Author: Jeff

Mars images and animation

Boston.com has a bunch of Mars images from Phoenix and other recent probes:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/06/martian_skies.html

I also recently discovered that the Phoenix lander posts reports to Twitter.com. Twitter is a goofy little web service that lets people tell the world what they’re doing. Never saw the point of it until now. Here’s an example of a recent Twitter post by Phoenix:

Whoohoo! Was keeping my eye on some chunks of bright stuff & they disappeared! Sublimated! So it can’t be salt, it’s ice: http://is.gd/lFa 05:23 PM June 19, 2008 from web

Of course, it’s not really the lander itself sending the reports, but they’re fun anyway. I’ve got my Twitter account set up to send Phoenix reports to my cell phone!

Incursion by kitty

Who the heck is that?Eddie\'s all fluffed out

This orange cat has poked itself inside our house on occasion, but has never before been so bold as to start exploring the bedrooms. Eddie fluffed out his tail and howled, while Gizmo mostly just stared. It was a stalemate, so I had to encourage the alien cat to leave. At that point all I saw was a cartoon furball heading for the back door. Eddie sat on the stairs and sang a sad song, while Gizmo chased the orange cat across the alley.

Site is back up!

The site is back up and now running the latest version of WordPress. Bonus: search is now working. In fact, it’s better than before: it now searches comments as well.

You may have noticed that the site looks different. That’s because it’s using the default theme. Allegra will remedy that in the near future.

Search is busted

Yesterday I discovered that the search function on Allegra’s blog is broken.  I did some research and I’ve tried a few possible fixes, but so far no solution.  If there are any WordPress experts out there, your assistance would be appreciated.

Weird weather in Vancouver

Last night at about 8:30, Keith and I were watching Cool Hand Luke (Keith’s first time, my fifth at least) when someone outside the house fired the biggest flashbulb ever.  At least, that’s what it looked like.  Both windows in my field of vision lit up like daylight for a fraction of a second.  I had time to look quizzically at Keith, then turn back and shrug, before the thunder arrived.  We estimated that it was about four seconds after the flash; long enough for both of us to dismiss the flash as something other than lightning.  We were wrong.  The thunder was like an earthquake; the house shook violently and I felt the shaking throughout my body.  I couldn’t figure out how the thunder could be that loud if the lightning strike was so far away; Keith suggested that it had indeed been far away, but right above us.  That would explain what we observed.  Of course, what made this particularly interesting for us was that it occurred at the point in the film where – you guessed it – there was a thunderstorm.  Anyway, soon after this event, it started to snow.  And this morning, snow covers the ground.  This is going to be a weird year for weather.