I recently reconfigured amavis to bounce email positively identified as spam in an attempt to reduce the load on my mail server. The effect has been immediate. As you can see in the screen shots below, I’m bouncing much more mail (the black on the right-hand graph) and also sending and receiving much less mail. SpamAssassin does a great job of identifying spam.

I had some really good dreams on my way down to ‘bama today. I don’t remember specifics, but I have vague recollections of what they were about and just one of those nice, warm, fuzzy feelings.

Mmm…

I spent the past weekend painting my bedroom. It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do. It’s very soothing and relaxing now and looks quite good. I have one more wall left to finish and then I can put everything back where it’s supposed to be. I’m thinking about doing some spring cleaning too…

Update: Complimentary screen cap. Not the best, but it’ll do. Just wait until you see the couch!

Well both my garden and my bedroom are now looking better than ever. With a little help, the garden outside my apartment has been weeded and spruced up a bit with some hosta’s, mums, and other pretty flowers.

This past weekend, I went to IKEA in search of nothing in particular. I came across a great rug, and an even better love seat that had the exact measurements I needed for my little bedroom in the back of the house. The next day, one friend’s truck, and a lot of sweating later and the love seat was in my room. A little cleaning up and re-arranging and it looks very well put together now.

Well the ‘rents are gone, headed back home. It was good to see them and show them all around Chicago. My mom liked it quite a bit, especially how it’s much cleaner than New York. ;)

The Architectural Boat Tour [cfl81.com] was amazing. It was great to ride up and down the Chicago river and learn about all the different styles of architecture in the area, not to mention the coincidence that many buildings on one side of the main branch of the Chicago River are being built by the grandson of the architect that built many of the buildings on the opposite side. I also learned about the Chicago Fire of 1871 started in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn and how Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago river (digging the South branch deeper and let gravity work it’s magic) due to pollution.

I would greatly recommend the architectural boat tour to anyone with visitors in town or even for something to do on a lazy Sunday.

For now, I need to get back to some coding.

This is quite amazing. There’s an article on Wired about how Australia is preventing car theft by using DataDots.

As small as grains of sand, up to 10,000 DataDots are laser-etched with vehicle identification numbers and spray-glued on the engine and most other parts, making it very difficult to “re-birth” cars or sell cannibalized parts. The dots glow under a black light for easy spotting and can be read with a 30-power magnifying glass.

That’s pretty impressive! Of course, BMW is one of the manufacturer’s using these and they report a 60% reduction in theft. Subaru reports a 95% reduction! I also saw another article this morning about Variable Intensity Brake Lights and BMW has done this, but only on their 5-series.

So my parents are in town. It’s been a busy couple of days. We’ve been walking quite a bit - I don’t even want to think how many miles I’ve put on my feet in the past two days alone. Thus far the two main things we’ve done have been go to the zoo and hit up The Magnificent Mile, of course! They also got a taste of what it’s like to commute on the el during rush hour…BUSY!

We have also been eating quite well, hitting up some of my favorites including Angelina’s, and Mia Francesca. And of course, we had to have Chicago-Style Deep Dish pizza - I chose Gino’s as that is my current favorite. I’ve heard good things about Lou Malnati’s, but I have not had the opportunity to try it out yet.

We’ve done several other little things in-between, but I’m way too spent to detail them all out. Tomorrow, though, it will be an architectural boat tour - should be pretty interesting!

OK - Cleveland has vindicated itself…somewhat. First the Clapton concert last month with the accompanying post-show fireworks that rivaled Chicago’s “less-better-than-the-3rd” 4th of July fireworks. And now I went sailing on Lake Erie. This wasn’t the let’s have some wine and chat sailing. This was the race series with the boom “coming about” and “falling over”. I think I may have found a new passion, or at least another one.

I’m drenched, cold, and I can barely type, but man did I have a good time out there. I didn’t do much this evening as it was my first time sailing. At the very least, I do know what the fore guy and main guy are and what they do. Not to mention the top lift (I think).

Hopefully, I will be able to arrange something in Chicago that I can do on the weekends. I will have to do it on a regular basis, though, not just when I wake up and feel like it.

In any case…good times, four foot waves, and good company made for a pretty decent evening in Cleveland.

raindrop on leaf - This is one of the most remarkable images I have seen in a while!

st. james park; church and king, downtown toronto. the morning rain was followed by a great weaher this evening and while coming back home from work i noticed these big raindrops that were gathered on the leaves.

I really like Mediterranean Food. It looks like I’ve got another place to try out besides Aladdin’s Eatery. And! They even have respectable hot sauce, it seems! mmm…spicy kafta rolled.

If you do happen to go to Aladdin’s, try the Almaza - it’s a Lebanese beer that is quite good.