Geek Habitat

Unfortunately, Hurricane Gustav is already a Cat 4 hurricane after having made landfall on Cuba, and the storm’s expected to strengthen to Cat 5 status as it moves back over open Gulf waters. At landfall on US Gulf coast, Gustav is anticipated to be a Cat 4 or 5 and the projected path leads straight to New Orleans’ doorstep. As a reminder, Hurricane Katrina was a strong Cat 3 when it made landfall, although it reached Cat 5 status while in open Gulf waters and officially ranks as the third strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on the USA.

Tools & Resources

WEATHER
• Automated Gustav Alerts via Twitter.com (@GustavAlerts)
• Hurricane Alerts via Twitter.com (@HurricaneAlerts)
• Weather Channel’s Hurricane Gustav Tracker
• Weather Underground Hurricane Gustav Info, Maps & Alerts
• National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA)
• National Hurricane Center & Podcasts

SOCIAL MEDIA / DISCUSSION

• Gustav on Twitter.com
• Hurricane Gustav Twitter Tracking (JazzyChad.com)
• Hurricane Gustav on Mahalo.com
• Gustav Potential Tracks & Radar Imagery (via Flickr)
• Twitter accounts to follow: @RedCross, TheHomeDepot (for those evacuating or needing supplies), @GustavAlerts, @GustavReporter (Chicago Tribune reporter), HurricaneAlerts, @GustavFeed
• GustavWiki
• Gustav Resources, incl. HAM Radio info.

EVACUATIONS / PREPARATIONS / PLANNING

• American Red Cross
• FEMA: Hurricane Gustav
• Gustav Information Center – alerts & info
• San Antonio prepares to accept flood of evacuees from hurricane zone
• Most Gulf oil output shut down as Gustav threatens

Don’t get excited, it’s just a new bike ride showing up on my Build a Fitter Geek RSS feed, documenting the 13+ mile road bike ride I did with Justin and his father this morning. Feel good, although I am fighting a nasty caffeine withdrawal headache. Haven’t had any caffeine or Dr Pepper since around 2 PM Thursday.

I splurged on some new clothes from REI thanks to their end of summer sale, including snatching up a $150+ North Face Gore-Tex windstopper jacket for less than $50 and a pair of Vibram-soled $100+ Vasque hiking shoes for just $38.50!

The downer is the two comfy t-shirts I also scored during the sale are ridiculously tight in the arms, bustline and, well, everywhere. Enough is enough. The weight I’ve held on to since pregnancy, coupled with the 5 additional lbs. I gained due to not getting enough aerobic exercise, is weighing me down physically and mentally.

My downfall is Dr Pepper. Prodigious quantities of it at all hours of the day. Until now. As of yesterday (Thursday, August 28) around 2 PM, I have had my last Dr Pepper. As a result, I’ve got a nasty headache but that will pass. I need to get my body back. It’s a Catch-22 when you pack on weight in such a relatively short span of time–your joints (particularly my ACL-reconstructed knee) start complaining; you have less energy and stamina; you get LESS active at precisely the time you need to be MOST active.

I also need to get back into cycling and hiking, neither of which is particularly fun when you weight the most you ever have in your life.

So there you have it, documented for posterity and to keep me honest.

Haven’t downloaded the pics of the former, yet, but wanted to thank both Ford Motor Co. (via a Flickr/Twitter contact) and Google Lunar X-Prize (via @glxp on Twitter) for the free swag I’ve received in the past month. I rarely pick up swag anymore, not attending conferences and the like, so it’s noteworthy enough for a blog mention.

The Google Lunar X-Prize swag’s a comfy, soft black (of course, for geeks!) t-shirt. To learn more about the Google Lunar X-Prize, visit TheLaunchpad.xprize.org!

The Ford swag is primarily Ford Escape Hybrid related, due to my hybrid-related tweets on my previous (now retired) Twitter account. My hybrid-related tweets now originate from @hybrid411 as I’ve spun off my personal (and higher frequency) tweets to @ageekmom. I’ll post a pic of the Ford swag soon… somehow my camera, USB cable, laptop and I can’t seem to share the same Time-Space Continuum lately.

This is wonderful news. I wonder why we haven’t done more to protect our local (USA) environment then? This news just seems schizophrenic in light of his recent move to open up drilling in our own, long-protected offshore waters including those of Florida and California. Nevermind the fact we have watched Tropical Storm Fay camp out over Florida all this past week. Sink those wells, boys! :-/

In other environmental news, a couple links I wanted to share:

1. For retailers, sign up to join the free battery recycling program for your brick and mortar locations. Bring customers in while keeping recyclable materials out of the landfills — http://www.rbrc.org/retail/
2. For consumers, especially those who don’t recycle at all or are a little lax in so doing at times^*, visit the follow site to see the awesome totes and laptop bags they make using 100% recycled PET water and soda bottles — http://www.act2greensmart.com/index_files/Showroom.htm

^* Full disclosure: I was in the former camp except for paper products, but my folks got a new City recycling bin and their neighborhood is served by the City whereas ours is not. So we’re enthusiastically back to recycling plastic, aluminum and cardboard boxes, among other things. I even threw a pacifier in there–who knows what it’ll become in its next life.

Sara’s new words in the past week, all of which she can say, and all for the most part understandable by bystanders, not just Justin & I –

1. going
2. heidi (said like the name, but actually from an episode of Fraggle Rock where the Fraggles play hide & seek, shouting “Heidi….Hoooo” repeatedly. We’ll see if the second half of that gets me embarrassed in public soon!
3. pool

{Rest added later}

4. tent
5. backpack

I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple more new ones, but still, it’s difficult to surpass her early adoption of gigabyte and Google!