Florida, March 2007
Part III
After Part II
March 24-31, 2007
My daughter, Christy, and her husband, Bernie, flew in from Seattle to spend the weekend with us. We rented a small boat to tour some of our local waterways.
We continue our water tour of the backs of Fort Lauderdale houses.
Heading into Port Everglades with Bernie at the helm ...
My old iPod could only hold 4 gigabytes of music. It didn't take very long to top it up. So, I bought a new one that can hold 80 gigabytes of both audio and visual.
During the past three days I have loaded 2187 songs (6.1 days of music taking up 8.64 gigabytes), 13 movies (18.5 hours of watch time eating up 5.24 gigabytes), 3 TV shows (lasting 2.8 hours on 1.84 gigabytes) and 117 podcasts (23.2 hours worth at 1,011.6 megabytes) (*).
It would take me 7.8 twenty-four hour days to listen/watch all those 2320 items.
And, I still have more than 71 gigabytes of unused space. But, the i-Tunes web site should help with that!
Back in the early 90's my Radio Shack hard drive ... the size of two shoe boxes pushed parallel ... had just 5 megabytes (Yes, MEGAbytes!). So, this new little iPod has 16,000 times the capacity of that first hard drive, and it cost about 1/5th the price of my old Radio Shack thing. (**)
The "Monster" FM transmitter sold by The Sharper Image turns my car sound system into a symphony hall for my favorite music ... though, not quite an Imax theatre.
While typing this I am listening to "One Night in Bangkok" (4.11 minutes).
(*) Check out The Onion's Radio News podcast ... also The President's Weekly Radio Broadcast podcast ... for some political and off beat humor.
(**) Several months ago THOCBDC celebrated the 50th anniversary of the world's first hard drive; an IBM machine the size of two conjoined Cold Spot refrigerators. And, that thing could only spin out 4.4 MEGAbytes of data.
David from New Mexico sends this You Tube clip.
Trinas is a restaurant on the Fort Lauderdale beach. It's located in the Atlantic hotel, a relatively new hotel by Florida standards.
Normally we go there for dinner. But, this afternoon Watcharee and I took Stephani there for lunch. The ladies had sandwiches; I had salmon.
Watcharee took half of her sandwich home for a late in the day snack.
PS: Reader R. B. from Athenry in the Irish Republic writes:
"If you have nothing to say why don't you just skip a day ... or a whole week, for that matter. When are you going back to Bangkok? At least there the food is more exciting. Do you really think bread, sandwiches and French fries make for good viewing?"
"In the mean time isn't it still Spring Break in Florida? Duh ... like girls on the beach!"
Andy Page from the UK sent this:
Tube ski stunt blasted by police
A man who skied nearly 200ft down the longest escalator on the London Underground has been condemned by police and transport officials. He launched himself down the 196ft (60m) escalator at Angel Tube station and filmed the stunt. The unidentified man then posted it on the YouTube video sharing website where it has received more than 100,000 hits. Transport for London (TfL) urged police to take the "strongest possible action" against any similar offenders. 'Reckless' stunt A TfL spokesman said: "This is a dangerous, stupid and irresponsible act that could have resulted in serious injury or death to not only the individual concerned, but other passengers." A British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman described the skier's antics as "naive and reckless". They urged the man to contact them so they could discuss the potential dangers of his stunt. A BTP spokesman said the video was thought to have been recorded about a year ago. He said under by-laws they could not prosecute after six months had lapsed. If someone had been injured, they would still have powers to prosecute under criminal law, the spokesman said. The video, filmed from the skier's head-mounted camera, shows him walking, going up the escalator, fitting his skis on and launching himself down at high speed. The escalator was clear at the time but passengers on opposite conveyors can be seen looking on, bemused. The film's producer said other people were not in danger as friends of the stuntman, a Norwegian national, had warned passengers away. |
And here is the actual YouTube site.
Here is the map of the London Underground. The Angel tube station is on the Northern Line (Black) in zone C6. When I was a student at the University of London I frequently used the Angel station and I still remember this escalator (moving stairs).
Fresh views of the Athenee Residence show the walls of glass rising.
PS: Bush was actually funny last night:
It was a bit windy and overcast ... not a good climate for harvesting the best beach bunny crop. Many gravitated to the Elbo Room (Spring Break's most notorious bar) rather than ferret through the slim pickings at the water's edge. Though there was one stand-out (featured here twice from the waist down).
But, don't complain! Isn't this better than food shots or movies of Bush?
This afternoon Watcharee and Ta went to the Oriental Market to shop for supplies for P'kow's birthday party which will be held tomorrow at the Sushi Thai Cafe. Ta works at the Sushi Thai Cafe. Today the two girls practiced their Karaoke skills. The owner of the Sushi Thai Cafe is Nong. He is pictured here but he did not sing.
Next: April
