Quartz City

When meterology meets Spinal Tap…

Have you noticed the ongoing arms race among local news broadcasts, trying to outdo each other with new generations of doppler radar? One station started out with plain old Doppler Radar. But that wasn’t enough. The station across town decided to make it sound better by calling it Super Doppler, or Mega Doppler. Then the numbers started coming in: Doppler 2000, Doppler 3000, (and Power Doppler 3000, Super Doppler 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000 even DOPPLER 10,000… but it doesn’t stop there… it goes all the way up to DOPPLER 13,000!!!

That is, until now. WCBS in New York may have just hit on the final solution to the Doppler Wars, inventing an utterly unbeatable, unstoppable, and unmatchable Doppler Radar technology:

DOPPLER TWO MILLION!

And here’s the inevitable Google Map / Hurricane Katrina mash-up.

Haven’t seen any news reports from you, but I hope you’re OK. I was there in January and liked it a lot.

I just started a new job in Rancho Santa Margarita - deep in the bowels of exurban Orange County and already I have a rant. Why can’t anyone make a u-turn in this burg? Not only do most intersections prohibit u-turns, but many streets have center dividers, so if you don’t know exactly where you’re going, you’ll end up driving miles out of your way.

Since most of the restaurants and shops here are buried in ambiguous-looking strip malls that face away from the street be prepared to drive a lot.

I’ve blogged about the Long Beach Airport (LGB) before - vintage terminal, free wireless, and happy times on JetBlue. I’ve never been to the cafe before though, so it was time for another round of coffee, pancakes, and bacon.

The food was your basic above-average diner quality and the wait staff kept the coffee flowing. The real winner though is the view out of the window where you’ve got a panoramic view of almost all airport operations. I could easily sit here, drink coffee, and stare out the window all day. Did I mention the free Wi-Fi?

Just down the street from the LGB terminal is the old McDonnell-Douglas aircraft plant. Boeing took it over when they they bought out McDonnell-Douglas and renamed the MD-80 descendants the Boeing 717. Boeing shortly phased out the 717 soon enough anyway. Still, the real tragedy is that the giant “Fly DC Jets” neon sign on the roof is no longer lit.

Older photos of LGB

Avoid blog depression! Start another blog meme!

Last Road Trip: Laguna Beach, CA to Bisbee, AZ

Last Bad Advice: “I think the last Metrolink train leaves at 7:30pm”

Last Movie I Saw in a Theater: Valley Of The Dolls

Last TV Show Watched: the current run of the Sci-Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica (via P2P though, not on TV)

Last TV Show I Enjoyed Watching: The same Battlestar Galactica episodes

Last Book I Tried to Read: Picture Windows about early Long Island suburbs (still reading it though)

Last Thing I Left Home Without: cell phone

Last Take Out Meal: The cheesesteak I just had for lunch.

Last Celebration: Don’t remember.

Last Item Loaned Out and Haven’t Gotten Back: A copy of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential

Last New Words Added to Vocabulary: Some specialized word used in electronic funds financing/transfer that I can’t remember this minute.

Last New Word of a Foreign Language Learned: “Schaufensterpuppen” = “Showroom Dummies” in German (thanks Kraftwerk!)

Last T-Shirt Acquired: “New Jersey: Vacation State Of The Future!”

Last Package Received: Can’t remember

Last Web Site Visited: This web page

Last Injury: Hangnail from chewing fingernail in nervousness

Last Run In with the Law: Can’t remember. Probably a speeding ticket I got in New Jersey a couple of years ago.

Last Place I’d Want to Live: Round Top, Texas

Last Physical Fight: I don’t ever recall being in a fight since elementary school or so.

Last Magazine Read: FileMaker Advisor (May 2005 issue)

Last Thing I Broke: My brain

Last Thing I Fixed: Collapsing closet bar.

Last Thing That Made Me Laugh: The “Reading Ron” episode of Reno 911

Last Thing That Made Me Go Huh? The outside world (but this is a daily occurrence anyway)

Last Thought: Shoot low they might be crawling

1. This collection of posters for the movies presented by Mystery Science Theater 3000.

2. The “musical furry lobster”

3. Though not furry, the the sponge crab carries around a sponge on it’s back for camouflage.

4. Italian guitars of the 1960s. (full disclosure: I own a Crucinelli-built Vox Cheetah)

5. François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters’ comic series Les Cités Obscures. Mysterious steampunk adventure stories where the story/plots center around architecture city planning constructs. I’ve got three of the books and love them dearly, but I had no idea that there were nine more. Each one feels like a history parable that fell out of some parallel universe. (more reading)