The
Squamidian Report – Feb. 20 / 10
Issue #404
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
I know you are all expecting me to do another anti-Olympic rant. Well, don’t worry, I’m not going to say a word about it. No point in flogging the poor planning or the even worse choice of winter location. No point in flogging the heavy-handed treatment of the general public throughout the infected areas. No point in pointing out how the pompous arrogant VIPs’ have mutated the whole Olympic idea into a very expensive monument to themselves and have all but removed the idea of ‘sports’ from the International games. Nope, no point so I’m just not going to go there. But you know, as negative as I come across, I’m not against the idea of world Olympics at all. In fact I think they could be a very good thing if they were taken back from the powers that control them.
The first thing that should change is the location. There should be a specific permanent location somewhere on this planet where the games are held. The location should be set aside and not belong to any country and not be under the political influence of any county. A permanent installation of infrastructure should be built from a joint world effort. Then, instead of a country or city bidding to hold the event in their own location at prohibitive cost to the population, a country or city could bid to host the event at the permanent location. Just like when someone rents a party hall. They would do all the ‘host’ things like decorating, planning and catering but they would not build and own the facilities. It would solve a lot of problems including the need to out do each previous set of games and it would also disappoint a lot of self-centered VIP types. And in the long run it would save a lot of taxpayers a lot of money that could have been put toward developing the athletes in the first place.
But like I said, there is no point in saying anything about the Olympics so I won’t.
*
You probably haven’t noticed but I’ve been slowly working away at giving my web site a whole new look. Same content of course because what else would there be there, but the over all look has been lightened up and freshened up. The last time I revamped the site I did it on my PC using Microsoft software. This time I’m using my Mac and therefore my software is written for Mac. That creates some problems to overcome. To create or edit a web page you use web page code, commonly known as HTML (hyper text markup language). HTML is the computer language that web pages are written in and web browsers read and interpret. I can hand code HTML at a very basic level but just like most people I use a WISIWIG (What I See Is What I Get) program to do the page construction. That gives me a graphic interface that lets me see what it is I’m doing, and it creates the actual code. However, there seems to be some interpretation issues between the PC and Mac versions of said software and that’s when I have to go in and examine the HTML code to find and fix a given bug. The bugs tend to make themselves visible when I open a web page in a competing browser. Pages created using PC software tend to render fine when viewed on a PC. Pages created using Mac software tend to render fine on a Mac, but I find the bugs when viewing a page on one kind of computer that was created on the other.
Ryan found for me a highly capable and sophisticated Mac web site creator program called Freeway 5 that can build very polished web sites but it can’t work with my existing web pages that were created using good old archaic Microsoft Front Page Express. It is the way to go for future pages and sites I might build. To overcome my crossover problems I’ve been using KompoZer, the Mac version of the open source NVU.
As and example, when KompoZer tries to interpret coding for font centering and coding for font colours it gets a bit frustrated. That’s when I must go into the code and make some corrections by hand. But its all fun and it forces me to exercise my old brain so all is good. There are also issues working with tables that were created in other programs and the easiest way to fix those is to simply delete the problem items and re-created them. And lets face it, as we all know, putting items inside of table cells is the easiest way to control the location of those items. So tables are a good thing and well worth the time it takes to get them formatted right.
*
When the torrential rains that were washing out the North Shore Mountain Olympic events finally subsided, the sun came out. We’ve had some sunny days here with mid teen temperatures. There are flowers and blossoms out and the grass is green. Our rhubarb has leaves opening up. I’ve resisted the temptation to take the bike out but I did give her a couple of coats of wax along with the accompanying polishing and I’ve mounted my highway pegs. So ‘Blue’ is ready to go. Just have to wait for the sand to be cleared from our streets. Or, until I can’t stand it any longer, whichever comes first.
doug
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
FROM FLORIDA
Hello everyone!
I’m writing to you from the end of week number
three and I can’t believe that our vacation is winding down. We’ve been
enjoying this vacation so much we almost want to see if we can stay for another
month but realistically one month will be enough for this year I’m sure. We are
missing home and Adam and Bailey so we are looking forward to getting back to
Kitchener after next week. We’ve had a lot of fun this week and I have so much
to tell you guys.
On the extreme western end of the island there
is a fort called Fort Pickens and it was built by the US military in 1828 I
believe. When the last big hurricane hit here in 2005 it completely destroyed
the road that leads 10km through the sand dunes to the fort and it’s just this
past fall that they managed to complete rebuilding it. We took a drive last
week out to see the fort and it is amazing. It’s an old stone fort that reminds
me of a prison. In fact this fort was used to house prisoners over the years
for various reasons. It’s a fact that during the Indian uprisings, Geronimo and
many of his warriors were imprisoned in Fort Pickens until the US Government
settled the conflict with the Indians and signed the treaties necessary to make
peace. The fort was last used during WW II to guard against attacks from sea on
the Pensacola Naval Air Station.
Last week I reported that the NAS (Naval Air Station) was at the east
end of the island but it turns out that it’s located on the mainland across the
entrance to Pensacola Harbor from Fort Pickens. My mistake! As it turned out,
the seaward attacks never materialized and since then the fort has been
abandoned by the military. It’s fallen into ruin but a substantial part of it
is still standing. You can visit the fort and enjoy a self
guided tour both inside and outside the fort. They also have a Visitors
Centre where you can learn about the fort and purchase souvenirs to take home.
It’s a very interesting place if you ever get down this way. We didn’t stay
long but did enjoy the sights of Fort Pickens.
*
This past Sunday was the Mardi Gras celebrations not only took place in New Orleans but
also in every major city along the north shore of the Gulf including here on
the island in Pensacola Beach. We attended the parade and Carole managed to
catch a few dozen strings of Mardi Gras beads. It’s
quite a celebration! It lasted about an hour for the parade to go by and then
they all gathered in the center of town at a huge parking lot at the edge of
the beach. Thousands of people gathered and ate and drank alcohol and acted
like jerks but all in all it was an interesting and fun experience. After the parade we headed into
Pensacola City and went to a true southern flea market called T & W Flea
Market. It was basically a huge grass and sand 3 acre
lot with hundreds of tables full of junk and goodies. It was fun to tour and
look at all the items that were 99% used stuff. There were very few new items
for sale there. The majority of stuff that was new were
pocket knives and hunting knives. Otherwise, it was like having a whole park
full of garage sale stuff that was destined to become some else’s treasure!
LOL!
*
Our week has been lots of fun and excitement
this week. To start the week off, I did some more metal detecting while Carole
enjoyed the sun on the beach. I was out three days ago and was detecting for
about two hours. I was setting goals on the distances I’d cover before packing
it in for the day. I decided to just spend another half hour and then remember where
I left off until the next day so I could start at that point again. I no sooner
made a mental note of my location when I heard a clear
beep. I knelt down and scooped one deep scoop in the sand and sifted the sand
out of my scoop and there in my sifter/scoop was a gold chain. It was about 14”
long and a square type of link. I thought that was pretty cool but figured
there must be something in the hole that was once on this chain, so I took
another scoop. In that scoop I found heavy 2”x1” gold crucifix. WOW! What a
cool find indeed. I’m not sure if it’s solid gold but I’ll find out when I get
home and take it to a jeweler friend of mine. I decided to detect a little
further since being inspired by this discovery. I walked across the pattern I’d
been keeping and about 10 minutes later I thought there might be something else
in that original hole so I went back to it and tried my detector over it once
again. Son of a gun if I didn’t get another beep and came up with the tiny
round spring loaded clip from the chain. I’m amazed that my detector would pick
up something so small in all that sand. Cool! After finding that clip, I
continued for another 10 minutes and got another very miniscule beep. I almost
didn’t bother digging to see what was there but I decided to go for it. I took
one scoop about 4” deep into the sand and came up with a GOLD wedding ring. It
turned out to be a mans ring and it has 13 small
diamonds in it across the face of the ring. WOW! Again!!! At that point I
pocketed my treasure and headed for the condo. Carole was waiting for me when I
got in and I surprised her with my pirates treasure of
the day! LOL! I have no idea how much value will be placed on my finds but I’ll
be sure to get it to my jeweler friend as soon as we get home. In the meantime,
I’ll be continuing my searching the sands of Portofino Beach until the last
minute before we depart for home!
*
The final adventure of this week is the most
thrilling of all. Yesterday a fellow I’ve befriended that cleans the beach on a
little 4x4 truck stopped to tell Carole and I on the beach that he had made a
find of his own just a few minutes before seeing us. He told us that he had
found a Great White Shark on the beach about 6km to the east of our condos. He
said it had been washed up on the beach after someone or something had ripped it’s lower jaw off and it died. He figured it had been attacked by a larger shark and it had been washed
up by the tide over night. Carole and I went for a drive to the location and
sure enough there it was lying in a hollow in the sand at the edge of the
water. It was 8 ½ feet in length and like he said was missing it’s lower jaw.
It was pretty fresh so it wasn’t there very long. I had my tools along so I
removed a few of its teeth as souvenirs. We took a bunch of pictures and then
left it for the scavengers to eat. We were astounded to see such a creature up
close let alone that it be a Great White of “JAWS” fame! All be it a small one
it was still impressive and I wouldn’t want to meet up with it in the Gulf
while swimming!
I’ve attached a picture of it for you all to
see. Whatever happened that caused it’s death is a
shame but it was still amazing to see and experience such a creature in
person. This will be one vacation
we’ll certainly never forget!
That’s all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking to
you all again next week from Florida in The Ontarion
Report!
Bye for now….>
Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
Thanks goodness we weren’t swimming when that
monster washed up on shore! I think we’d have been shocked out of our witts!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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