Joey Gibson’s Blog

I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I mean love. Love, as in, if they were alive, I’d marry them. Love, as in, if I were on a desert island and a plane flew overhead and accidentally dropped something, I’d wish it to be a dozen or so Krispy Kremes. Thomas and I both refer to our local Krispy Kreme store as “Casa del Sugar Coma.”

I also love hamburgers. With cheese, preferably Swiss. Chili’s has a really good burger.

But never, ever, in my wildest, weirdest dreams, would I want to combine them. Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a cheeseburger. Ugh. But apparently the people at Google thought that was a good thing. I hope the plate they put those on has the phone number of a local cardiologist enscribed on it. Eaters of those things are going to need one.

I’ve been using Bloglines.com for feed reading for a few years now. I had tried Google Reader before, but I was quite happy with Bloglines, so I never switched. I’ve actually been using beta.bloglines.com, their beta site, ever since they made it public. But lately Bloglines has seemed really slow. Clicking on a feed resulted in a multiple second wait before the headlines showed up in the list. That may not sound like a long time, but it really is. And sometimes, clicking on a feed resulted in… nothing. The “working” indicator never went off and I never got headlines. Re-clicking the feed might work, but then the headlines had already been marked as read, so they didn’t show up without an extra click. Sometimes reloading the page was what was called for.

Another annoyance was that they kept rearranging the order of my feed folders. I am meticulous about organizing bookmarks and feeds; I have them categorized into folders, and those folders are in alphabetical order in the feed list. And Bloglines keeps moving them around, maybe once every two weeks, for no good reason. Very annoying, indeed.

So the other day I decided to give Google Reader another try. I exported all my subscriptions from Bloglines and imported them into Google Reader. Thus far, I’m quite happy. The response time is snappy and I like the fact that I can share things from my feeds into a public list which is available here and that can feed into my FriendFeed feed. I’m going to keep using Google Reader, and while I will check back in on Bloglines occasionally, it looks like I may have found a new feed reader.

Below is a screencap of what part of my WordPress 2.6.1 admin page looks like when I view it using Firefox 3.0.1 on Leopard.

If you click on it to view it better, you’ll see the problem. The stats graph is shifted about 200 pixels to the right and about 150 pixels down. On Safari it looks perfect, but not on Firefox. This doesn’t happen with Firefox on Windows, so it’s some sort of quirk with the Mac version.

Has anyone else seen this, and do you have any suggestions?

Ever since upgrading my iPhone to 2.0.2 last week, I had noticed a marked drain on my battery. I don’t use my phone that much, so it surprised me that the battery was going down as fast as it was. I never let it get fully drained, but it would easily have lost its full charge over three days, which is unusual for me.

What I forgot was that after installing 2.0.2 I also setup a mail account on the phone to my company’s Exchange server. The problem was that even though I had “Push” turned off in the “Fetch New Data” section of Settings, when I added the Exchange server, it defaulted to “Push.” Once I discovered this, turned “Push” off and told it to fetch every hour, my battery life is right back where it has always been.

So, if you’re losing battery life faster than you expected, check your “Push” settings, not just in the Settings tool, but for each email account you have setup.

Chloe’s been gone for three days now and I keep getting hit by reminders of her. I keep walking into various rooms of the house, expecting her to be there and then realizing that she can’t be. I look out in the back yard and know that she’ll never run and bark there again. About five minutes ago I opened a cabinet in the kitchen and saw the bag of dog treats, and now I’m sitting here fighting back tears. 

Damn, this is hard.

Chloe Gibson, 1993 - 2008

Back in 1993 Tammy and I went to PetSmart one day to get some cat food. As we walked in, we noticed that they were doing dog adoptions, so we decided to go over and have a look. We were just looking. They had several cute dogs who all needed a home, but we already had two cats and that was enough. Until I came to the last crate. In it was a small, black Terrier-ish dog with big, brown eyes and an enormous pink bow around her neck. I opened the crate, just to pet her, and when I did, she literally lept into my arms and started licking my face. After a few seconds of this, I turned to look at Tammy through the glass; she was already filling out the adoption paperwork. 

As we talked to the people there (from Friends of Animals, BTW) it turned out that this dog was not supposed to be there that day. Some monster had slowed down on Hwy. 78 (7 lanes) and tossed this beautiful 6 month-old puppy out into traffic. Luckily, some other motorist saw what happened and was able to pick her up before she got hit. This person took her to PetSmart and the FoA people took her. That’s how we ended up with her. 

She was one of the sweetest creatures I’ve ever met. 

About six weeks ago, our vet diagnosed her with cancer. Her lymph nodes around her throat were expanding, and he told us that she had a month, maybe two, at the most. He gave us prednezone to help with the pain, but as old as she was, chemotherapy would most likely kill her. He said to just keep her comfortable.

She did OK for a while, but the last week or so, we could tell the end was near. Her tail didn’t wag as much, she didn’t always eat, and her breathing was getting more labored. Her nodes were so swollen that it felt like she had a bag of marbles under her throat. Getting her to take a pill was always hard, but it was doubly so now. When we could get the pills into her, she would generally have a good day, but not always. Tuesday, she had a great day. She actually played in the yard, nom-nomed her food like nobody’s business,  and generally seemed happy. But yesterday, we knew.

Or rather, we thought. It’s really hard to know when it’s time for that final trip to the vet.

Her breathing had been getting worse all day. She wasn’t resting. She would either walk around, or just stand, with her head pointing up, to make it easier to breathe. Last night around 10:30, Tammy and I talked about what to do, with Chloe just lying there, not really paying attention. She alternated between looking scared and looking totally out of it. We decided it was time.

I called Thomas into the room and told him that I had to take Chloe to the vet, and that she probably wasn’t going to be coming home. Understandably, he didn’t take it well. He’s had three cats, two fish and a snail die on him, and he wasn’t ready to have Chloe leave him, too. After he and Tammy were done saying goodbye, as done as they could be, I bundled Chloe up and took her to the emergency vet. 

After examining her for a couple of minutes, the vet told me that Chloe’s chest was full of fluid and that I probably knew what the answer was. I agreed, sadly, and ten minutes later our Chloe left us.

I believe that she is running, barking and chasing other dogs, cats and bunnies right now, in perfect health and happiness. I believe that after leaving my arms, she was soon met by our cats Nikki, Lukie and Abby, and that they are swapping slobber and stories and once again having a grand old time together. Thomas believes that, too, though it’s little consolation to him right now.

Goodbye, Chloe. We love you.

I was looking through my web stats this morning and I noticed that I had a link from cuil.com, the latest in a long string of supposed “Google Killers.” I clicked on the link, http://www.cuil.com/search?q=”dr horrible” and was quite surprised to get the results shown here

You probably can’t tell from the small version, so click on it for a larger version. Notice that on a search for “dr horrible,” instead of getting drhorrible.com, as you should, you get me. Twice, in fact; two different blog postings I wrote about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog. That’s right. According to cuil.com, I am the best match for “dr horrible.” WTF? There have been lots of sightings of bogus results from cuil, but I was really surprised to find one featuring me.

Since I was already at cuil.com, I decided to egosurf and see if they had fixed their results for my name. Nope. Searching for me at Google returns a mostly-correct set of results. There are two link in there about the former Playboy playmate who shares my name, but all the rest of the front page results are about me.

About 15 minutes ago I parked my car in the parking lot of my office, which is in North Atlanta, near Perimeter Mall. As I was walking across the lot toward the building, I saw something move, out of the corner of my eye. I turned, expecting to see a goose or maybe a cat. But it was a fox! A beautiful, grey fox, about two feet tall at the shoulder. It quickly ran into the bushes, and then something else caught my eye. I turned to look where the fox had come from, and there was another one. This one was smaller, maybe a foot and a half high, just as beautiful. It was probably a juvenile, probably the first fox’s child. I tried to get out my iPhone to take a picture, but the sound of the velcro on the holster spooked the child, and he darted back into the bushes.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a fox that wasn’t in a zoo, and I certainly didn’t expect to see one in such a busy area. I really wish I could have gotten some photos.

I just received an email from Apple regarding MobileMe. Here’s what it said

We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users’ patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around.

It’s good to see the bit in there about this launch not being their “finest hour.” That shows that they recognize how bad this rollout has been. But they better solve it soon or they’ll be giving everyone a free year. We’re already up to 90 days of free service.

I really like MobileMe, though the only part of it that I really use is syncing bookmarks and stuff between my Mac Pro and iBook. I tried to setup the Outlook integration on my Windows laptop the other day, but it didn’t seem to actually do anything. I guess that’s part of what’s broken with the service, maybe.

I didn’t see this when it aired, but I caught it on one of those “most outrageous” clip shows. It’s now one of my favorites.

I used to love watching the original Japanese show Iron Chef and I’ve come to like Iron Chef America. I love Alton Brown and frequent judge, Ted Allen. But there are three things that really annoy me about this show, and it would be far better if they would fix them. 

1. Teach Kevin Brausch how to say “kon ban wa.” It’s not “kan ben wa,” as Kevin says it. It’s not that hard to say properly.
2. Get rid of that idiot who plays “The Chairman.” Chairman Kaga on the original show was somewhat dignified. This guy is a total cornball.
3. Lose the cheesy kung-fu sound effects when the Chairman turns his head, moves his arm, etc.

To be honest, I think they should get rid of the whole show mythology and just make it a cooking competition. Making this chairman the supposed nephew of Chairman Kaga was a reasonable device to introduce the show to America, but it’s time to get rid of it. Especially that campy idiot who plays him. (Yes, I know, I mentioned that twice.)

In church this morning I was listening to the minister read from Romans, when all of a sudden I hear him say “… and Paul wanted to go to Spain.” Wha-huh? Maybe I just haven’t paid attention before, but I have never heard this. When I think about places in the Bible, most of them are in the Mediterranean area, the Middle East, or Northern Africa. Think about it: lots of things happen in Israel, Rome, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, etc. Spain is on the Mediterranean, but it’s a very long way from most of the regular “Bible places.” Take a look at this really good map of Paul’s journeys and you’ll see just how far West we know Paul made it: Rome. That’s just a little over half-way to Spain from Israel. Just sort of eyeballing a Google map of the region, it looks like about 2,000 miles by boat from Jerusalem to Barcelona which, at that time, would take a very long time to cross.

But sure enough, in Romans 15:24 - 28, Paul says 

I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

I had never noticed that before. It is not known if Paul ever made it to Spain or not. The apocryphal book of I Clement makes reference to Paul “having reached the farthest bounds of the West,” which some scholars speculate could mean Spain, since that is certainly as far West as could have been known at that time. There is also speculation that not only did he make it, but he stayed there for nearly two years, before heading to Asia Minor. Of course, there’s no way of knowing for sure.

Why has this piqued my interest so? I think it’s because it was so unexpected. You sort of get into, not a rut, but a pattern of expectation when dealing with the Bible. At least, I do. So when something comes along to shake that pattern, it’s very interesting. The only problem now is that there’s really no more information to be had about Paul and Spain.

The New York Times has a slideshow today of gorgeous old cars called When General Motors Was Dreaming. Some of the cars were just prototypes, but some were production. And all of them had beautiful angles and style. Most cars on the road today are almost identical to every other car. My friend Fred says they all look like “melted Hershey bars” which is just about true.

I still have this dream that one day I’ll buy a car from the 50’s. That was the true golden age of American automobiles.

I have. Last night. I bought a bunch of “fingerling” potatoes and when I sliced the dark-skinned ones, they were purple on the inside.

Unfortunately they had a really funky flavor that just didn’t work with the olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper I put on them before roasting them. They were pretty, but not very tasty.

I was wrong about Pokey the snail. He died today.

I ran ammonia and Ph tests on the tank water and was shocked by the results. The ammonia test was off the charts. The Ph was also out of whack. I took the filter housing off and scrubbed it with an old toothbrush because it had some slimy gunk in it. I also changed the filter and added some drops that are supposed to help. I put about two gallons of fresh water in a bucket and put the de-chlorinator in it, so tomorrow night I will replace some of the water in the tank. After this, we’ll be testing the water weekly to make sure this doesn’t happen again. 

Keeping fish is sure a lot of damn work.

As I mentioned two days ago, we had a goldfish die, buried him at sea, and then bought another fish and a snail to keep the remaining fish company. As Tuesday wore on, the new fish, Speedy, wasn’t looking so hot. He was hanging out near the bottom and just not doing much besides breathing, or whatever you call what fish do for oxygen. We took him out and put him in a bowl of water, just in case there was something in the tank that was affecting him. 

This morning, I went in to check on him.

And found him floating. Damn.

Fortunately, we’d been preparing Thomas yesterday that things may not go well, so he was somewhat prepared. It hasn’t affected him the way Fred’s passing did. And for that I’m grateful. We buried Speedy at sea, just like we did Fred.

I’m happy to report that Pokey the snail seems to be in fine form, as does our older fish, Rocky.

I went to the pet shop today and got some tests to run on the water to see if we have an ammonia or Ph problem, which I’ll be running tomorrow. We need to find out for certain if there’s something up with our tank water before we get another fish.

I’ve watched quite a bit of the Olympics so far, and I continue to be amazed at how Michael Phelps keeps racking up the medals. I just watched him win the semi-final of the 200 Meter Individual Medley. He was in 2nd-ish place for the first three laps, but when he touched for the last time, he absolutely exploded into the lead and never lost it. 

After Phelps’ semi-final, fellow USA team member Ryan Lochte won his semi-final. And he beat Phelps’ time by 1 100th of a second. Wow. It’s going to be an interesting final.

We have a Dyson vacuum, and it sucks. In both bad and good ways. On the good side, it has better suction, with a far fuller tank, than any vacuum I’ve ever used. It’s also fairly light and easy to push around. 

On the negative side, if you should ever happen to go against the nap of the carpet, it makes the most horrible noise. In fact, this is not our first Dyson. I took the first one back when I heard that noise. But apparently that’s “normal” for these vacuums. You’d think that for as much as the damned thing cost, it wouldn’t do that. We’ve had a host of cheapo vacuums in the past that never made noises like this, and they cost hundreds of dollars less than the Dyson. But, they didn’t last all that long, either.

So we’re watching Project Runway (don’t ask) and the designers only have 5 minutes left. Tim Gunn walks in and says

Designers! Five Minutes! And some of you are still sewing? Question Mark!

I laughed out loud at that. And of course, the way Tim says it, with his “gay lilt,” it’s far funnier than if someone else had said it.

For Christmas, my sister-in-law gave my son two goldfish. Without asking us. Needless to say I was not happy about this, but he had them before we knew what was going on. Anyway, he’s been very happy with the fish and has been feeding them the right amount, and talking to them and making sure they were happy. All the nasty work, such as changing the filter, was handled by me.

So this morning, as I’m getting ready to leave the house, Thomas calls out “Dad! Fred’s stuck in the plants!” There are several decorative items in the aquarium and as I looked, I could see that Fred was indeed caught in one of the plants. And he wasn’t moving. I took the little net and tried to get him out. After he was free, he floated to the surface.

Graveyard dead.

Oh. Crap.

Thomas’ first question broke my heart: “What did I do wrong?” I tried to tell him that it was nothing he did. He did everything right. But sometimes, for reasons we can’t understand, things just die. We then explained the “traditional” method of burying fish: flushing them down the toilet. Tammy said a few words and then we committed Fred’s body to the deep.

I talked to him a little while ago, and he’s doing OK. They went to the pet store and got another fish, a fantail he named Speedy, and a snail, named Pokey. These two new additions will keep Rocky from getting lonely.

And I hope they stay alive for a long time… Please, O please, O please let them stay alive.