DNA Evidence Caught a Hit and Run Driver?

A local woman was arrested for being behind the wheel of a car in a hit and run accident nearly two years ago. If you break the law, you should face the consequences, so I am glad the police found the driver. The news kind of questioned why it took so long to catch her, and I can see that scrutiny. A witness saw the accident and called the police. The story implied the driver never stopped or called the police herself. But the news did say that the arrest was made because of DNA evidence.

I'm Number 200,000 or Thereabouts

I haven't checked my Amazon Author ranking in some time. It's actually an interesting, humbling experience. If you've been trying to sell books online, it's worth your time to check on it once in a while, especially if those books start selling to any degree. Right now, I'm ranked somewhere around 200,000th in the world? or America, I don't know.

The first image here shows my rankings for this year. You can see that I achieved my top ranking in the spring, which makes sense, since my top title is an ACT-prep kind of book. It seems I was in the top 50,000 for a fleeting day. Hooray for me! However, my ranking seems to be trending down over the year, so sucks for me. Really, you can't get too riled up over author ranking, but I would like to stay in the top 50,000 at some point. That would give my life some meaning, I suppose.

Kindle Blogging With NewJaxWitty

Like any author, I want my words to get out there. Kindle allows me to sell my books online. The Amazon Author page allows me to post my blog content to my profile. This can be useful in order to show that I know how to write, but it's also a nice cross-promotional tool. People might show up on my website and read more there, whether or not they ever buy a book. The problem is that my blogs have mostly disappeared from my author profile. Luckily, this blog seems to work.

Most of my other websites are Joomla and https. There seems to be a problem with getting the feed in that configuration, at least for Kindle and Feedburner. I get an error when trying to validate my feed:  

Server returned [Errno 1] _ssl.c:510: error:14077410:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:sslv3 alert handshake failure

Skin Cancer Higher in Florida, Obviously

Being fairly new to the area, I have realized that the sun in Florida is more intense than in Wisconsin where I'm from. It seems so intense that it's probably dangerous, and I've met two people here who have had to deal with skin cancer, so it's for real. Obviously, Florida must lead the nation in skin cancer. Or not. 

>Here are the rates of skin cancer per 100,000 for a recent year:

1. Delaware—32.6
2. Vermont—32.3
3. New Hampshire—31.4
4. Wyoming—30.1
5. Oregon—29.6
6. Montana—29
7. Iowa—27.8
8. Washington—27.5
9. Utah—27.4
10. Maine—26.5

These rates are similar to other ones I found online from 2015, which had Utah way at the top with something called the age-adjusted rate (not sure if that makes a difference).

Tough Times in Jacksonville

Mayor Curry's wife was talking about all the good stuff her husband has done to keep our families safe. Then she wished me a Merry Christmas. But one thing that got my attention was when she said this:

We are thankful for coming through tough times together to rebuild and restore. 

Just wondering what the tough times were.

My Screenplay Play

Maybe someone out there is a struggling screenplay writer like me. Maybe you've mailed the scripts or tried the pitches. Maybe you watch the typical Hollywood rehash and wonder why no one will even look at your work. I totally understand. I've written two movie screenplays and a musical play, and I've gotten no real bites. Here's a letter I wrote to someone in Hollywood who was willing to look over my work. His comments were encouraging for one of the scripts--the one he actually finished--but he wasn't in a position to help more than that. Anyhow, besides publishing the screenplays as Kindle books and hoping for the best, the guy I knew through a friend will probably be my last attempt to get them noticed.

Donuts for Dads and Muffins for Moms

An angry mom was upset about a school gathering that turned away moms looking to score some free donuts because it was Donuts for Dads. She said the kids who don't have dads in their lives should not be excluded from such programs, and that doing so will lead to bullying. The news reported that Muffins for Moms is coming up shortly, but I guess that's not enough for the angry (or hangry) mom. I don't think there's a perfect answer to this one.

Seven JSO Employees Arrested In 2018

The news ran a story about the seventh JSO employee arrested this year. Maybe it was the 7th officer, not just employee. With 2000 police officers, 1000 corrections officers, and nearly 1000 civilian employees, JSO employs about 4,000 people. Assuming seven arrests is a normal year, I wonder how that rates.

Alien Movies Keep One Website Afloat

I've gotten some attention with this blog, but I need to take it all with a grain of salt. The articles on this website are generally very specific. Besides, it's only been around a year or so. Other articles I've written have more than 10,000 views. Several articles, actually. That's a lot for websites not associated with news outlets or huge marketing campaigns. But one of my best articles, and one that's saving a website from extinction, isn't even mine.

I Guess I Moved to Ground Zero

A few years back, I wrote an article about a missing nuclear bomb that was near some places I'd never visited. No big deal. I was safe in Milwaukee, which is probably the single safest city when it comes to natural disasters, deadly animals, and nuclear bomb explosions. Now I live 150 miles south of this missing bomb.

Kernan and McCormick Intersection Options

This article may not get very many hits because no one is going to search for something that seems to be a no-brainer. But I was inspired to create an interesting design option based on a road configuration I saw in The Villages. And if anything is a no-brainer, it's that nothing can be inspiring in The Villages. But this was. With all of its uses of traffic circles / roundabouts, one intersection stood out to me, and it could lead to an option for Kernan and McCormick if we're willing to think outside the box.

Wondering How Many of us Would Break a Window for a $3,600 Louis Vuitton Bag

I bet when you park next to a car, especially a nice one, you glance at the interior. I know, you're not casing these cars, but it's just kind of interesting to note how the other half stocks their vehicles. I'm sure that even two centuries ago, people would check out the fancy horse or carriage parked in front of the general store. Sure, you could be shot for stealing someone's horse back in the day, but people still would have coveted what others owned. Today, we keep a lot of junk in our locked cars, especially if we're worried about someone strong-arming us in parking lots. That means the items we need with us stay in the car, and thugs know this. Of course, most of us don't even know if the purse inside is worth more than our entire home entertainment systems.

Soccar Field at The Episcopal School?

With an upcoming trip in the works to the Episcopal School of Jacksonville, I went onto Maps to check out my route. After being sure of how I'd get there, I decided to take a satellite tour of the campus. I was kind of looking for parking, since I think I've parked in the staff lot here in the past. As I navigated around the campus, however, I saw what almost looked like a parking lot on a soccer field (or soccar field as I renamed it). What is up with that, Google Maps?

Male Fashion and Lifestyle Blogging

I wanted to see what other Jacksonville bloggers write about. It's mostly running, momming, and fashion/lifestyle. Real estate, art, and food are in there, too, but those end up being fashion and lifestyle, as well. Spellcheck doesn't think momming is a word, but mommying is really more of a helicopter mom thing. Another time we'll get into it. Also, almost all local bloggers are women. Men are too busy driving their big pickup trucks around town. I started to thinking that maybe what we need is a guy fashion and lifestyle blog. Or one about pickups. But I don't own a pickup. So fashion it is.

We're Taking Local News To The Next Level

There's an ad for a local morning news show that ends with the declaration, "We're taking local news to the next level." It's one of those statements that sounds pretty cool, like "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," but the meaning is actually just as unclear. Almost as vague as commercials I see during the news, like "It's huge," or "Don't settle for less than you deserve." But you have to think about them, and most people don't bother doing that when it comes to catch phrases. I realize it's supposed to be a metaphor, but news it literal, so that's how I'll look at it to try to understand the tagline.

A Porsche Cayenne For My HOA

I'm still debating how I feel about this one. A few weeks back, I saw a Porsche Cayenne with my HOA advertising written all over it. Kingdom Management. I don't have anything too bad to say about the company, unlike those who have rated it on Google. More than likely, those folks ran into the wrath of not paying HOA fees or getting caught parking an RV in the side yard. Then I got my yearly HOA bill, and I thought about that Cayenne again, wondering about the purpose of it and how Kingdom Management manages its own budget.

How Does Brucelli Sell Online?

As a web designer and small business owner, I'm always interested in ways to promote my brand. As a concerned consumer, I'm worried about my credit cards or bank accounts being assaulted by digital thieves. I was able to consider both when I stopped by the Brucelli marketing website today.

Alignable For Local Businesses: Three Cities In

I got an initial invitation to Alignable from a former student when I was still living in Wisconsin. The idea seemed like a good one and came at the right time, since I'd recently been laid off. I was also trying to take my career in a new direction. But Alignable has been a bit of a disappointment in a long line of time-consuming disappointments when it comes to running my own business.

2017-2018 Grace Lutheran - Jacksonville JV Basketball

I had all these photos I took of my kids playing basketball for Grace Lutheran here in Jacksonville, but I never posted them to my main blog, so I figured I'd add them here. I am currently purging my Flickr albums because my free storage got nixed. Neither of my kids are tall, but they both work hard. Coaches did a great job getting kids a chance to play and gain experience. If you're looking for a private school in the East Arlington/Intracoastal West/Arlington/Mayport area of Jacksonville, then check out Grace.

Kernan Forest DR Horton Stucco Problems

I typed the above search phrase into Google and didn't come up with much. I did this for two reasons: our house has a couple of replacement windows, and a house down the block just had a window replaced. That doesn't seem too odd on the surface, but stucco problems are below the surface. They're also, when you find them, probably beyond the time frame for litigation. So do homes in Kernan Forest / Jacksonville have problems that are the result of shoddy construction back in 2003-2005 (and before), or is this all just normal wear and tear? And if there are problems, should previous owners and inspectors be expected to know?

The Catastrophe of Success

I was watching a Kirk Douglas interview by Dick Cavett from a few decades ago on the Decades Channel, and Douglas was discussing a Tennessee Williams quote about the catastrophe of success. Kirk's own story was that he had been saddened when he returned to New York and got a suite on the 25th floor of a hotel overlooking Central Park. He had reached the success he'd hoped to achieve, yet it wasn't enough. Douglas's advice was to always have the next goal ready. Of course, catastrophe of success is a fancy way of saying resting on your laurels, but the truth for those of us who have never fully realized our potential is that life becomes more of a catastrophe of near success, and that's probably even worse than getting there and feeling empty.

100mph = Dangerous

I saw on the news tonight that 300-some people have been caught speeding at over 100mph in the past year or two. I wonder how many people regularly travel at speeds of over 100mph. Probably more than 300, since speed traps aren't everywhere. Anyhow, it's wrong to speed, even if I think speeding in certain situations is worse than others.

I Guess I'm Still Tutoring; Getting Paid Might Be Nice

I get about one call per month from people looking for a tutor, generally in the Milwaukee area. Most people leave messages and then I pretty much ignore them. I'm not really going to try to do some long distance tutoring with people who probably need some in-person help. However, tonight I did a little free tutoring, just because I felt like it.

Is Nest The Best For JAX HVAC?

When I was told I needed a new thermostat, the recommendation was for a Honeywell 9000 series unit. And I was perfectly prepared to spend $155 per thermostat. However, my HVAC guy also mentioned the Nest, in the, "If you want to spend the extra cash" kind of way. I didn't. But since he never mentioned the Sensi by Emerson, which seems to be the budget version of the higher-end, smart, DIY thermostats, I had a decision to make, and since it was Black Friday week, that decision got clearer as I read more about the deals.

$700,000 Missing From St. Johns Sheriff's Office And Neighbors Didn't Notice

A naughty employee has been accused of stealing $700,000 from the St. Johns Sheriff's Office. And her neighbors didn't notice any crazy spending. What gives? If you stole $700,000, wouldn't all your neighbors know about it? Mine sure would.

PO Problems - Heat Pump MIA

I've talked about the fact that the previous owners of my house never had their dishwasher hooked up to drain, meaning it never worked for their 13 years in this house. I also wrote about the neighbor's weird air conditioner that ran in the winter, eventually concluding it was a heat pump. But I would have never imagined that I also have a heat pump, one that I believed was possibly never connected by the original installer. After talking to McGowan's Heating & Air (original installer), I've got it figured out. Read the whole article to see how that worked.

Guest Blogging: Should I?

I got an intriguing offer today in my email. It was for guest blogging. I think I've gotten similar emails before, but I always assumed someone was trying to scam me. When I looked into it further, however, I understand the concept of guest blogging. What I'm not sure about is whether or not to participate in some way.

Bigdealsbox.com - The Scam I Almost Bought (Also Bigdealsmall)

I was looking for a place to buy a specific item, so I searched for that item online. This method has worked in the past in order to get the best price. However, as I was about to order from bigdealsbox.com, I got suspicious, so I looked up the site. A search of "Is bigdealsbox.com safe" just got me safes offered by the site. Luckily, I refined my search to "Is bigdealsbox a safe website," and here's the Reddit I found.

Florida Should Not Be The Laughing Stock Because of Election

I've seen it on local and national news. People are trying to cast Florida as a laughing stock because we had insanely close elections. But if you really think about it, we should not be ridiculed in Florida for close elections or recounts. Not even for all the posturing and lawsuits. Sure, you could argue that the actual candidates for whom we voted might open us up to mockery, but the fact that we had a close election should really be celebrated.

Profiles in Courage: Shawn Hall

Shawn Hall, according to the news accounts, single-handedly stopped an out-of-control ride at the Duval County Fair. He looks to be a big guy, so I can believe he stopped the ride. (Also, if a ride can be stopped by one person, it might not be the sturdiest ride in the world.) When I looked up his NFL career, just to check out his stats, I could not find him. Maybe he changed the name he normally uses so that fans don't recognize him. This article wasn't going to be about the NFL career of Shawn Hall, but I just wanted to see how big he really was. Anyhow, I want to return to the news interview. What caught my eye in the interview? Malibu!

Keeping Kids Safe: Home and Road

Maybe you're new to Jacksonville, new to parenting, or new to watching someone else's kids. There are some rules, but I don't think many people stress these rules until something bad happens and you get blamed. Or you don't get blamed because you're the victim. I'm going to throw a few scenarios out there to illustrate how keeping your kids safe might be easier than you think.

Just In Case You Want Your Shower Water to Taste Better

Jacksonville doesn't have terrible water, but I don't like the taste of it, or smell of it. Since I have a refrigerator with a water filter, I don't have to deal with the sulfur, pharmaceuticals, and whatever else sneaks into the Jax water supply. But that's a totally different review. This one is all about shower water, and most of us don't drink it, so why get a shower filter? Well, if you want slightly less hardness without a water softener, this might help a little.

Instead of Recount, Let's Do A Revote

I know it's not the law and it's not going to happen, but it's kind of interesting to note that we just approved voting rights to an extra 1.5 million voters in Florida ON the day that we had one of the most important votes in the last 50 years (I'm totally making that up...I am not a political analyst). It seemed important.

37,799 Photos is 36,799 Over My New Flickr Limit

I have some work to do before January. I've been using Flickr's free version that promised me 1TB of storage since 2007. I went along with Flickr when it wanted me to install an auto-uploader on my desktop. I installed it on my phones as a secondary (full size) backup to Google Photos. I even half-heartedly believed the whole SmugMug and Flickr better together company line. I know, a business needs to make money, and storing my photos for free isn't making Flickr (now SmugMug) any money, so I get to try to figure out how to store nearly 40,000 photos that I already have stored in several places. But Flickr does not make it easy.

I Want to Build My Own Website But Don't Know Where to Start

I get people who ask me all the time about websites for business or churches. That's probably because I work as a church and small business website builder, but also because people love free advice. Once you determine the purpose of your website, then it's not all that hard to build it. Here are some quick tips.

Rick Scott's 10 Point Plan

I was watching Rick Scott declare victory as our next senator from Florida, and he said that no one in the press read his Ten Point Plan. I'm not in the press, and I guess I'm reading it a bit late, but after having read it, I'd like to wish Senator Scott the best of luck with his list. I'm not saying the ideas are bad, but I'm also not saying any of them will happen while he's in Washington. In fact, he probably won't even suggest most of them, but we can take a look in a few years. For now, I'll just go through the list with my opinion on each point.

82% of Jacksonvillians Good With Spanking

If I ever run for mayor of Jacksonville, I have officially found my platform. I've watched the news for over a year since I've moved to the area, and the issue that has united people who watch the news and bother to take the news survey more than any other issue is whether or not to spank your kids. As of when I saw the results, and unless there was some left-wing hacker who changed them, I'd say it's the most unifying issue in the history of TV news polls.

Blurred Out Racial Slur Is Kinda Funny

You're going to have to stay with me here. I am not a racial slur kind of guy. Not at all. I grew up going to schools with 80%+ African American populations (and I'm white), so I know better. But whenever people decide to do stupid stuff, there's all kinds of irony, which is funny, as long as you're not too outraged to look for it. Let's look.

Grace Lutheran School Jacksonville Tuition

If you have kids and you live in Jacksonville, Florida, then you are considering private school. It's really that simple around here. I built the website for Grace Lutheran School in Jax, and I reminded the folks that one of the top searches is for the name of a school (Grace Lutheran School) and the word "tuition." People just want to know how much it's going to cost, but I totally understand the concept of selling what it offers rather than just giving out the numbers.

Halloween Candy Buyback - A Mom Blog Win

My wife has a journalism degree. I don't, which means I don't understand certain elements of "getting the story." Basically, I can search online and use resources readily available in order to write something. When I had trouble imagining how a local mom blogger could have found all the local places to turn in Halloween candy to be used for distribution to the military, she really couldn't help me figure it out. Some dentists offer cash per pound, and others don't, if that matters to you.

FBI Most Wanted in Jacksonville

It's not all that surprising that a man on FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted has been through Jacksonville. We're on I-95, and that makes our city a pit stop for criminals traveling up and down the East Coast. Even though there's no definitive evidence the man in the photo is in Jacksonville right now, it's probably a good idea to get his photo out there because he's been here before.

Cause and Effect: Walmart and Riffraff

A nice lady from St. Johns County was being interviewed on the news about the big shopping center going in near her house. She wasn't all that excited about the traffic, but she specifically didn't like the idea of a Walmart going in. She said Walmarts bring in the riffraff. No, not Riff Raff the rapper from Houston. She meant the type of people: disreputable or the lowest class. (OK, Riff Raff might qualify.) So the question here is whether Walmarts bring riffraff to an area or if Walmarts in an area simply provide a place for the riffraff that already exists to congregate.

Saving Hundreds in Repairs: Lincoln MKZ, Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan

If you have a Lincoln MKZ, Ford Fusion, or Mercury Milan from the 2006 to 2012, you're going to need to make the door handle repair at some point. Somehow, Ford managed to make every piece of the door handle out of plastic, so it will eventually fail. You'll want to blame your wife for yanking too hard on the handle, but when you look at the construction, you'll realize it was not her fault. However, you'll probably avoid the all-metal replacement that costs several times more because your car already has over 150,000 miles and isn't worth the upgrade. I'll recommend the Amazon overseas version of the door handle for your money-saving needs.


The one in the above link is for the driver door. That's the most likely to break unless you have kids. Our kids semi-broke both rear door handles, but they can deal until I decide to order those. If you bust the driver's side handle, you can still get out of the car by using the lock button and some force. Or open the window and pull the handle from the outside.

Understanding AT&T Wifi Hotspots (That Don't Really Exist)

Some of you are in the same boat as me. You want the fastest internet because you work from home or have gotten rid of cable. So you might get AT&T's Fiber offering in Jacksonville. It's $80/mo the first year and then $90 a month after that. As a bonus, AT&T claims there will be wifi available to me at all kinds of locations nationwide. That's either not true or mostly in one city. My recent desire to go hang out at the beach and get some work done is a good example of the wifi not existing.

What's Changed After A Year At The Fair

Last year, I sent a link to one of my articles about the fair to the people at the fair. I got the response from someone who worked there that others who worked there would read the article. As my chance to get reduced (half price) advanced tickets expired, I saw that nothing had been done to make changes or address my opinion. So I guess we're still not going. And neither would most people if they paid attention.

Americans Don't Really Want to Teach in China

Since I have twelve years of teaching experience on my various online profiles, I get the "teach in China" recruitment efforts all the time. Actually, you probably get them, too. If you are an American with an employment profile and can breathe, you probably are a candidate to teach in China. But we don't want to do it. Even those who end up doing it don't really want to. So why not bring the kids here to learn in Jacksonville?

ADA Sidewalk Ramp Investment

My kids and I were having a discussion about the new sidewalk ramps being installed in our neighborhood. The pros and cons, actually. I know, that's not entirely politically correct to imply there are cons to compliant ramps, but just hear me out.

Sheriffs Live On-Site At Local Synagogues?

The news was discussing the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and how it relates to Jacksonville when I thought I heard that two of the three main synagogues in Jax have JSO officers who live on-site. Maybe I heard it wrong, or maybe the news meant there's a house right next to these places of worship that's rented out to JSO.

Parents Should Definitely Check For Meth Candy This Halloween

You can make candy look like cigarettes, and you can make medicine look like candy (like Ex-Lax or Pepto). But it takes a devious meth lab tech to make meth into candy and then distribute it to kids. That's the message from local news channels. Sorry, I'm not worried about this, and the normal check of candy should do just fine.

Trick or Treat in East Arlington, Jacksonville, FL

It's kind of weird talking to people about trick or treating in Jacksonville. Some people will say all they do is Trunk or Treats. Many will tell you they don't need candy because no one goes in their neighborhoods. And then there's where we live.