Waterfall from a closet

On Friday Boston was hit with a pretty powerful thunderstorm and violent downpour.

How violent? Violent enough that water came pouring out of several mechanical closets at my work, on the sixth floor. One of them is less than 20 feet from my desk, so I grabbed a video:

That's my voice warning people to avoid the water (although I'm sure they all knew not to touch it - call it a parental instinct on my part. Or maybe arrogance). It was probably safe, but in my old job water leaked out of an electrical closet, and they had to shut the whole building down for a week or two. A maintainence guy told me later that we'd been lucky; there could have been an explosion that would have wrecked the whole building.

Anyway, they cleaned up here and there was no problem. I wish the phone had picked up the sound better; it really sounded like a waterfall run amok inside that closet.

Waterfall from a closet

On Friday Boston was hit with a pretty powerful thunderstorm and violent downpour.

How violent? Violent enough that water came pouring out of several mechanical closets at my work, on the sixth floor. One of them is less than 20 feet from my desk, so I grabbed a video:

That's my voice warning people to avoid the water (although I'm sure they all knew not to touch it - call it a parental instinct on my part. Or maybe arrogance). It was probably safe, but in my old job water leaked out of an electrical closet, and they had to shut the whole building down for a week or two. A maintainence guy told me later that we'd been lucky; there could have been an explosion that would have wrecked the whole building.

Anyway, they cleaned up here and there was no problem. I wish the phone had picked up the sound better; it really sounded like a waterfall run amok inside that closet.

Zine update

I've now scanned a second old zine, Rack & Rune #10, and have annotated both of them. Since the old layout of the zines page on my site was rather awkward, I took the opportunity to redesign it. Now I'll be able to add new (old) zines much more easily.

While I was at it, I re-read a few of the old zines. And I was struck by a slight but surprising insight: zines, and particularly APAzine, were the forerunners of blogs! Far more so than diaries. Diaries were, after all, solitary. No one ever seriously kept a personal diary without some expectation of privacy. On the other hand, APAs had both the personal quality that would be a hallmark of blogs and a social aspect which is key to blogging. So in an odd way, even though APAs are gone, they live on - in places like LiveJournal.

How odd!

Update: Whoops! I neglected to upload the annotated zines to my site. So until tomorrow the non-annotated versions will be there instead.

Zine update

I've now scanned a second old zine, Rack & Rune #10, and have annotated both of them. Since the old layout of the zines page on my site was rather awkward, I took the opportunity to redesign it. Now I'll be able to add new (old) zines much more easily.

While I was at it, I re-read a few of the old zines. And I was struck by a slight but surprising insight: zines, and particularly APAzine, were the forerunners of blogs! Far more so than diaries. Diaries were, after all, solitary. No one ever seriously kept a personal diary without some expectation of privacy. On the other hand, APAs had both the personal quality that would be a hallmark of blogs and a social aspect which is key to blogging. So in an odd way, even though APAs are gone, they live on - in places like LiveJournal.

How odd!

Update: Whoops! I neglected to upload the annotated zines to my site. So until tomorrow the non-annotated versions will be there instead.

PUR, not simple

Just emailed this to PUR:

We bought a PUR faucet water filtration system several months ago. The first two filters worked well, so we bought a six-pack of replacement filters from BJ's.

The first two filters from that pack have both failed within a week or two of installation. The status light blinks green, but the water is a feeble trickle at best - virtually unusable. And I have serious doubts that the water coming through has been properly filtered, because something is clearly wrong.

We are a family of three, making reasonable use of the PUR system for drinking water only - no more than a gallon a day. Our water is piped in by the city of Woonsocket, RI, and is neither exceptionally hard nor soft; it's normal city water. We are careful never to run warm or hot water through the filter. Our water pressure is excellent. The red light is NOT flashing on the PUR system. But the system is clearly not working correctly.

What can be done to correct this? Were the filters we purchased defective? I cannot supply the production or UPC code, because when I click on the "How to Find the UPC or Production Code" link, the page that appears says "0 possible answers based on your selection".

I'll give them this: at least the site immediately informed me that the email had been sent, and gave me a confirmation number (080630-002420).

PUR, not simple

Just emailed this to PUR:

We bought a PUR faucet water filtration system several months ago. The first two filters worked well, so we bought a six-pack of replacement filters from BJ's.

The first two filters from that pack have both failed within a week or two of installation. The status light blinks green, but the water is a feeble trickle at best - virtually unusable. And I have serious doubts that the water coming through has been properly filtered, because something is clearly wrong.

We are a family of three, making reasonable use of the PUR system for drinking water only - no more than a gallon a day. Our water is piped in by the city of Woonsocket, RI, and is neither exceptionally hard nor soft; it's normal city water. We are careful never to run warm or hot water through the filter. Our water pressure is excellent. The red light is NOT flashing on the PUR system. But the system is clearly not working correctly.

What can be done to correct this? Were the filters we purchased defective? I cannot supply the production or UPC code, because when I click on the "How to Find the UPC or Production Code" link, the page that appears says "0 possible answers based on your selection".

I'll give them this: at least the site immediately informed me that the email had been sent, and gave me a confirmation number (080630-002420).

No Sebastian!

After I got on the train Teri called me and told me that Sebastian will be spending the night at her brother's place. He's been begging to sleep over so he can play with his cousin.

But I'm going to miss him so much.

No Sebastian!

After I got on the train Teri called me and told me that Sebastian will be spending the night at her brother's place. He's been begging to sleep over so he can play with his cousin.

But I'm going to miss him so much.