidence in Bush, but I won't dwell on his inadequacies.

It's worth noting that a cat-5 hurricane did not hit the coast. And the cat-4 hurricane veered east (not west, huge difference) such that it did not make a direct hit with NO. The danger is not over and done with.

Update 2005-09-02, 12:30 am : It's neat to see that UTexas and other universities and law schools are making offerings to Tulane, Loyola, and other university students whose home institutions are shut down for some indefinite time by Katrina.

Update 2005-09-02, 7:00 pm : The magnitude of the disaster was no surprise to many of us (the President proclamation otherwise notwithstanding). As the NYT editors point out, there's plenty of evidence that, to some degree, this was a Man-Made Disaster . Also in the Times today, Krugman asks some interesting questions about our government's priorities, not the ones professed, but the ones we see in action.

Of course, lest y'all think I've only got my nose stuck in the NYT, there's plenty of good conversation going on by smart law profs at The Volokh Conspiracy. And other news sources appear to corroborate what I'm reading in the Times. But most of these Times web links, the ones that aren't to AP articles anyway, are such that they should remain stable. Something I don't trust will be true about most online sources.

Awesome: the author of the 2001 SciAm article wrote an op-ed which appeared in the NYTimes today: They Saw It Coming, by Mark Fischetti. I highly recommend it.

Since early August, my Internet connection speed via my cable modem seemed very poor. It seemed to start about the same time as some severe, highly electrical thunderstorms rolled through the area. They did knock-out cable modem connectivity several times.

Using Broadband Reports speed test , I could see that my qualitative assessment of "poor" was quantitatively true! My upload speeds, slow as they were, were even faster than my download speeds. A very clear indication that something was very wrong. I got a cable tech out this morning and much was fixed.

Here's how I started the morning. It was actually a pretty fast connection compared to some I've had lately:

I've had some readings in the the "Ugh" area in the past month. Download speeds slower than a telephone modem.

The cable tech measured some sort of reflectivity measure at 55%, which was too high. We couldn't find the internal wall plate with the splitter for the three connections inside my apartment, but he was able to make adjustments at a box outside and bring it down to a good 50%. 53% is as high as is acceptable.

A new speed test showed mixed results, download was now faster than upload, but both were still tellingly low:

A "page of pings" ping test to Yahoo, showed 2% packet loss. Not horrible, but not good. Any packet-loss at all can cause significant slowdowns as protocols ratchet back into conservative modes of operation.

He had a new modem with him. The one I had was that I got originally a few years ago. He said it was "first generation." The one he had with him was "third generation." It was small and very light-weight, but otherwise similar. So we swapped them out. That was it:

Now I'm back in business! The upload looks "slow," but that's only because the download is so fast. Another ping test reveals no packet loss at all.

Heidi has some good non-advice about interviewing that struck me as useful since I've some friends looking for jobs recently and thinking about resumes and interviews.

While none of my friends were law students looking for internships, a lot of the advice probably carries over.

For myself, similar to Heidi's Florida State issue, when I graduated from Duke, all my interviewers used to think that asking about basketball would be a great idea. It wasn't. (Though I've a healthy pedigree of Duke fandom to call up should the need arise. I did it all for the fun social aspects while I was there and I wasn't really interested with what went on on the court per se.) Yes, I think I've had a number of time-spending interviewers like she describes.

That's what I was thinking anyway, until I thought about if someone were to interview with me. :-) I had an opportunity to interview a couple people a few years ago, and rather enjoyed it. And as interviewer, I'm little interested in what an interviewee has as personal interests that don't impact their potential job performance.

At an interview, I like to focus on how he or she would go about solving problems and communicates. And I'd probably ask hard questions that might make him think I was out to trick him into showing weakness or giving an incorrect answer. And that paranoia might lead you to do the exact opposite of what I'd like.

If I were to ask hard question, I'd rather hear about how you'd go find the answer than have a half-baked answer pulled from your head. I might not even know the answer to questions I ask. I just have some idea how to find them.

And for programming related work, I'd probably test that you won't be reinventing the wheel. If I ask about sorting data, I don't want to hear how you'd code a sorter. I want to hear about how you'll use one that's already available. Life is too short and the need to sort data too common to continually re-invent it. A discussion of the tradeoffs of various algorithms might be interesting though, not because of how it relates to sorting, but because it speaks to how you think about tradeoffs. Engineering is continually about tradeoffs.

That all said, I might be an exception. And for those of you familiar with the DISC profiles, my approach is that of a someone with high D and C tendencies.

Thanks to LH on the last ski trip, I had the good fortune to try "Chinaco" brand tequila, the "Anejo" aged grade. It was night-and-day from anything I'd had before, which is to say that it tasted amazingly good straight-up.

I have two new suits that I had tailored in Vietnam. Because of the color of one suit, my black dress shoes were not going to cut it. So, the evening before flying to a friends wedding where I would wear the suit, I needed to obtain new, appropriate shoes.

Stores were closing so I had to move relatively quickly. First DSW Warehouse, right around the corner from my apt, where I picked up Cole Haan shoes, like those shown below. Then at Foley's at the Highland Mall, I grabbed a pair of Bostonian "Phoenix" shoes, also shown below.

The Bostonian are definitely a bit more comfortable (immediately anyway; without any break-in), and I like the cut of the leather a bit more (the Haan has a stitch right in the front of the toe which I don't like as much). However, the Bostonian also have a horrible non-slip sole -- horrible to my mind because it works and that's bad for dancing. All leather sole is what I want. The Haan have all-leather sole (well, except a bit on the heel). Also, the Haan are a mahogany and the Bostonian are more brown. The mahogany looks better against the fabric of my light suit (they look a bit more reddish in real life than the picture below seems to me). So, Haan it'll be. I'll return the Bostonian when I get back. Looking at prices on the web, looks like I did get quite a good deal at DSW.

All the shoes that I tried that were pre-laced are laced incorrectly with criss-cross lacing. They are supposed to have some sort of straight lacing. Gotta find a web site that tells me how to do that. ... Found one, very interesting. By the same guy, Ian, who taught me how to tie my sneakers. Yay it works! Shucks...I have to be up in hours for my 6 am flight.

UPDATE (2005-08-06): The Cole Haan shoes were excellent. Once during a fast swing, Zuit Suit Riot at my request, I almost landed on my ass because the new leather soles were slick on the dance floor, but I kept my feet. The Cole Haan styling is growing on me too.

Cole Haan "Calhoun" (Style # C00590).
Dress oxford in finest hand-finished leather. Fully leather lined. Waxed and buffed leather sole with leather/rubber heel. Mahogany. Shoedini (multi-side-view)

Phoenix (Florentine First/Flex) (model no. 50464)
Shoedini (multi-side-view)

Turns out hanging fuzzy dice and Mardi Gras beads from your rearview mirror is illegal in Minnesota.

169.71 Windshield.

Subdivision 1. Prohibitions generally. No person shall drive or operate any motor vehicle with a windshield cracked or discolored to an extent to limit or obstruct proper vision, or, except for law enforcement vehicles, with any objects suspended between the driver and the windshield, other than sun visors and rear vision mirrors, or with any sign, poster, or other nontransparent material upon the front windshield, sidewings, side or rear windows of such vehicle, other than a certificate or other paper required to be so displayed by law, or authorized by the state director of the Division of Emergency Management, or the commissioner of public safety.

Source: Minnesota Statutes 2004, 169.71

Neat detail by a Bulverde, TX man (Bulverde being a bit north of San Antonio and south of Wimberley & Austin) about a rainwater collection system. Click on "Rainwater Collection" on his website. He made a schematic of the system and has charts detailing the reserve of his system versus the Central Texas rainfall that he has experienced for the past several years.

The purpose of the "roof washer" wasn't obvious to me, but I found a description in this Harvested Rainwater documentation:

A primary strategy is to reject the first wash of water over the roof. The first rainfall will clean away any contaminants and is achieved by using a "roof washer."

The main function of the roof washer is to isolate and reject the first water that has fallen on the roof after rain has begun and then direct the rest of the water to the cistern. Ten gallons of rainfall per thousand square feet of roof area is considered an acceptable amount for washing. Roof washers are commercially available and afford reliability, durability, and minimal maintenance to this function.

The Texas Water Development Board also has information . And the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has a expansive and beautiful rainwater collection system (of which I'm an enthusiastic fan, as some who've visited the center with me have witnessed).