Author: Eugene

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Origins: The MERK Chapter House

It all begain in 1994. I was tired of living on my own in a dingy little basement apartment. Geezus was looking to move out of his parents’ house and so was Oreo. So it was just natural for the three of us to get an apartment together. So we began the hunt for a reasonably priced 3 bedroom apartment near the campus area…two mutually exclusive criteria.

After much looking and checking out many apartments, we finally found one, a good sized 3 bedroom 2nd floor apartment for about $650/month. It was a fantastic location. A nice 15 minute walk to campus, and staggering distance to Whyte Ave and the Purple Onion. Close to the Farmer’s Market, and we had the Fringe Festival practically in our back yard.

The MERK Chapter House, as our apartment later became known, quickly turned into the launching point and crash pad for many nights of carousing. It was a gathering place for Hooligans all over.

The collection of empty Coke cans in the corner became legendary, and proceeds from the returns funded purchases of even more cases of Coke, plus the occasional bottle of Crown (to mix with the Coke).

Eventually, the Chapter House became decorated with the spoils of our drunken wanderings. A life sized cardboard cutout of Darth Vader (obtained as a surprise after purchasing the Star Wars VHS boxed set) sat in one corner along with my bike and indoor trainer. Nobody remembers (or is willing to admit) where the street sign hanging on the wall came from. Empty bottles of Crown Royal lining the tops of the kitchen cabinets. The sandwich board sign from the Black Dog mysteriously appeared in our living room one day.

Life at the Chapter House was good, life was fun and care free and became the source of many memories. Walking into the living room to discover a naked girl prancing about. Coming home from school to discover a happening party and no signs of the roomies around. Staggering home from nights spent at the Purple Onion. Pizzas at the Funky Pickle. Drunken Hooligans scattered about the living room from the previous night. Black Creature spewing all over Oreo’s futon. Geezus making a ritual sacrifice to Hoo over the porcelain altar. And who could forget the massive clumps of hair from Geezus’ brush scattered about the bathroom looking like dead rodents.

Sadly, after about two years, the Chapter House was forced to close. I got a job in Detroit, and Oreo moved to North Carolina to work.

Those were fun days living in that apartment.

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Hooligan Moment #5273

One Friday night up at RATT, R and M have disappeared from the table. Later they are spotted a couple tables over schmoozing on two members of the female persuasion. Stealthily, we observe (well, as stealthily as any table of drunk people can observe) the evil seductresses sinking their claws deeper and deeper into our inebriated friends. Finally, B decides to act. We must save our friends from the clutches of the evil temptresses. Our friends have been bewitched. They think they want to stay with the females, and keep schmoozing them.

B and I stumble over to the table to see if R and M can be saved. We’re almost too late. We need to resort to stronger tactics.

B says to M: M, your wife just called. You have to go home because Stephanie’s sick.

The sudden breaking of the spell sends a reverberating shock through everyone at the table.

Evil temptress 2 turns to R and says: So, are you married too?

We return to our table with R and M, still in shock, but rescued.

Another successful mission by the Paladins of the Penis.

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No, not another leash!

Lately my wife has been trying to convince me to get a cell phone. She knows I don’t want one, but she keeps insisting I need one. I keep insisting that I don’t need one. Heck, I don’t even like carrying a pager.
Now she’s telling me to pick out a cell phone that I’d want, or she’ll pick one out for me. Considering my pickiness for technology, it’ll probably be one that I’ll end up hating (if I can hate cell phones much more).

Continue reading “No, not another leash!”

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How I use MT

In the latest entry to SixLog, the question is asked: “How are you using the tool?“

If free isn’t an issue for you and you’re willing to pay for a version of Movable Type (say the $69 version) and the blog/author limits won’t work for your current use, write a non-emotional post explaining how you’re using Movable Type and TrackBack this entry.

I work in the Radiology department of a university hospital. When I first decided to install MovableType on my server, it was in response to one of our radiologists who wanted some software that our residents could use to log the procedures they perform. A place where they could leave notes, pictures, descriptions, details, whatever. Our program typically has anywhere from 4-8 residents per year, so there would potentially be as many as 40 weblogs and authors. A weblog would be perfect for this kind of application.

Unfortunately, they decided to go with a different system, so now this installation of MT hosts 1 active author and 4 weblogs.

  1. my personal weblog.
  2. a departmental weblog used to post announcements, activities and department news and the like.
  3. a private weblog used to track changes to the server and maintenance notes.
  4. a test weblog that I use to experiment with.

In the near future I plan on introducing MT to our Radiology Informatics group to see if they might find it useful as a group communication tool. This would involve adding 5 additional authors and at least that many more weblogs. I also plan on introducing MT to the rest of our faculty to see if our radiologists and residents might find it of any use. Thats maybe another 30 or 40 authors. Of course I don’t expect all of them to use it. If 10 of them decide it’s useful enough to use regularly, then I would be impressed.

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Hurricane Season 2004

We’re into the last half of May now, and that means Hurrican Season is coming soon and the National Hurricane Center’s hurricane predictions are in.
This year’s storm names:
Alex, Bonnie Charley, Danielle, Earl, Frances, Gaston, Hermine, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie, Walter.
Some highlights from the NHC’s predictions:

The outlook calls for 12-15 tropical storms, with 6-8 becoming hurricanes, and 2-4 of these becoming major hurricanes. These numbers reflect a predicted ACE index in the range of 100%-160% of the median, and indicate a likely continuation of above-normal activity that began in 1995.

Many of the tropical storms and hurricanes in 2004 are likely to form during August-October over the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea between 9°N-21.5°N (green box). These systems generally track westward toward the United States and Caribbean Sea as they strengthen.

Another factor known to significantly impact seasonal Atlantic hurricane activity is ENSO (Gray 1984, Monthly Weather Review), with El Niño favoring reduced activity and La Niña favoring increased activity. Based on the most recent ENSO outlook issued by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, ENSO-neutral conditions are expected to continue in the tropical Pacific through July, and most likely through August-October as well. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the statistical and coupled model ENSO forecasts after July, and the comparatively wide range in the predicted ACE values reflects this uncertainty.

There are two competing uncertainties in this outlook. The first is the possibility of an extremely active season similar to 2003, which resulted partly from near-record warmth across the deep tropical Atlantic, and partly from an amplified upper-level ridge across the western subtropical Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico in association with a persistent East Atlantic teleconnection pattern (Bell et al. 2004, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., In press). In the event that the warmer tropical Atlantic SSTs and the subtropical ridge over the western Atlantic again become significantly enhanced, the ACE values could be at or even above the high end of the predicted range.
The second uncertainty involves the ENSO forecasts, which have exhibited low skill historically when issued at this time of the year and represent an ongoing source of uncertainty in the pre-season hurricane outlooks. There is currently considerably diversity in the statistical and coupled model forecasts of ENSO after July, which leads to a wider predicted ACE range in this outlook.

Continue reading “Hurricane Season 2004”