Schlepping the dozen or so boxes of books, papers and sporting equipment from our storage unit back to the house reminded me how much I hate moving shit around, after doing it at least 7 times over the last 8 years (mostly the wife's crap).

I've therefore decided it'll be worth every penny of the exorbitant fee the movers are going to charge to pack, load, ship, store and and unload our stuff.

I also found out it's unwise to not wear a dust mask while sanding rust off of a bed frame that has been sitting outside for the last two years. Better yet, don't leave an expensive bed frame out side for two years in the first place like some sort of web-footed moron.

Great tits enjoying the warmer weather – so far

The wild bird has shown great flexibility to adjust breeding patterns to match higher temperatures in the UK, but more warming could start to kill it off


[New Scientist - Latest Headlines]

Cane Toad: I'm in ur grass, poisonin ur wildlifes

'Teacher toads' could be deployed as bioweaponsReleasing baby cane toads, which are poisonous but normally not fatal when eaten, could teach Australia's wildlife to avoid the deadly adults

[New Scientist - Latest Headlines]

For those too lazy to read the article, let me outline it thusly:

• In the 1930's, the Cane Toad was imported to Australia to combat the Sugar Cane Beetle, which was damaging sugar crops. It worked. Then the cane toads starting eating everything else, too. Oh, and while they look oh-so-delicious, they're also poisonous. To everything.
• One brainiac has an idea - let's release more of these little fuckers ahead of the hopping horde that's traversing the continent. That way, if native aussie animals try to eat the baby toads, instead of dying, they'll just get sick, and learn their lesson.
• Oh, and then there's this:
  

  For good measure, he says, the teacher toads could also be infected with a lung worm parasite that targets only the toads so that they won't start invading themselves.

  Because we know, by introducing something new, it's only going to solve the problem at hand... and not infect the entire south pacific with "lung worm parasite". Ick.

Now the fun part. Within less than 30 days we have to:

• Move out of our house in Savannah.
• Find a place in the Tempe/Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale area.
• Move ourselves and all our crap 2200 miles across the country.

I've made at least 8 moves in the last 9 years, but they've all been local. Any advice on a long cross-country move?

I'm considering

1) Having professional movers pick up our stuff, and move it. Maybe pack it too.

2) Renting a Penske truck and car trailer and hauling it ourselves.

3) Getting a Pod.

I have no idea what #1 costs - an estimator can't even get out here until next Thursday - and we have to be out of the house by the Thursday after that.

#2 would suck, but is the cheapest for the size (a 26' diesel truck and car trailer).

#3 is a bit of an unknown. Vicki says they were pretty good when she moved from Bluffton to D.C., but they only come in 16 foot varieties for long distance moves. I think we have a bit too much to fit in a 16 footer, but not enough to justify two of them (and the enormous cost). Just a single container costs as much as the whole truck/trailer/fuel shootin' match from Penske. And I'm worried about what might happen to Betsy's piano en-route.

With any of the options, we might have to ship my car as well, so the wife wouldn't have to drive the whole route by herself.

Opinions?

Ground control to Major Pork

That's right. The two whitest people on the planet are moving to one of the hottest, sunniest regions of the country. What could possibly go wrong? I've got my SPF-80 ready, along with my UV protection suit.

After my nine year stint with McClatchy, I'm moving from the newspaper industry to work for NASA's Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State in Tempe. I'll be their web geek.

While I'll miss coworkers, I'm looking forward to the new challenge and a change of scenery. Oh yeah, and I get to work with data beamed from spacecraft orbiting and crawling across another planet. How cool is that? Makes Lowcountry Star seem kinda lame.

So I saw the following posting:

SCAD Style, the Savannah College of Art and Design's signature style and design event, will present a lecture by renowned architect Frank Gehry April 28, 7:30 p.m., at the Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. The event is free and open to the public. SCAD Style is being held April 10-May 17.

So I thought to myself, "Hey, self, that sounds interesting. He was on the Simpsons, after all. He can't be that bad."

I moseyed on down to the Trustees Theater.... and found a line about half a block long.

This was OK until I found out that was the 'standby' line, for people without tickets.

Wait, tickets? SCAD didn't say anything about tickets.

Would have been nice to know, silly SCADdies!

As it turns out, there was a lot of room for 'standbys'. Enough in fact, to let in at least a hundred people. Only problem - I was the 105th in line. Bastids.

Yeah. I haven't posted anything in weeks a month. Sorry. been busy workin'.

And stuff.

More later.

"You have to understand what a Liberal Arts major is. For a very select few people, it's a stepping stone to being a professor, or research, or something else at the top of the field. For the vast majority however, a liberal arts degree is an opportunity to do some partying, find a mate, and prove that you're able to show up on time. So yeah, you can get a 4.0 liberal arts degree much easier than you can get an engineering degree, but you won't be able to be an engineer with one!"

[ raehl on Does it suck to be an engineering student? ]

So I finally gave something back. Granted, in proportion to how I've benefitted from open source software over the years, it's not much. But it's (marginally) better than nothing, right?

I released a Drupal module I call Commentify, which is one of several modules I wrote (or thought up/architected) to integrate Drupal with the proprietary CMS we use at work.

This happens to be the module with the widest potential appeal, since I can't imagine too many people are interested in modules that interface with proprietary registration systems, or with non-mainstream, non-public video vendors. (Randy's Location Ads module rocked, but there's no way that's ever going to be ported to Drupal 5.x or 6.x)

Basically, it lets you attach Drupal as a commenting solution to any sort of foreign content management system.

It was something of an inauspicious release, because I managed to make not one but TWO big, bonehead mistakes with CVS, which I blame on haste and my preference for and familiarity with Subversion.

Embarrassing, but they were fixed with some help from the CVS guru at Drupal.org.