Two Cents and a Thousand Words

I’ve been noticing that I’ve been putting more and more stuff on my blog instead of the pages within the site (probably for one reason: it’s easier). Looking through the stuff I have on here, I think it could all be incorporated into the blog with a couple of extra pages. Look for more categories and things in the blog soon and probably some sort of reduction in extra pages when I switch this thing over to PHP – and be sure to stay tuned for the first-ever justinrussell.com audio blog.

Well, apparently the dirt that was already in the ground for this parking lot wasn’t good enough. They hauled it away, but starting this afternoon dump trucks started to bring it back in. It looks… um… cleaner, but it’s still dirt.

Yeah. Well, on the upside, at least it looks like they’re making some real progress.

Yes, 768 MB of RAM. I’m very impressed with it. I’m also very impressed with FedEx; I ordered it from Crucial on Friday afternoon and got it about a half an hour ago. It’s already in there.

Just FYI: the system, under Mac OS 10.2 (my main system that I do almost everything on) had an uptime of 32 days, 14 hours. Rock.

(and the fonts and Lurk work again! w00t!)

I could really start to like commenting on Slashdot. On my second post (talking about the Maine laptop initiative), I got a ‘5, informative’. Well, at least I had it. It’s down to a 4 right now, but still, I was impressed.

Read the story to which I responded here.

Well, the first 60-second TSS video I did went over pretty well, so I’ve been going through my tapes of the first month of the new set (since September 23) and I’ve put together another one. Enjoy!

TSS 60-Second #2 (September/October 2002) [1.97 MPEG-4 MOV]

Anyone know any reason why I wouldn’t be able to use my Verdana font (along with lots of others except the basic ones)? It just displays as Times, and my home page in Times doesn’t look that great (along with other stuff).

Maybe it’s because my Mac’s been running for over a month. And maybe that’s the same reason why my webcam viewer, Lurk, stopped counting down to refresh the cams. Oh, well, hopefully it will fix itself when I restart to do Software Update and to insert my RAM.

768 MB, here I come. 😀

Oh, wow. We probably won’t get any, but it means it’s getting closer. Fort Kent got three inches today, I guess. I’m so excited. 🙂

Here’s my trip log from last Saturday.

Click here to see a 1 MB MPEG-4 MOV of Height of Land in Rangeley Plantation.

8:34 AM – Just about to leave Hampden. Today I’ll be headed out to the mountain area of western Maine – what seems like an awful big portion of the state – including a lot of state routes through Waterville, Belgrade Lakes, Farmington, Rumford, Bethel, Grafton Notch State Park, Rangeley, and Wilton. If I get through all of that, it’ll be a miracle.

8:38 AM – There’s fog ahead, but just like on my trip to Lamoine, the sun is already starting to break through. Might be a good day, might not.

9:32 AM – Going through Waterville, I’ll be headed west from there.

10:00 AM – Belgrade Lakes isn’t one of my favorite places, but it is kind of nice between the two lakes here.

10:08 AM – I think it’d be a really nice place to live (on the lakes), but I don’t think it’s much of a visitor town.

10:34 AM – I took my first pictures right outside of Farmington of a corn field right before High Street.

10:47 AM – Just leaving the Farmington Irving station. I bought a nice orange cap just to be safe, and now I’ll be headed out along Route 2.

10:52 AM – I’m actually kind of surprised about how built up Farmington is; it kind of reminds me of Presque Isle, just kind of in the middle of everything, but it kind of looks too built up for its own good.

11:00 AM – I just took some pictures right outside of Wilton of Route 2.

11:18 AM – I just stopped to take some pictures at the Newton Brook rest area right outside of Dixfield.

11:36 AM – I guess I won’t question why Wal-Mart wants a Supercenter in both Brewer and Bangor now; there’s one in Farmington and one in Rumford. Rumford has a HUGE mill, the biggest one I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t really smell, though.

11:42 AM – I spoke too soon. Around the other side of the mill, the smell is awful.

12:04 PM – Most of the dirt over here is sandy. It’s a lighter brown, kind of like a beach sand in places. It’s starting to clear up, which is nice.

12:26 PM – I stopped at the Riverside rest area just outside of Bethel. I’ll be going down to Bethel and then go to Grafton Notch.

12:38 PM – Bethel’s a nice little town, some great views of the mountains, and a great Dunkin’ Donuts, but there’s not much to it. It’s pretty much in New Hampshire.

12:55 PM – Just stopped to take some pictures of Sunday River.

1:07 PM – I just made a stop at the Newry covered bridge right by Sunday River. Good foliage there, so I took a bunch of pictures.

1:24 PM – Took a couple of pictures along Route 26 going through the mountains, including a picture of a barn in front of the peaks. It’s very colorful, and this is probably the best road I’ve been on today.

1:26 PM – I’ve noticed a lot of the roofs around here are a lot steeper than back east. That’d probably make sense, seeing how they probably get much more snow than we do.

2:20 PM – Just got done hiking the length of Step Falls nature preserve in Newry. Now I’ll be headed into Grafton Notch.

2:33 PM – Just got done exploring the amazingly cool Screw Auger Falls Gorge.

3:00 PM – Just stopped at Moose Cave Gorge in the park, and now I’ll be heading out.

3:43 PM – After finding what is most definitely an impassible road, I’ll be heading back. I’ll probably go to Rangeley and head back.

4:40 PM – Just completed my stop at Coos Canyon in Byron, and now I’ll head up to Rangeley.

4:44 PM – Just took a picture of some rocks in the stream to Byron. I bet it’s a lot higher in the spring.

4:46 PM – The drive up Route 17 is very nice: very colorful and it follows the Swift River for a while, so that’s nice to see.

5:06 PM – I can’t even describe the view from Height of Land just south of Rangeley Planatation. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but you just can’t capture it. We’ll have to see how it comes out and go from there. Definitely one of my favorite places.

5:15 PM – Another scenic view along Route 17. It seems to me like it’s the Acadia of the west; the views here remind me a lot of the views from Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, only there are mountains as well as lakes at this stop. Each of the places I’ve visited have had a bunch of people, but maybe it’s just because it’s Columbus Day weekend.

5:26 PM – Heading east on Route 4 towards the town of Rangeley. There are some great views of mountains (including Saddleback, which is covered by fog or low clouds; I kind of want to see it without those, but it’s a great shot with them).

5:32 PM – Just driven through Rangeley and taken a few pictures at the town park and landing. I just drove by what they say is 45 degrees north latitude (doesn’t say that on the gazetteer, but anyway…). There’s not really much to Rangeley – it’s a pretty traditional Maine town, from the looks of it – but I like it. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s good with the lakes. I’ll be going south on Route 4, and then probably across near Mount Blue. Hopefully there aren’t too many more pictures to take (my card’s full).

5:36 PM – Just entering Phillips. There was a pond in what I think is Madrid, and I took a couple shots of the reflections.

7:17 PM – Leaving Farmington, heading towards Rome, Waterville, and then home on Routes 2, 27, 225, and 137.

7:56 PM – I’m turning onto Interstate 95 in Waterville.

8:51 PM – I’m home, and the milage total for the day is 424 miles.

Can I please reiterate how American Beauty is the single best movie ever?

I just realized that there’s a setting in OS X.2 that changes your desktop wallpaper every half an hour, or hour, or day, or 5 seconds. It’ll just choose a picture from whatever directory you pick.

(Yah, I know, took me a while to figure that one out, sor-ry, but I think it’s cool.)