We enjoyed our first batch of cherry tomatoes with dinner Friday night, courtesy of our fast-forwarded tomato plants. Travis and I picked another five from our plants this morning and we enjoyed them for lunch!
Our plants have grown so massive that I’m kicking myself for not spreading them farther apart. It’s tough getting to all the goods!
I noticed Friday that we had the first week in a long while in which it didn’t rain. Our spring and early summer has seemingly had rain every 4-7 days but last week was dry. I was missing that smug feeling I expected to have with a large rain barrel (“Lake Turner”) of rainwater that I haven’t tapped since September and another 40 gallons in a separate container. We’ve also been adding the water we run through the pipes before our shower gets hot and also water we collect from the air conditioning condensation, so there’s been no shortage of water.
Now that we’re into the second half of summer we’ll see if this water becomes necessary. I’m going to hook the rain barrel up to a timer again so that my tomato plants get regular water, but I don’t expect my plants to put a big dent in the supply.
I was pondering Independence Day as the Fourth of July is this week. I was thinking how we celebrate our independence on the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, even though independence wasn’t actually won until the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.
Reading up on this, I hadn’t before appreciated the role that North Carolina played in independence. Continue reading
After fighting to keep North Carolina from becoming a broadband backwater, this particularly galls me. The North Carolina General Assembly is pushing a finance bill that would tax online retailers. Rather than pay a tax in a state where it has no presence, Amazon simply pulled the plug on its affiliate program for North Carolina residents. So rather than doing something positive for the state, the attempt to tax companies like Amazon has actually hurt North Carolina small businesses that depend on those referrals by cutting off access to that income.
This outcome is not surprising. Tax a company with no presence or investment in the state and that company has little to keep it from pulling the plug on serving that state. That hurts our citizens more than it does the companies targeted, and that’s just plain dumb.
I sure would like to see a smarter approach by the legislature towards technology and the Internet. Those who regulate technology should at least make an attempt to understand it.
UNC TV has posted an online video explaining its tower situation and why its DTV transition didn’t go smoothly. It turns out when Congress delayed the original February cutover date WUNC lost its commitment with its tower crew. Therefore it will have to wait until the crew can get back around to switching antennas off its Chatham county tower.
Update 23 Aug 2009: UNC is now back at full power!
My friend Janet sent me a link to this 8-foot-tall Donkey Kong that Gamil Design created outside the Designbox offices in downtown Raleigh. It rocks!
Two 70s icons checked out today. Farrah Fawcett, sex symbol and actress, succumbed to cancer this morning at the age of 62. Before anyone could properly mourn her, news came that Michael Jackson had also died – heart attack at the age of 52.
Around 1979, these two among the most famous celebrities ever. Farrah as a pinup and Charlie’s Angels actress, and Michael for his never-ending string of hit singles. When I was ten it seemed that every boy on the block had a Farrah poster and a Michael Jackson album.
It seems that when your childhood icons pass away a little part of you goes with them.
Anyone not see this coming?
Favorite Tweet: “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and a hot Argentine chick.” – Mark Sanford.
Kodachrome will be no more. Check out some reminiscences, the Kodachrome Project and Kodak’s Kodachrome Sildeshow.
Kodachrome (YouTube)
Paul Simon
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall
Kodachrome
You give us those nice bright colors
You give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah!
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away
Continue reading
NASA launched the first lunar mission in over a decade last week. The LRO and LCROSS shared the same rocket launch of June 18th to begin their missions of mapping and probing the moon in support of future lunar missions. Though their missions began the same way, each will end quite differently. LRO go into lunar orbit, producing high-resolution maps for use as potential landing spots. LCROSS will have a more abrupt finish: slamming kamikaze-style into a dark lunar crater in hopes of kicking up signs of water ice.
The missions are due to reach the moon tomorrow morning at 5:43 AM EDT. If you’d like to follow along, you can check out NASA’s moon mission blog.
