The 10 year old kid won with 3 year old Adidas, held together with duct tape. He was runner up last year. I guess the shoes just needed another year of aging.

I can't imaging being a judge for this contest.

So I pose the question: What is the worst smell you have ever encountered?

My encounter was with rotten chicken parts. I had a container in the freezer with chicken part for a future Cajun gumbo and dirty rice. (Read gizzards, livers and necks.)

The refrigerator died while I was on vacation. Upon my return 10 days later, I had to it clean out. When I popped the top on the recycled plastic margarine container which house the decomposing guts, I thought I had released satin from the gates of hell. I had the dry heaved for five minutes. It was worse than my experience with a pogie boat.

He was speaking of the breakroom microwave with a rotating platform. You put the cup in with your right hand. The microwave rotates and heats your beverage and voila, when you take your cup out, the handle is exactly where you put it. You don't have to reach to the rear and potentially burn your hand on a hot cup.

I had never thought about it. He was right. But why? It's easy to debunk. The platform rotates at 6 rpm. That a 10 second cycle. So unless you heat your coffee for an odd number of seconds, like 55 seconds, the handle will be in its starting position. No memory muscle, no intelligent life form here.

My next journal entry will debunk the myth of the intelligent thermos bottle. Hot or cold? How does it know?

In junior high science class, we "played" with mercury. I remember coating a dime with it by rubbing mercury into the dime using my thumb and forefinger. It was real shinny and slippery for a while then turned black overnight after oxidation.

Now a teacher would be arrested and charged with "abuse" or "endangerment" for allowing students to do such a thing.

Years ago, several Florida kids took the mercury from a home thermistat and played with it. I remember stories of EPA technicians in mylar suits "sanitizing" the home and school and spending an ungodly amount of taxpayers money in a massive cleanup for such a miniscule amount of mercury. They really made a federal case out of it!

OfficeMax advertized a Konika Minolta 2400W for $299. Reasonable. I researched it via Google. The 2400W is Windows only (supports W98/SE.). Another Konica Minolta model, 2430DL, is supported under Window Server 2003, RedHat 8.0, Mac or WinNT4. That model wasn't in the flyer. Both models come with 32M memory. The Dubya has only a USB connector, while the DL has USB and Ethernet. Only the 2430DL is upgradable to 544M.

I am planning to use it in my home office environment. I currently have a dual boot Win98SE/RedHat 7.3 system and several legacy systems that do not get booted often.

I went to Office Max and they had the 2430DL and it was on sale for $399! (but they were out of stock, so I got a rain check.)

Question 1: Has anyone used either model?

One of my other "older systems" is a WinNT on a Pentium 100. What are my chances of hosting it from NT and printing from Win98?

Is printer memory used for buffering or image rendering? Is 32M enough memory to print 8.5x11 borderless color photo.

Should I go for an initial memory upgrade?

At the end of the day, what are the odd of mehaving a $300-$400 paper weight that requires a new computer system to drive?

The menu included bear, alligator, moose, elk, venison, as well some not so exotic cow (hamburger), chicken and pork.

Everyone had their side joke regarding extinct or endangered animals (condor, manatee) and some not so endangered ones that normally don't find their way to the diner table (owl, muskrat, armadillo, possum, rattlesnake).

The night was rather cold, but it was warmed up with a bond fire using stumps and limbs from trees that fell during the fall hurricanes. Alcohol helped too.

I was surprised that squirrel, duck, and rabbit were not on the menu.

The evening raised over $5,000US for the local youth sports program. Fortunately there were no PETA demonstrations.

The only good thing is that the judges work 9-5. My normal hours are 7:45 to 5:30 (with alternating Fridays off). But I may be in court this Friday instead of being off.

No, it's not the Michael Jackson pedafile case.

I listen to the show during drive time, so I was familiar with the show and was able to finally press the flesh with these radio personalities.

Bunkys is a tradition in Satellite Beach and is famous for its Oyster Raw Bar and Buffalo chicken wings. I've been in there countless times and while I can't tell your what's on the walls, I can tell you if something is different.

So when I asked them if I could take a few pictures of them I wasn't really trying capture anything in the background.

It was after I posted the photos on my website and emailed Terry a copy that I printed several 8x10s. That's when I realized I had framed a cardboard cutout of the blond bombshell, Marilyn Monroe, in a lifelike pose. In dscf3350 and in dscf3356 she appears very real. In other shots she's just a cutout on the wall.

It will be interesting listening to the show this afternoon to see if they mention the photo and my website. I may experience the /. effect thanks to EPSN Radio.

So what do I hope to get out of this?
I tell people that the website is my resume for my future job as a still photographer for espn.com. I'm dreaming of a sideline pass for the SuperBowl in Jacksonville next week.

When I dream, I dream big!

What's next? Maybe that West Virginia mountain woman that won the hollar'n contest?

It was a clear cold afternoon (ha! 45 degrees F - cold by Central Florida standards)

Blog from Florida Today is here. Additional flight info here.

A running log appears at online Florida Today.

The payload was a communication satellite for direct television broadcast.

Apparently a truck transporting 12 million bees to California to pollinate the state's almond crop crashed in Las Vegas during rush hour yesterday spilling honey and a swarm of pissed off bees.

Rather than try to round them up, they killed the bees with water from firehoses.

So now my question is: How is Blue Diamond going to pollinate its Almond crop? Will there be an almond shortage next year?

To recap the season, two summer sets were canceled due to lack of waves or thunderstorms. The Labor Day event was canceled because of Hurricane Frances. The September surfing was great before Hurricane Jeanne. October surfing was postponed until November because of damage to public parks and access to the beach. It seems like it's been feast or famine.

Full wet suits were in order Saturday as the ESA kids attacked 1-3 foot waves in cool weather by central Florida standards.

This fall I also followed high school swimming and diving competition. Satellite Beach was dominant this season. First it was conference, then district, followed by regional, and then to state finals in Gainesville.

I never mentioned it in my JE during the season. Slashdotters aren't really my target audience.

Surfing, high school swimming, and diving are not your normal spectator or television sports. These are individual sports. They are non-contact, non-violent, and do not have a professional venue to speak of. Hence, no helmets, no steroids, no lucrative professional contract to muddy the amateur competition.

So who is my audience? The athletes! I provide photo journalism coverage of the events in a non-commercial venue. Names are transcribed from heat sheets, newpaper box scores, or school publication to provide searchable keywords for Google, Yahoo and other search engines. Word of mouth works pretty good too!

High School wrestling season is starting up. Contact and dominance by leverage and strength; without violence.

Check out the website if you like true amatuer sports.

Tires are to a car, as ink cartridges are to an ink jet printer, or a fuser is to a laser printer. It's a consumable with a large price range, and the one you need is usually on the expensive end.

I had 36k miles (27 months) on the car and the tires were pretty bald with a few plugs from roofing nails that peppered the roads after Hurricane Jeanne. (I know you're not suppose to plug radials, but for $5/plug it was a cheap stop gap measure on bald tires.)

I needed 215/75SR16. Goodyear was the only manufacturer. After paying for stems, balancing, disposal fee, the damage was over $500. I declined several road hazard, aligment and several other options. I rotate my own tires every 5k miles. The wear was fairly even.

I got a mail in coupon for a $25 manufacturer rebate. I hope it is faster that Best Buy mail in rebates.

Here's survey: So what size tire do you use? How many miles do you normally get? Do you rotate your tires or pay someone to do it for you?

It's a full moon, so if you go to some secluded spot to view it don't forget to take protection.

No, not eye protection, you can look it directly without suffering permanent eye damage. I mean garlic, silver bullets and a wooden stake.

I spent Saturday night at friends' home. We lost power around 11pm before Jeanne's eye came ashore.

Their house is on the barrier island about 2 blocks from my condo.

Their patio was on the leeward side of the house. We went outside during the peak of the storm and watched transformers blow giving off a blue-gree hue to the skyline. Palm trees whipped against powerlines strumming them like guitar strings.

We didn't speak much. It reminded me of watching sparks and fireflies from a campfire.

By dawn the winds subsided and I walked back to my condo. The condo was fine, but if I had left my car in the carport, it would have been crushed.

We have been consuming meat from the freezer as it thawed; cooking on a butane BBQ grill. (all electric kitchen). Vegetables were heated in their cans.

This afternoon power was restored to my condo. My friends are still without. I have invited them over to enjoy a hot shower and a kitchen cooked meal.

Sometimes you don't miss things until you don't have them. Other things you realize how trivial they really are.