While I really do not feel like getting into each and every detail of my day, the first day at the office went very well. I have already learned a quite a bit of material, even if only skeletal, to the operation of this business and real estate companies in general. It should be a pretty interesting week overall and I can say I am actually looking forward to it.

One more thing I had forgotten to mention previously, when I went to the dealer two Saturday's ago to pick-up the registration for my new car, I was also told I was due a refund of $4.15 bringing my total paid-out price for the vehicle, tax, tag and title to $4011.85. Needless to say, I was amused to be getting a refund from the dealer, albeit a rather insignificant one (the $4.00 went to Dean, my favourite bartender at Southern Nights in the form of gratuity).

After burning my first complete tank of gas in my new car, I was wondering exactly how much fuel capacity the 1994 Civic has in comparison to my previous 1996. With the 1996, I was typically able to drive 300-350 miles on the 11.9-gallon tank. During periods of Interstate travel to, for example, Tallahassee or Jacksonville, it was not uncommon for me to be able to get 400 miles from that tank of regular unleaded gasoline. The record mileage for that car was made at some point when I was living in Jacksonville and drove back up from Orlando. I remember fuelling at the Kangaroo Gas Station on Wilson Boulevard right off of I-295 and noting I had hit 416.8 miles on the single tank of gas.

Anyway, because I had already been leafing though it here and there, the owner's manual was already inside the house and ready for use. An interesting note about said manual: it is not for my car. While similar in nearly every sense, the included manual is for the 1993 Civic EX. Regardless, the information indicated that the tank is also an 11.9-gallon one. When I stopped to get gas the evening before, I put 10 gallons in the tank. My trip odometer indicated I had driven just shy of 350 miles. That is good gas mileage, especially considering the driving I have been doing has been local, around town trips. I am sure that come Monday, my new regular schedule of to and from the office will degrade my ability to get such prime mileage from each tank, but it is understandable.

How do you like how I slipped that one in, right in the middle of a non-related story? Before I hopelessly digress any further from the inspiration of this writing, let me get to the point. Whilst looking through the rest of the owner's manual, I discovered the usual information, instructions and warnings. As with any guide of this sort, the authors have to aim for the lowest common denominator, which ends up providing the rest of us with some entertaining, if not blatantly obvious reading materials. Here are some observations:
Information on how to start and drive the vehicle is located in a chapter called "Driving," located just after the chapter entitled "Comfort and Convenience Features" which covers such important topics as how to operate the cigarette lighter, air conditioning and audio system.

• While suggesting their avoidance all together, Honda reminds us: If you use a liquid air freshener, make sure you fasten it securely so it does not spill as you drive.
• From the short-but-sweet category: Your car is not designed to tow a trailer. Attempting to do so can void your warranties.
• More brilliance, this time from the "Driving in Bad Weather" section: Be very cautious when passing, or being passed by other vehicles. The spray from large vehicles reduces your visibility, and the wind buffeting can cause you to lose control. There is even a little picture of a little Civic passing an 18-wheeler in what looks to be Hurricane Andrew.
• Finally, my favourite. The following was stated in the aforementioned "Driving" chapter in a box with a large, yellow WARNING box header: Rapid slowing or speeding-up can cause loss of control on slippery surfaces. If you crash, you can be injured.

Yes, I will be starting my new job on Monday. As I alluded to before, I will have a dual-responsibility, one of which will be the on-staff IT support for two offices. The other will allow me to delve into something I have only ever touched upon before, real estate. As a transaction coordinator, I will assist real estate agents in the daily processing that is necessary when listing, showing, selling/buying and closing a home. I am looking forward to this new opportunity with a growing, however firmly established company from which I can both learn and teach. The owner of the company also has, on multiple occasions, expressed his specific elation that a younger person will be joining his team, allowing for a different, "fresher" perspective.

Now to wrap-up what must be the most non-topic specific entry yet, I must brag about the coding I did this morning. Using the existing setup as a guide, I successfully (and on the first try, no less) created a new shortcut to be used within the forum software.

I am very pleased with this addition, as not only does it reflect more accurately my aesthetic desire for this type of blockquote output, but also it requires no manual entry of HTML, CSS or other code. Admittedly, it was not the most difficult thing in the world to accomplish, but I was amazed after looking at the files exactly how simple it really is to add custom code shortcuts.

Update: All previous instances of block quoting have been replaced with this new version.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Congratulations to the Supreme Court for doing its job by protecting the citizens of the United States and the Constitution.

The US Supreme Court has struck down a ban on homosexual sex in Texas, in what is being seen as the most significant gay-rights case in many years. The 6-3 decision reversed a ruling 17 years ago that the state could punish homosexuals for engaging in sex with consenting adults.

The case was brought by two Texas men who were caught having sex on private premises in 1998. They have argued that the state's sodomy law unfairly infringes their right to privacy and to the equal protection of the law. [ full story ] – [ analysis article ]

In other news…

Californian voters have backed a pre-emptive move to ban official recognition of gay marriages. Proposition 22 — which calls for a ban on recognising such marriages — was passed by 61%-39%.

Sponsored by Republican state senator Pete Knight, it was the most controversial of 20 propositions on the Super Tuesday presidential primary ballot.

Supporters of Proposition 22 said it would protect Californians from the consequences of legal moves in states like Vermont, where legislation for same-sex marriage is forging ahead. [ full story ]

My apologies to everyone for the technical issue this morning that brought the Forum software to a screeching halt. The MySQL database table that keeps track of session ID's and their corresponding IP addresses was full. To prevent a security breach, the software is designed to then halt all operations in the event the error was caused not by the table being full, but by a hacking attempt. I have corrected the problem and will be looking into preventing a similar incident in the future.

Today is one of those "better just post some links" days. So without further introduction or delay, here are some I recently enjoyed.

Oppose Writing Intolerance into the U.S. Constitution
Send your representatives an free ACLU-drafted letter or fax opposing the amendment of the US Constitution to specifically declare "marriage" or any derivation thereof, a union between a man and woman.

Moral Dilemma
A brief and humorous discussion about modern thinking.

Gay Marriage Etiquette
Now that Canada has legalised a form of homosexual marriage, there are new rules and superstitions to learn about.

Terms of Venery and Collective Nouns
Let not the title scare you, this writing about categorisations such as "pride of lions" is quite funny.

How two students built an A-bomb
An article about the 1964 secret US "Nth Country Project" designed to see how easy it would be for other nations to develop nuclear weapon technology. [ via ]

I got a call last Wednesday from Chris who said his courier job was going to be taking him to Tampa and back during the afternoon. He said that he would not mind some company for the four-hour roundtrip, especially with the nasty weather. I agreed and we met-up at a friend's house downtown where I would leave my car for the day (since it would have taken him a good forty-five minutes to come pick me up at home).

We got on our way and made decent time on the way to Tampa, up until around the Lakeland area, when heavy rain slowed the traffic a bit. As we continued southwest on Interstate 4, we passed through the rain which seemed to be moving in the opposite direction and were greeted with slightly overcast skies. Our destination was near the airport, so we took Interstate 4 to the end, hopped on Interstate 275 and then exited onto North Dale Mabry Highway, a significant six-lane thoroughfare in the Tampa Bay area. As we drove down Dale Mabry, I happened to glance to the left where I saw this:

Now you are probably thinking to yourself, "what the hell?" My excited pointing and exclamation upon seeing this sign was as much to a mystery to Chris then as it is to you now. "What? What?!" he kept asking. But similar to most of my little outbursts that seem to have no relevancy, there is a valid and logical explanation for my reaction.

For many, many years, I have been a fan of the sorabji.com Payphone Project, a user-input directory and photolog of public pay telephones from around the world. You can search the database to locate pay telephones indexed in your area or from one of 22 other countries. The database contains approximately 500,000 telephones and I have enjoyed ringing a few of them on occasion to try to see what random person I might chat with from the other side of the country or world.

After we fully drove past the Mons Venus adult establishment, I got to telling Chris about the Payphone Project and how sometime around 1998 or 1999 I remember seeing a photograph of their sign and the two pay telephones situated at the entrance of the building. Silly, no? On the way back from the pick-up, we started to approach Mons Venus again, this time on the same side of the street. A few blocks away and on his own accord, Chris changes into the far right lane to aide in my viewing of the famous telephone booths. And there they were, in all their glorious splendour.

The ride back to Orlando was wet, traffic-laden and hazardous but it was a fun (and for Chris, profitable) little road trip overall. Be sure to check out the three photographs and the rest of the Payphone Project website.

It is bad enough I have so much search engine traffic from the simple mentioning of the "Playboy™ Lingerie Calendar," now I am sure people looking for this strip club will be showing-up too. The irony makes me smile.