Linux has been my primary OS for several years now. I haven’t run a version of Windows at home in over five years. I did continue to use Windows at work but only because no other options were offered. However, work is becoming increasingly Mac-friendly (thank you Vista) so I’ve recently been able to ditch Windows as a primary OS. These days I’m able to run Windows in Parallels on a MacBook Pro (screenshot above) and 24″ iMac - and then only when needed (which isn’t often). My computing time is significantly more productive with Apple hardware and software in the office.

Ubuntu is still my primary OS at home. I don’t expect that to change. Switching between Leopard and Ubuntu 8.04 feels virtually seamless to me. I’m generally happy and productive as long as I’m on some flavor of Unix but open source variants will always have the edge.

There is an enormous amount of interest in this video thanks to mentions by The Drudge Report, Glenn Beck, Pat Gray, Walton & Johnson, and others. The site may be slow and unavailable at times. Annette and her team at Hosting Matters are doing a great job and are working overtime to keep the site up. I’ve trimmed most of the content from this page to ease the burden on the server until the traffic subsides. Once the server cools off a bit I’ll return Blogs of War to its usual format.

This is ten minutes of raw video that I recorded at today’s rally in support of Joe Horn in Pasadena. The video starts with the arrival of Quanell X and a handful of his New Black Panther Party minions. What Quanell might not have known is that several hundred Joe Horn supporters, including about a hundred bikers, were waiting for their arrival. It quickly became, as expected, pretty intense. Everyone got incredibly noisy, there was some pushing and shoving, and I got the real sense that the crowd was going to lose control at times.

In the video you’ll see Quanell and his group march up to Joe Horn’s house and attempt to speak to the media (which is the only reason they’re there) and get denied by the huge crowd and roaring Harleys. Quanell and friends then attempt to move to another street and speak to the media but the crowd follows and chants “USA! USA!” until he and his friends retreat - quickly. The pro-Joe crowd was raucous and intimidating but mostly in control. Watching Quanell almost break out in tears over his inability to get media time was just priceless.

The biker angle has been played up by the media but most of the crowd seemed to come from Joe Horn supporters in the neighborhood. Many said they were there primarily to stand in opposition to the racist and sensationalist tactics of Quanell X. They accomplished their mission.

Update:
I’m getting tons of email about this video. I’ll answer a few of the questions here to avoid repeating myself:

Was the pro-Joe crowd yelling racist comments?
If they were I didn’t hear them. If you watch the video you can hear what I heard but remember that I was also scrambling to follow the action. I was there over an hour before Quanell X arrived to take photos and I didn’t hear a single racist comment. In fact, people repeatedly told me that they didn’t see a racial element to the story and resented the addition of that component to the case.

Was Quanell X making racist statements?
To be honest I never heard a word the man said. The crowd was just too loud.

Are you a Joe Horn Supporter?
I am a supporter of the 2nd amendment and believe that citizens should have the ability to defend themselves and their property. However, I am somewhat ambivalent about the Joe Horn case. I’m not shedding tears for the criminals he killed but I believe that he should have exercised more restraint and followed the instructions of the 911 dispatcher. That said, Joe gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

Why did you attend the rally?
My primary motivation was to be present and record the event as an independent observer so that people could reach their own conclusions about what was sure to be an intense showdown.

Why did you delete my comment?
Racist comments - of any kind - will be deleted. So will off-topic or other spam posts.

Why can’t I comment?
I’ve closed comments on the post. I just don’t have time to monitor this post around the clock.

Others Blogging/Discussing:
Digger’s Realm
Ray Whiting
Six Meat Buffet
Calle Vienna
Hair-Net
Free Republic
Democratic Underground
Say Anything

His death was reported on evelknievel.com but it’s getting hammered by traffic at the moment.

Nobody cheated death more times than Evel. I was six or seven when he tried to jump Snake River Canyon. He was, unquestionably, the man.

My personal information appears to have been stolen yet again. I’m losing track of these notices:

Recently, malicious software, known as Infostealer.Monstres, was used to gain unauthorized access to the Monster.com resume database to steal the contact information of job seekers. Monster Worldwide is the technology provider for the USAJOBS website and regrettably, some of the contact information captured came from USAJOBS job seekers.

The information captured included name, address, telephone number, and email address. Monster Worldwide has assured the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that Social Security Numbers were NOT compromised because of IT security shields USAJOBS has in place.

At least they didn’t get Social Security Numbers. I guess the other good news is that I haven’t used USAJOBS in years so whatever information they have is probably out of date.

Urban Dictionary:
Pwnt

I thought I’d do get some essential supplies tonight ahead of the Saturday morning rush on the stores. I think that was a good idea. The River Oaks Kroger’s was relatively busy for a Friday night and a lot of people were stocking up on water and canned goods. The store wasn’t gutted like it was before Hurricane Rita arrived but it was obvious that a lot of people had started stocking up early.

I expect that sometime this weekend we’ll see grocery stores shifting into emergency mode if Houston stays in the cone of uncertainty. That usually means more cashiers and pallets of water stacked throughout the store. The stores should be fine through the weekend but if the storm continues to head in our general direction they’ll be gutted quickly. I wouldn’t wait until Monday or Tuesday to get essentials.

I know that I’m staying and I’m not worried about my safety during the storm - well not that much anyway. My primary concern is looting and crime. I live in a nice part of Midtown that’s bordered by a section of town that isn’t so nice. It was a little dicey around here during Rita.

I was planning to pick up a Mossberg shotgun in the morning but I may hold off on that plan. I ran into an HPD officer that I know and he told me the police presence is going to be intense. He said everyone will be in uniform and on duty if the storm heads our way. If officers can’t make it to their usual station due to weather they’ll be required to report to duty at the nearest station they can find. He lives in the building and assured me that HPD will maintain a presence if the storm strikes. At times like this I wish that I still had my trusty FEG SA-85M even though it’s a bit much for home defense.

I still have a few more things to pick up. I have enough water, tuna, beans, and granola bars to last about a week or ten days. I have enough batteries to power the radio, police scanner, and portable TV for a week. I have medicine and first aid supplies. I have a full tank of gas. I just need to pick up a new flashlight and grab a few hundred dollars in cash and I’ll be ready for anything. The effort won’t be wasted if Dean goes somewhere else. This is all good stuff to have on hand anyway.

I thought I’d be able to sprint home from the office to prepare for the eventual flooding but the 4 mile trip was nearly a disaster. I left the Medical Center around 11:00 AM and Holcombe was clear but I turned onto Kirby and it was a total nightmare. Countless trophy wives had submerged their Jaguars and Range Rovers in and around Rice Village. BMW Minis were going down left and right. I finally made it to the overpass at 59 which was impassable at street level. I spent an hour or more in the Hooter’s-IHOP parking lot while the water continued to rise and claim those attempting to use the feeder. A Hooters on high ground in Houston is a wonderful sight to behold.

I stayed there for a while and watched the disaster unfold around me.One news station reported rainfall rates of up to 4″ per hour in my area - which is incredible but seems about right. Once the rain let up a bit the news helicopters showed up while the parking lot continued to take on refugees. The water eventually receded a bit and I made my way to another parking lot near Westheimer. I only had to wait 15 minutes or so there before I was able to come up with a path around the water at that spot. From there it was fairly easy to make my way downtown - home. We aren’t out of the woods yet:

There are reports of widespread street flooding. HFD advises everyone to avoid the Texas Medical Center, Reliant Park and downtown Houston.

I live in one of those spots and work in the other. KTRK has photos and weather updates. KHOU has a live webcast. I’m going to dry off. Posting will resume in a bit.

Update:
This account, and others, can be found on the Houston Chronicle’s Tropical Weather Blog.

Well, at least where I am. Looking out the office window I see a bayou rising quickly and not much else thanks to rainfall rates of around 3″ per hour. We are getting dumped on. You can watch the water rise with Bayou Cam. It looks like parts of Houston are fine but we’re getting the training effect here. Downtown Houston might not fare so well today. I might not either since I live on the ground floor of my building - downtown. Check out KPRC’s radar for more.

I spent Saturday in East Texas checking out the The Davy Crockett National Forest. My hiking partner and I weren’t planning to hike the entire 20 miles of the Four C trail (map). That takes two days and it isn’t pleasant in 100 degree temperatures. Some would say that no amount of hiking is pleasant in 100 degree temperatures. Still, a short uncomfortable hike is better than sitting indoors so we planned accordingly and agreed that we would drink often and turn back before we exhausted half of our water supplies. It wasn’t a bad plan but the heat nearly claimed us anyway.

We started at Neches Bluff. It’s the end of the trail and it’s most scenic section. The start of the hike was pleasant despite a temperature in the 90’s that was climbing quickly to over a 100 degrees. I felt strong and thought we’d cover 10 or 12 miles before the day was out. The trees provided ample shade and there was a slight breeze. The trail, cut into the hillside with steep drop offs on the left and a steep rise to the right might be one of the best sections of trail in Texas. The trail is somewhat primitive compared to those in our state parks but it was fairly clearly marked with small white rectangles, on the trees or posts at eye level, about every 100 yards. There are quite a few trees down across the trail which force detours that if you’re not careful can send you off in the wrong direction. That would happen to us before the day was out.

The hike was going well until we reached the valley floor and the trail followed an old logging road that went off, fully exposed to the sun, as far as the eye could see. In cooler weather it would have made for a pleasant stroll but in this weather It had the look of a death march, we groaned, but both felt strong and decided to push on in the hope that the trail would move back into the lush forest that lined the road.

The road surface was fairly overgrown but not to the point where hiking was difficult. It had steep walls that rose very high on the Neches Bluff side but were only about six to ten feet high on the other side. A quick climb up the short bank revealed swampland, and in some places, the muddy Neches River.

The road was fairly easy to navigate with the exception of a few muddy sections that forced us to choose our steps carefully and in one case to climb up steep bank to bypass the mud and water. We pressed on, stopping regularly to drink water, still hoping that the trail would veer off into the forest. The steep hill on the right eventually gave way to this large pond that appeared to be drying up. I could see, and hear, clear streams flowing into it on the opposite bank so it’s doubtful that it will dry up completely.

Passing the pond reveals a sort of washed out footbridge that I now know is a notorious spot that’s sent more than one hiker well off trail. The bridge doesn’t look passable and there is a clear trail around it that descends down into a shaded and cool section of forest where you can jump over the clear tadpole-filled water of the fast moving stream. However, if you take the detour you risk missing the trail marker that will finally send you back into the forest. That is exactly what happened to us.

We took the small detour and stopped by the stream to drink and rest. We must have been quiet because as we started to leave we heard an explosion of noise from a very large, yet still unseen animal, in the brush just 15 feet away. Thoughts of the Texas bigfoot (which I don’t believe in but makes for great joke material) or black bear came to mind but it was just a large buck that was uncharacteristically active during the hottest part of the day. With all the noise it sounded like he was caught up in the brush but eventually jumped out only to run another 20 feet, stop, and watch us for a minute before moving on. I think we got about as close to one of those in the wild as is possible. We then pressed on down the road, which looked even more overgrown and blocked by fallen trees than the previous section. We’d completely missed the white arrow that directed hikers to enter the forest on the opposite side of the road. The deer was on the trail but we were not.

We pressed on and quickly became concerned by the absence of trail markers. However, we’d seen nothing that looked like a change in the trail route at any point so we pressed on. A few hundred yards down the road and we were almost positive that we were off trail but we gave ourselves five more minutes before deciding to backtrack which we eventually did. Arriving back at the bridge revealed the marker but we were pretty exhausted after the 3/4 mile detour. I snapped a photo of the marker when we returned.

We took off our packs to grab a snack and drank a lot of water. Thirty minutes later we both felt rested and ready to move on. However, we were both surprised to discover that we’d lost almost all energy and stamina within 2 minutes of resuming the hike. It was clear that the heat was just too much but something else had happened. Scanning the treetops revealed no movement. The wind had stopped - completely. We were facing record high temperatures, a cloudless sky, high humidity, and absolutely no air movement whatsoever. We decided to make our way back immediately.

We’d only covered about 3 miles on the logging road, thanks to the detour, but it was a draining and difficult three miles. Much more so than we’d expected. The heat was quickly sapping our energy and were not looking forward to the hike back. Still, we weren’t really worried at that point. We were more surprised that we’d tired so quickly since we’ve both covered distances greater than 10 miles during summer day hikes before. However, we weren’t willing to take any chances given the heat, the remote location, and the low margin for error in those conditions. We started back down the road.

We knew, almost immediately. that it was going to be difficult to reach our starting point but we had no idea just how difficult it would finally turn out to be. The two mile hike down the remaining length of logging road, with no shade or wind, was unbearable. Nothing seemed to lower our body temperatures at all. Stopping to drink only made the heat seem worse since the air stopped moving when we did. I was forced to take tiny amounts of my drinking water and splash it on my face to get the cooling process started. The trek took a turn for the worse when my partner stumbled into thick knee deep mud.

Near the end of the road we scrambled up the steep bank into the trees, removed our packs, and collapsed. We stayed there for another half hour, lying on the 45 degree pine needle covered slope, trying to cool off and regain some strength for the final push up the bluff. I’ve never been as worn out as I was at that moment. I grabbed my cell phone, luckily got a signal, and let my family know where we were and what the conditions that we were facing. I didn’t really think we’d have trouble making it out but I wanted them to know where to send help if they didn’t hear from me in an hour. I don’t think they were thrilled by that call, it wasn’t good news, and I sound less coherent than I really was due to the exhaustion, but I wanted to play it safe.

Near the end of our rest it was clear that we’d have to move on quickly since our bodies were not cooling down in that environment and our muscles were seizing up a bit. The shade helped a little, so did the water, but neither helped enough and the water wouldn’t last indefinitely. I was actually a little worried at this point even though we were only a mile away from our truck with it’s air conditioning and supply of cold water. I grew even more concerned as we moved on. We were both losing steam quickly and we had another section of road, and an uphill climb ahead of us. We were in full death march mode, silently putting one foot in front of the other, slowly moving forward. We couldn’t really speak. Talking was pretty much reserved for ordering drink stops since staying hydrated was critical. We reached the bottom of the bluff fifteen minutes later and started our uphill climb.

Initially, the climb wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. The direct exposure to the sun on the road was far worse than hiking uphill. It didn’t bother me much until the halfway point. That’s where we sat for a brief rest and finished the last of the water. The GPS indicated that the truck was just over a third of a mile away. I didn’t check the elevation but I think we still had another 300 vertical feet to climb as well. That section would prove to be the most challenging of all. When we moved on I took the lead and pressed on hard knowing that another stop to rest wasn’t going to help. About halfway into the last section it became clear that we had to get to air conditioning and cold water quickly, within five or ten minutes at most, or heat stroke was going to set in. I honestly wasn’t sure that we were going to make it until I saw the start of the trail and the truck ahead of me. Looking back I don’t know how I kept going during the last five minutes.

Had we not prepared as well as we did it might have turned out far worse. We made some lifesaving decisions along the way - we turned around before it was too late and we took enough water to keep us hydrated throughout the entire ordeal. However, one factor not included in our pre-hike decision making was wind speed. I will never hike in 90+ degree windless weather again. That minor change, at the furthest point of our hike, made a significant difference in our status. Our bodies just couldn’t transfer heat once that slight breeze abated. When your body can’t transfer heat things go downhill very quickly. I also tend to think that I’m over-preparing when I pack for day hikes. On this trip every piece of gear and every ounce of water was required. This was a good reminder that extreme environments require extreme preparation.

I think they’ve announced this 5 times since 1984 and never managed to actually pull it off. I’m not sure if this is any different. Anyway, here’s the news via Rolling Stone:

The long awaited Van Halen reunion tour is on: Rolling Stone has confirmed that the band will make an official anouncement at a Los Angeles press conference sometime next week. The band lineup will be David Lee Roth on vocals, Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Alex Van Halen on drums and Wolfgang Van Halen on bass. The tour, Van Halen’s first outing with Roth since 1984

Having seen them at their peak in 1984, and still struggling with the brain cell loss and hearing damage that resulted from that night, I’m not sure I’d want to taint that experience with whatever they can muster now.

That’s my SUV parked downtown. It’s kind of cool and creepy at the same time. I’m just glad that I wasn’t sitting in the front seat picking my nose when the Google cam drove by. Google is catching folks doing all sorts of things.

H/T: Dwight Silverman