Looking for red weather balloons!

Help. If you see an eight foot red weather balloon anywhere in the continental United States on December 5th, I need you to contact me, now.

More info: https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/default.aspx

They'll look like this: https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/gallery.aspx

Update:

Final locations were posted. They are...

Balloon 1: Union Square, San Francisco, California
N 37° 47' 16" W 122° 24' 26"

Balloon 2: Chaparral Park, Scottsdale, Arizona
N 33° 30' 36" W 111° 54' 29"

Balloon 3: Tonsler Park, Charlottesville, Virginia
N 38° 1' 34" W 78° 29' 28"

Balloon 4: Chase Palm Park, Santa Barbara, California
N 34° 24' 51" W 119° 41' 5"

Balloon 5: Lee Park, Memphis, Tennessee
N 35° 8' 17" W 90° 3' 43"

Balloon 6: Collins Avenue, Miami, Florida
N 25° 54' 14" W 80° 7' 31"

Balloon 7: Glasgow Park, Christiana, Delaware
N 39° 36' 30" W 75° 43' 51"

Balloon 8: Katy Park, Katy, Texas
N 29° 48' 56" W 95° 48' 15"

Balloon 9: Waterfront Park, Portland, Oregon
N 45° 30' 44" W 122° 40' 28"

Balloon 10: Centennial Park, Atlanta, Georgia
N 33° 45' 33" W 84° 23' 33"

I had the Delaware and Portland ones, but submitted them too late to MIT to win any cash.

Social links...

I finally got around to updating my seriously neglected personal website JeremyParnell.com with links to all the social networks I hang out at. Yeah, I know, I really need to update the other stuff, but at least this is a start.

Just look for these links at the bottom of the page:

Follow Me:

I'm not dead...

... just cleaning things off my plate. Unfortunately there's only one guy in a fifty-mile radius who equally balances right-brain form with left-brain function, tracks new web developments religiously, has any real experience in online graphic design and architecture, and can program or fix other's code in four or more separate languages. Unfortunately that guy is also easily distracted by a warm breeze, the fragrance of a flower, the exploding bursts of color that come with spring, or the ever-changing drift of a lazy river. That guy has a propensity to let things pile up. I'm looking forward to meeting you for drinks after I've finished dinner.

IM me if you're bored

My brother who lives in South Carolina talked me into switching to Windows Live Messenger since that's what he uses at work. I was previously a Skype guy for all my IM needs. So if anyone out there is bored and wants to chat (friends or interesting strangers), I'm on Live Messenger at jeremyparnell -at- live.com (replace the "-at-" with an "@" = hobo spam deterrent). I'll probably only run the messenger on my office computer, so if I'm "away" leave a message.

Back in the lab

After about two weeks of working on my new "laboratory" (was only supposed to take a week), I'm ready to get back into my groove. Sorry if I missed any emails or failed to respond in the meantime.

Bits are better than bolts

Why do I build things on a computer? Because remodeling a bathroom is hard work! I recently leased the second floor of an old building and the renovations to the place are kicking my butt. I'll be back to the blog later in the week, if the walls don't collapse on me.

All set for world domination

Not really. I just wanted to post a notice that I'm all done moving over the new server. Sorry if I ignored your email (at best) or lost your email (at worst) in the process. I now have an ungodly amount of space, like giggity, giggity, gigabytes worth, so I might do some more 3-D animation work.

Server switch

While searching for a solution to my email problem yesterday, I found a better dedicated server that's newer, faster, more reliable, and cheaper. Expect a few minor outages as I switch over to the new server and feather the nest. One to two weeks, tops.

Doomsday tech geeks, emails, and epiphanies

So I spent most of the day trying to fix a glitch on my mail server. For some reason the Feds thought it'd be a good idea to switch daylight savings time around this year and a lot of paranoid tech geeks tried to hype it up as a Y2K redux. You know, nukes launching, end of the world, et cetera, et cetera. Y2K7 or something. I laughed it off but apparently karma's a bitch. I guess my mail server software needed a patch and I didn't notice a problem until I started getting emails saying that today was Tuesday. I wasn't about to let Microsoft or the Feds steal a whole day from me, so I set out to unravel the glitch. Then again, considering it has taken me most of the day to fix the problem, I guess they stole the day after all. Karma. I will never again laugh at doomsday tech geeks.

I think I lost a few emails in the process, so if you sent me one that I haven't responded to anytime between March 11th and today, that's probably why. It's not cause I don't love you : )

Crossing my fingers that the server is alright, I went outside into the warm sunshine, noticing a gentle breeze dancing with the too-tall grass that will probably need cutting soon. The birds are singing, trying to awaken the budding trees that will get around to waking in their own time. Daylight savings and dawning spring and dancing blades of grass, you just know... It is all alright. It never wasn't.