An average day of work today, with no notable occurrences or appurtenances to add or subtract from it.
It was threatening to rain with thunder rumbling in the distance this evening, and then suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the radio tower over at the college campus one block over. Heheh. A cool bang. It wasn't the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard (that was Thailand, July of 2003), but it was the longest (while still being really loud) coming in at well over a second. I give Tyson credit, he wasn't scared... unlike Susan, Epril, and Ednil. I hope that the folks over at Polytechnic had everything attached to that tower grounded.
Hmm... My jungle perch is a bit tall, although there are much taller cellular towers and lots of TV antennas on metal poles of equal height nearby that might help... maybe I should add a lightning rod or something to the 4th floor roof. It seems to me though that that is kind of like putting out a welcome mat for lightning... who wants that?
Anyway, it was an otherwise boring evening around the house. I watched a bit of TV and then played Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the car racing simulator, on the PS3. Christ, but that's a pretty thing to watch in high-def. GT5 Prologue is just the "teaser" version of the yet-to-be-released full game, with only 6 or 7 tracks and 75 cars. The full version is delayed and will have 80 tracks and 1000 cars. Always wanted to race a 1964 AC Cobra Daytona Coupe at Monaco? You'll have your chance soon.
Now, if I could just afford the full racing kit, with the bucket seat, steering wheel, shifter, and pedals.
Of course, once I got something like that, I'd probably go right off the deep end and set up something like this guy, who networked four XBox 360's together to provide a 4-monitor (left, right, center, rear-view mirror) racing experience that is simply insane.
Hmmm - Aren't you worried about your computers being hit with lightning? I would think a lightning rod would be a good investment.
ReplyDeleteYLM
Actually, the house is well grounded: I've noticed that the tops of the four pillars on the 4th floor roof aren't topped off with cement, and have about 3 or 4 inches of steel rebar sticking out of them, and those bars run (contiguously, hopefully) all the way down to the ground... which is the very definition of a lightning rod.
ReplyDeleteEverything else up there (satellite dish, TV antenna, internet antenna) is either plastic or mounted on plastic. The only danger that could happen is that lightning would choose to hit the TV antenna instead of the nearby rebar and would take out the small TV on the second floor that it is connected to... and maybe out to the rest of the electricity system from there. But my computer is already on a surge protector, and hopefully wouldn't be damaged.