He’s so dreamy!

I’ve had a little audio project I’ve been working on which could only be rescued by an old copy of Cool Edit I have. I am a Linux-head by nature, but the audio drivers in Fedora gave me nothing but a 60Hz buzz when I tried recording. Thus, whatever I had to do, had to be done in Windows. And that’s where Cool Edit comes in.

Way back when, CE was shareware. I normally steer clear of shareware, because its usually “crippleware” too. CE was different. Though the free version had some features restricted, it let you pick which ones. Kind of nice. When I paid them money to register my Cool Edit 96, I could honestly say it was the best software bargain I’d ever seen.

Then one day Adobe was looking for an audio suite to buy. Somehow, they wound up buying Syntrillium. Overnight, the name changed to Adobe Audition and the price went through the roof. In short, Adobe seriously messed up a good thing.

I’m wishing now that I had purchased a copy of Cool Edit Pro back when the getting was good. Now that Adobe has gobbled it up, I don’t feel like giving them any of my money.

As we were heading out yesterday afternoon, Kelly looked up and said “it smells like its gonna snow.”

I rolled my eyes. That’s ridiculous! “Smell snow?” Come on!

“Honey, it’s too warm to snow,” I scoffed. Besides, I hadn’t heard it mentioned on any of my weather sources.

Imagine my surprise this morning when she looked out and gleefully announced “I see snowflakes!!”

It smells like I’m eating crow.

One benefit to living on the farthest side of town from your office is that everything’s on the way.

Now that Mark Pilgrim isn’t blogging anymore, I wonder if I could steal his number one Google rank for a search on Mark.

Come on, Mark. Help a brother out!

My home weather station recorded this morning’s amazing weather. Check out the graphs. They include a 10+ degree drop in temperatures, 3/4 of an inch of rain, a nice dip in the barometer when the tornado passed close by, and a new record windspeed of 20 MPH. You can see the wind change direction abruptly, too. Most of these stats take place at 6 AM, right when the front passed through.

The warm weather goes out with a bang!

Travis was squawking at 5:30 and we were waiting for him to settle down. As we dozed, the wind and rain began to pick up considerably.

Something outside didn’t sound right to me. The wind was blowing with a sound like the reverberation of kettle drums. I dashed to the window, and then to my computer to check the weather.

BULLETIN – EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
533 AM EST FRI JAN 14 2005

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RALEIGH HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR…
NORTHERN WAKE COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 550 AM EST

* AT 533 AM EST…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO OVER NORTH RALEIGH…OR ABOUT 8 MILES NORTHWEST OF DOWNTOW5 RALEIGH…MOVING NORTHEAST AT 60 MPH.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE…
FALLS LAKE…
NORTH RALEIGH…
WAKE FOREST…

Yikes!!

Instantly, I roused Kelly and the kids and we rushed to the downstairs playroom. Turning on the TV downstairs, we learned that the tornado had since passed.

It was quite scary, and not like me at all to not be prepared. Time to get an EAS-capable weather radio and for to work out better emergency plans. Up until now, my focus with Skywarn and severe weather has been helping the other guy, but tornadoes can visit us, too. As this morning proved.

And I know everyone says a tornado sounds like a freight train. After living near tracks for half-a-year, buddy I know what a freight train sounds like.

That was no train. It was wind, and it was pissed.

Back a few years ago, I decided to become a subscriber of the Durham Herald-Sun. I had seen enough of the News and Observer to know that it is a plain vanilla paper. As the city of Durham has more spice than Raleigh does, so goes their papers.

The only problem with my scheme was that the Herald-Sun didn’t deliver to Garner. I was foiled, but not for lack of trying. At least the paper’s content was available on their website (which, by the way, kicks the ass of the N&O’s website any day).

I think its a shame that the Herald-Sun has had its soul sucked out of it by the new Paxton owners. Though I couldn’t subscribe, I admired the paper’s pluck. It had a nice flavor to it. In these days of corporate media, it was reassuring that such a quality newspaper was locally-owned and locally-focused.

Reading this story of one firing tonight makes me sad that such a good news outlet has turned sour so quickly. The Triangle area has taken a blow because of it.

I hope those fine people let go find some other outlet for their skills. Perhaps an online one.

Go expose those Paxton screwheads (and the ex-owners, the Rollins) for the idiots they are.

In another edition of my ongoing “Worthless History” series, here’s an interesting site which covers North Carolina Roads. Part of the site covers Wake County Roads, which finally solved the mystery of why Wake Forest Road is so jumbled up.

Plenty of road trivia for road geeks like me.