Mark Turner Dot Net

Raleigh’s Sewer Monster is clump of tubifex worms

Mark Turner — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:51:58 +0000

OIn our way out of town Wednesday we saw a city sewer inspection team in our neighborhood, inspecting the neighborhood sewer lines with a robot camera. The crew chatted with the kids and me about their robot camera, showed us one of the cameras, and explained how it all worked. The kids loved it and so did I.

Little did I know that video from another robot camera was making waves just then on the Internets. A YouTube video shows what looks like a strange creature living in Raleigh’s sewers. Over half a million viewers have checked out this supposed creature as it lives below Raleigh’s Cameron Village shopping center.

It turns out the “blob” is actually a bunch of tubifex worms, according to the City of Raleigh’s website. Tubifex worms are amazingly hardy creatures.

One week left for Siteseers.Net

Mark Turner — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:49:50 +0000

I’m retiring my long-time domain, siteseers.net, next week. I’ve had it since 1997, back when I used ISDN to access the Internet. While it will be sad to see it go, I don’t really use it anymore. I’ve got more than a dozen other domain names and this one is needlessly adding to the cost of annual domain renewals.

I’m going to park it at Sedo in case anyone is interested in buying it.

Shuttered

Mark Turner — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:35:46 +0000

I spent part of yesterday afternoon at the former Army SIGINT base known as Vint Hill Farms Station, which is now a county park and office park development. Vint Hill reminds me of a similar base to which I was once assigned but is now also an office part development: Fort Devens in western Massachusetts.

As I surveyed the empty barracks and parade field, I realized that precious few of the places I’ve been stationed are still active military installations.

Recruit Training Command Orlando, where I entered the Navy as a recruit? Now an office park redevelopment.
Fort Devens? An office park redevelopment now.
USS Elliot (DD-967), my home and office for three years? Now an artificial reef in the Coral Sea.

The only station from my military past that is still kicking is NTTC Corry Station in Pensacola. I was sent there after initial training in Fort Devens.

Makes me feel old.

Star Trek

Mark Turner — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:16:08 +0000

Yesterday. I talked Kelly into seeing the new Star Trek movie with me so we ventured out to the movie theatre again for the first time in a long while. Happy to say we weren’t disappointed. There were a few things in the movie’s …. er, logic that left us scratching our heads and the fight scenes were confusingly hard to follow, overall it was a very entertaining flick.

Happy Independence Day

Mark Turner — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:06:20 +0000

Happy Independence Day to all of my fellow Americans. Let us take time to reflect on where our country started and where we would like to go.

Gone forth for Fourth

Mark Turner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:33:28 +0000

We’re spending day three at Kelly’s parents’ home for the Fourth of July weekend. It’s been a fun one, with lots of bike riding (we brought them with us), bubble blowing, and just having fun. Our bike rack served us well in getting the family’s bikes to Virginia, with the kids’ bikes packed in the back of the van. Even Rocket was comfortable in the back of the van, with the seat down so he could actually see out the window. Never heard him actually wag his tail while in the van before.

The bubble blowing was the biggest hit, though. Kelly’s mom Linda found a recipe for “bubble juice” and made a big bucket of it. We’ve used sticks with straps on them to create enormous bubbles – some 3 feet wide by 20 feet long! It’s been so much fun that we’re going to get our own bubble kit when we get back home!

Today we’re heading to a friend’s stable so the kids can ride the horses. Then it’s off to the pool to cool off. The Virginia weather’s been markedly cooler than North Carolina’s but a swim will be just as welcome this afternoon!

Compuserve Classic closing

Mark Turner — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:07:44 +0000

Not long ago I blogged about being a Compuserve user way back when. Well it turns out that Compuserve pulled the plug on the “classic” accounts at the end of last month.

Truly the end of an era.

(h/t Mark Hinkle)

Cheap Thoughts: Disposing of a nylon flag

Mark Turner — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:54:01 +0000

I noticed this morning that our weather-beaten nylon American flag is starting to tear. The proper way to dispose of the American flag is to burn it. However, how does one burn a nylon American flag without the EPA showing up at one’s doorstep?

More tomatoes!

Mark Turner — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:06:54 +0000

We enjoyed our first batch of cherry tomatoes with dinner Friday night, courtesy of our fast-forwarded tomato plants. Travis and I picked another five from our plants this morning and we enjoyed them for lunch!

Our plants have grown so massive that I’m kicking myself for not spreading them farther apart. It’s tough getting to all the goods!

No shortage of water … yet

Mark Turner — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:49:15 +0000

I noticed Friday that we had the first week in a long while in which it didn’t rain. Our spring and early summer has seemingly had rain every 4-7 days but last week was dry. I was missing that smug feeling I expected to have with a large rain barrel (”Lake Turner”) of rainwater that I haven’t tapped since September and another 40 gallons in a separate container. We’ve also been adding the water we run through the pipes before our shower gets hot and also water we collect from the air conditioning condensation, so there’s been no shortage of water.

Now that we’re into the second half of summer we’ll see if this water becomes necessary. I’m going to hook the rain barrel up to a timer again so that my tomato plants get regular water, but I don’t expect my plants to put a big dent in the supply.