Christmas Eve Surf Report

The early AM surf session saw a very high tide (7+ feet), combined with an increasing swell. The sets came in around shoulder high, and there was occassionally a decent ride to be found. Unfortunately for me, I was kooking out this morning, and have no excuse. I will try to redeem myself this afternoon.

I'll be out of the office from this afternoon until my return on January the 12th. I'll attempt to post an update or two between now and then, but just in case: Have a great Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Tuesday Surf Report

Despite a slight sprinkling of rain falling before lunch, I decided to make my way down to the beach for a much needed surf. The wind wasn't blowing, so I thought my chances of scoring a few fun waves while most people avoided the water due to weather, were good.

I was right. The waves weren't large or fast, but they were peeling and fun. I caught my fair share, then headed back to work refreshed. Expect a larger NW swell over the next few days. I'm planning on getting wet tomorrow!

Return of the Surf Report

The stitches in my back were removed yesterday, and the doc gave me the "Ok!" for surfing today. So, come hell or high water, I was going in the water today!

I met a few friends at D street this morning, and we headed South for a nice reef break which turned out to be very nice with the size of the waves. It could have been a bit more consistent, but I'm not going to complain. At lunch, we went out to the same spot and had a good time. The tide was lower and the waves were breaking a bit better.

I was out of the water for just over two weeks, and when I began paddling this morning, my arms felt like two lead pipes. After two surf sessions today, my arms and back are well worn, in a good way. Who would have thought that a mere two weeks could wreak so much havoc?

Thanksgiving Photo Album Added

Finally, for my last entry of the work week, I've added a Thanksgiving photo album to the web site. Plenty of pitures to browse and kill some time on this Friday afternoon.

December Birthdays Photo Album Added

I just added a photo album containing a few pictures taken during the birthday party for David and Alan. Most of the pictures taken that day were on film, hence the small number.

This Web Site is 67% Good!

Which means it must be 33% evil! How does your favorite site rank in the balance of good and evil? Visit the Gematriculator and find out!

Of course, adding this and any future stories will alter this rating, so whatever! It's all very scientific, I am sure.

Search Engine Now Available

Yesterday, I spent a good amount of time adding web server functionality to the email serverm with an eye towards finally upgrading the webserver to Debian GNU/Linux stable, from it's nearly antiquted RedHat Linux 6.2. RedHat was the first linux distribution I used for a significant amount of time (starting with 5.0), but since that time I've come to greatly appreciate and admire Debian.

Anyhow, I migrated the company and personal web sites over to the Debian mail server, which allowed me to install a new search plugin for my blog. You should now see a search box in the top right hand column of my site. Give it a whirl and see how works. It is based on the Lucene java search engine, so see the web site for more info.

Full Moon Fever

On my way in to work this morning, the sun was rising and the full moon was setting over a relatively calm ocean. I pulled over and took a quick picture...

Saturday Surf Pictures at Oceanside

With stitches in my back due to my molectomy, I knew that the first good swell of the winter would be arriving soon. Right on schedule, the California coast received a nice dose of waves from a storm is the Gulf of Alaska, which eventually made their way down here to Southern California. To satiate my increasing wave hunger, my son and I went down to Oceanside Harbor on Saturday and took a few pictures of the then-building waves, and those lucky enough to ride them.

PyBlosxom 0.8.1 Installed

I had not updated Pyblosxom (the blog software which produces this HTML page you are currently reading) in quite some time, and noticed that there had been a few updates/bug fixes since my last installation. Thus, version 0.8.1 is now installed, and seems to be humming along nicely after I overcame a few bumps. If you encounter any problems, please let me know!

CSI for Kids

Do you remember being a kid and playing with fingerprint kits, pretending to investigate some foul crime perpetrated against humanity? Well, technology has advanced quit a bit since the days of my youth, and kids these days can now have their own DNA Exploration Kit, complete with centrifuge! I hope the Tooth Fiary, Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus don't leave any forensic evidence.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Astronomy Picture of the Day is a site I recently stumbled upon, and then immediately bookmarked. Each day, a different picture is posted with astronomical ties. Not only are the pictures amazing, but each of them is also described with hyperlinks leading from that page to others which further explain concepts or provide other examples. Very cool stuff!

The Picture of Everything

Howard Hallis started this project with a simple drawing of Spiderman. After that, he added a few more Marvel super-heroes, then branched out exponentially from there. Warning! Do not visit this site unless you have 30 minutes or so to kill. You have been warned.

A One Gigapixel Image

Yes, that isn't a typo - one GIGAPIXEL. A gent composited 196 separate 6 megapixel pictures to form a single image of 40,784 by 26,800 pixels. Check out the (reduced) image and a description of how he did it here.

Tuesday Before Part of My Leg is Removed Surf Report

Today is the last day of surfing before I go in tomorrow for what I fondly call a molectomy. A mole will be removed from my leg (or back - not sure which hunk of flesh they will remove first), and so I'll be out of the water while the wound heals.

So, to make the most out of the day, I went out in the AM and at lunch. The AM surf session was pretty fun, excepting the horde of surf PE students which descended upon the beach at around 6:30. Then, the lunch break surf was not nearly as nice, with the low tide causing mostly close outs in shallow water.

Back to Work Surf Report

Well, I'm back to work after a nice mini-vacation which included Turkey day. Early this morning I snuck out of the house for a quick dawn patrol session before heading into work, and conditions were very nice. There is still some swell left in the water, although it does appear to be subsiding a bit.

At lunch, we headed out to the same spot since the beach break was close-out central. I grabbed a few fun waves, then made my way back into shore. An excellent day of surf!