As you’ve probably noticed, I fell behind on my video posting. I couldn’t get the time, and now I’m way behind: I’m already back in Houston. The same goes for my photo posts.

A factor in this problem was a few power outages here in Houston that took my uninterrupted power supply down for the count. As such, this site has been available only intermittently. This has also hampered my job hunting: until yesterday, I couldn’t even access my Craigslist scraper, and that’s fully half of the postings to which I respond.

Today, if you follow me on Twitter, you noticed that the site was down very briefly while I remedied the power problem. We’re now on a much larger power supply, capable of serving a 42″ HDTV, the DSL modem, cable box, a PS3, a Wii, and a Time Machine (for my mom’s backups and house Internet routing), as well as the box on which this site is hosted (because I needed a hard line in to the DSL modem to get this thing on the Internet, and the other available site, by the print server, is in much worse shape). Don’t try this at your home, kids, I’m what you might call an expert.

Those of you who have been following me for a while also know that I’ve been working on losing weight. I’ve now lost over 62 pounds. I was surprised to have lost 5 pounds on the trip, considering the fact that I was eating a lot of fast food (though it was mostly Chic-Fil-A and Subway, both of which have excellent low calorie menu selections) and was staying in a house where the idea of calorie counting was anathema. However, it’s good to be home where I can get a high-impact yet relatively low calorie breakfast (a smoothie made with nonfat yogurt and an apple, which provides 2 servings of fruit, 2 servings of milk, a multivitamin, 3 glasses of water, a serving of lean protein, and 2 teaspoons of cis-unsaturated oils¹, for less than 300 Calories). It satisfies my dairy, multivitamin, lean protein, and oil needs for the day, freeing me to eat more interesting things at lunch and/or dinner.

1. There are five oils in this category: extra virgin olive, canola, sunflower, flax, and safflower.

First, a video of dubious quality. I’m only beginning to figure out my camera and iMovie. Perhaps some help from knowledgable YouTubers would be nice, but then I’d have to, you know, talk to people I don’t know. I don’t like doing that.

Today was a bit slower, with only a trip to a local mall to get batteries for my camcorder and clothes for the kiddos. No matter where I am, it seems that malls never change, and in fact have the same stores almost universally. The only malls I’ve seen that are any different from the usual pattern are the megamalls I’ve been in, namely the Mall of America and the Galleria–both of which have the typical stores and some other, more interesting places, particularly in the food court. Even if the mall is entirely outdoors, like the one I was at in San Diego back in August, it’s still the same–though that one did have a curry stand, which I did find unusual.

It does seem like a pattern is emerging: at the end of the month, I travel. Admittedly, last month did not see an adventure of this magnitude: it was just a small day trip to the north side of town back home. I’m beginning to learn to enjoy the travel, even if adventures make you late for dinner, and the food you eat makes you fat.

On the food front, I finally got in a serving of dairy again today–the first in three days, as until now, we’ve been running into places that serve only whole milk. Additionally, my uncle is a decent cook (better than my father, though things are occasionally a bit bland), but it does appear that the concept of filling but not energy dense food eludes him.

Tomorrow, we’ll be going to King’s Mountain. As such, I’ve got to get up early. Therefore, I’m going to try to be asleep by 10:00 local time, which is NOT the timestamp on this blog (since my webserver is in Central Time, and I’m not resetting my computers’ clocks. This is something I just have to keep in mind. I’m not adjusting to Eastern Time well at all–it’s too early to be so late.

I’m now in the Charlotte, North Carolina area–despite being neither in the city of Charlotte nor even the state of North Carolina. However, I can see the line of both from where I sit with my laptop without the aid of glasses or contacts.

This does mean that I’m away from Xbox Live as they release the rest of Abbey Road for The Beatles: Rock Band. I shall cry about it later. I’m exhausted after a long drive through 7 states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina) and crossing state lines 7 times (those of you following me on Twitter know that to get to my current location in South Carolina, we had to cross the North/South Carolina state line twice).

The drive here was rough: we went through driving rain through Texas and Louisiana. Things didn’t let up until we got to Mississippi, and conditions were so rough that we missed the Mississippi River entirely. Dad drove that. I drove today’s trip, and found myself just outside Atlanta, boxed in by other vehicles doing 70 in a 50. I managed to keep a proper distance between myself and the guy in front of me, but everybody was tailgating me something fierce.

I shall be posting video for this trip, but I will need to get a charger for the video camera. It seems I only have a part of it here with me. I’ll be updating YouTube with video and Picasa with still shots (did I mention I got a 32 GB Compact Flash card before coming here?), so watch those spaces.

While I’m here, I’ll be visiting my father’s mother’s side of the family. She’s actually from this area, and we’ve got family dating back here to colonial times–my ancestors owned at the time of the battle there during the American Revolution–three generations of whom fought at that battle (as, you know, it was on their back yard) for the Colonials. I’ll also be getting video and pictures of an ancestor who fought in the Civil War and is buried in Greenville, SC. He owned quite a bit of land between both Carolinas. The reason I bring this up is because his is a Union veteran’s tombstone. Let’s just say that my family in the area was as divided on the various issues at the heart of that war as the rest of the country¹.

I also hope to look for work in the area while I’m here. I’ve sent out feelers and resumes, but alas, nobody’s biting. Honestly, I don’t expect to find work. Ever. I know how my life goes. I got three years of mostly good days between August 1998 and August 2001. I don’t expect to see another good day again–I just expect to get kicked in the balls repeatedly, proverbially and literally.

1. I assume this is not unique amongst Americans who have more than one ancestor who lived in this country prior to 1860, unless their entire American ancestry was in California or Maine at the time.

So I’m currently in San Diego. I’ve been in the air most of the day, attempting to re-read Good Omens without much success.

I’m going to need a great deal of luck and all my skill to get myself through the next few days, which will prove to be some of the most expensive of my life: they’re charging for Internet access at the hotel (as if I were going to live without that). Also, plane tickets weren’t cheap. As it stands, the only deal I’m getting is on the rental car: I got an intermediate vehicle for the price of the economy car I ordered because someone drove off with the last Aveo.

That said, I fully intend to enjoy myself. I’ve got four movie tickets, and if I can swing it, I’ll probably go see Inglorious Bastards, as nobody else in my family wants to see the film (but I generally enjoy such bloodfests).

If you live in Southern California, I wouldn’t mind meeting you, as I’m here until Monday. Comment on any location where this post appears with info.