BlackChampagne.com -- No longer new; improvement also in question.

BlackChampagne Home Buy Crap! I get 5%. Direct donations to cover hosting expenses are also accepted. Site Information --What is Black Champagne? --Cast of Characters & Things --Your First Time. --Design Notes --Quote of the Day Archive --Phrase of the Moment Archive --Site Feedback --Contact/Copyright Info Blog Archives --Blogger Archives: June 2005- --Old Monthly Archives: Jan 2002-May 2005 Reviews Section Movie Reviews (153) Ten Most Recent Film Reviews: --Infernal Affairs -- 5.5 --The Protector/Tom Yum Goong -- 6 --The Limey -- 8 --The Descent -- 6 --Oldboy -- 9.5 --Shaolin Deadly Kicks -- 7 --Mission Impossible III -- 7.5 --V for Vendetta -- 8.5 --Ghost in the Shell 2 -- 8 --Night Watch -- 7.5 Book Reviews (76) Five Most Recent Book Reviews: --Cat People -- 4 --Attack Poodles -- 5 --Caught Stealing -- 6 --The Dirt, by Motley Crue -- 7.5 --Harry Potter #6 -- 7 Photos Section --Flux Photos --Pet Photos (7 pages) --Home Decor Photos --Plant Photos --Vacation Photos (12 pages) Articles See all 234 articles here. Fiction Original horror and fantasy short stories. Mail Bags Index Page Features --Links --Slang: Internet --Slang: Dirty --Slang: Wankisms --Slang: Sex Acts --Slang: Fulldeckisms --Hot or Not? --Truths in Advertising Band Name Ratings (350 Rock Bands Listed) FAQ -- Feedback A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z Hellgate: London --The Unofficial HGL Site --The Hellgate Wiki Diablo II --The Unofficial Site --Flux's Decahedron --Middle Earth Mod
	BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Everyone complains about it but no one does anything about it... Friday, July 21, 2006 Everyone complains about it but no one does anything about it... It's about the time of year that I usually start bitching about the hot weather. I haven't been commenting since 1) I bitched a bunch some weeks ago when it was 100 for three straight days while my parents were visiting, and 2) it's just too hot to bother. You know how they say after a while prisoners no longer dream about being free? That's what it's like here. I know it used to be comfortably cool during the daylight hours, and that I could often wear socks and a shirt during the day without immediately filling them with involuntary bodily secretions, but it's hard to remember those halcyon days of yore. Also known as early June. So far 2006 has been the hottest year in human record, both in the US and worldwide, and late July's doing nothing to change that fact. It's been in the low 90s here almost every day this month, and it's going to continue for the forecastable future. In fact that forecast is pretty much unchanging; it's been 88-93 (31-33c) for the high every day for weeks, and during that entire time they've been predicting 5 more days of the same, before some gradual cooling back towards the mid-70s that we average during this month. This pretty well defines the accuracy of human weather prediction; they can forecast hurricanes and stuff now thanks to satellite photos and radar, but the rest of the time they just say it'll be about what it was today for the next few days, before gradually regressing to the mean. And they'll usually be right. The sad part is that I find myself checking the weather.com forecast every day when it's hot (and never when it's cold, raining, etc), even though I could write the forecast myself, with 99% accuracy. (That's accuracy compared to the weather.com forecast, not to actual reality, which pretty well does what it wants.) It's not horrible weather; it cools off at night and it's nice in the morning until about eleven, and we don't have the humidity that's killing all those old people in the midwest; I just dislike any temperatures over about 80, and find myself, more than ever, wanting to just up and move to Half Moon Bay. Where it's 64 every day of the year. No, really. Failing that, we could use an air conditioner to make the days tolerable and the nights sleepable, but it seems so pointless. Our condo is just one bedroom, and the bedroom winds around a hallway to the livin room, so there's little airflow. A/C in the living room wouldn't help the bedroom, or vice versa, and those portable A/C units are so loud Malaya couldn't sleep next to one anyway. Besides, it's usually hot enough to want one about 2-3 weeks all year here... at least that's the case in years that aren't the hottest in recorded human history. The heat wave's killing my productivity, as it always does. I should just fight through that shit, but try as I do, I am never very successful at writing or editing fiction when I'm sitting in front of a fan with sweat running down my back. And then I'm so relieved when it's finally cool that I tend to screw around for a couple of hours, and I'm tired all the time because I'm not sleeping well in the daytime heat, etc. In summary, not everything is exactly as I want it to be. Waahh, waaahhh, boo-hoo, sob. Update: 99 here today and the heat has officially cracked us. With at least 4 more days of this forecast, and August and September the hottest months in our part of the world, we decided to get a portable air conditioning unit. Unfortunately, as the past hour of website looking and local store calling has shown me, everyone else had the same idea, and there's not a portable a/c unit to be had in the Bay Area. Plenty of window units, but that's not something that'll work in our apartment. I called Home Depot (they only sell portables online in NoCal), Sears (only window units in stock and poor selection), two nearby OSH hardwares (don't stock portable and sold out of window), Lowes (don't sell portable), and the eight closest Wal-Marts. I hate Wal-Mart and refuse to enter their hellish cave-like stores, but in this instance I'll bend my usual rule. Unfortunately, 4 of them never had any portables in stock, and the other 4 were all sold out. One did say they might get some more in tonight when the delivery truck arrives, and yes, we're planning on calling them about every hour just in case. It's a sad state of affairs, but we figure $450 split two ways is more than worth it to counter this hellish heat, even if it does tack $50 a month onto our electric bill. We'll never use the thing after September anyway. Labels: summer, weather Posted by: Flux # 2:05 AM Comments: I'd gladly swap your weather in a heartbeat. As for the hottest year ever - this June was the coldest one in 52 years here, most days it didn't get above 10, we had snow and lots of rain and really harsh frosts - big (2-3m long by 2m wide) puddles of water completely frozen over. I honestly can't remember the last time I've seen water freeze up like that, at least 10 years ago. Last year we only had 1 very mild frost, this year we've had about 20, most of them quite harsh. Conversely last summer we hardly got above 30 at all, most of the time it was just 20-25 with cold winds, not nice. I really miss the 35-39 heatwaves we had when I was a kid. #: 4:00 PM posted by Anonymous You have no idea how cheerfully I could pinch your head off right now, Lanth. I'd store it in the oven, where perhaps you'd finally be warm enough? #: 5:40 PM posted by Flux Bloger wrote: "So far 2006 has been the hottest year in human record, both in the US and worldwide, and late August's doing nothing to change that fact." But it's not AUGUST yet !!!!!!! #: 7:11 PM posted by Anonymous As I always say - you can put on more clothes and build a fire, but you can't get anymore naked than naked. I sympathize flux - we're getting it 'down here' in SJ too. Inside our house is still 90F at 1am - I have a large and noisy portable AC unit behind my chair and it barely keeps me from going postal. Ugh. Lucikly, the house we're living in has a pool. :D #: 1:18 AM posted by Anonymous Be careful with your new AC. I read on reuters that the newest trend is for thieves to steal the copper coils out of AC machines, due to the world-wide rise in copper prices. It would be a pity if someone broke into your house and took apart your AC for a few pieces of metal! #: 10:54 PM posted by Anonymous Post a Comment << Home Archives May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2012

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