Of Buschs and Beaches

Finally made it to the "real" beach. Took a trip to Venice yesterday afternoon. Wow. It made for the perfect afternoon. Tottles and I spent hours there. I whipped out "1984" for a bit and then ventured out into the waves. Got a good bit of the Gulf up my nose. Of course, I couldn't resist hunting around for some seashells.

I think I spent a good hour walking up and down the beach collecting shells. There was a nice breeze and the sun wasn't shining too much. But once it hit noon, Tottles and I took off. It was hard to leave, especially as I saw more beaches on the way up to the outlet mall in Ellenton, which totally beat out the the outlets in Chicago. There's something about that 6.5 percent sales tax...

Finished the day off with dinner at a hibachi grill with my aunt and uncle. Had some yummy sushi, steak and shrimp.

The day before, I spent the day at Busch Gardens. Hung out with the wallabies, lorries and hippos. And of course, I fawned over the palm trees. I just can't get over them...

But no more roller coasters for Erika. Hopped on two coasters -- I tried to be brave. What possessed me to even consider riding on another coaster when the first trip reduced my legs to jelly, I don't know.

The day ended with an ice cream bar and an impressive show done in the style of Cirque du Soleil. I was totally wiped.

There's just not enough time in to see everything. Daytona Beach, Universal Studios and Magic Kingdom are next! And maybe, just maybe I'll sneak back to those outlets.

Adventures in Florida

Spent the last three days lazing around, but now the action begins! I'm off to Busch Gardens today; Sarasota tomorrow, then hopefully Daytona Beach.

Tottles, my stuffed animal traveling companion, and I started our epic journey on Thursday morning.

It's been exciting so far. I saw real palm trees! I know it sounds crazy, but I'm still in awe of them. So, I made my uncle promise to take a photo of me near a tiny one before I leave. I caught up on sleep Friday, did a little exploring and got to know the family pets, who include five cats, two dogs and a hen named Bessie. My absolute favorite is a little Yorkie puppy named Maisy. She's a little ball of fluff and energy. Saturday, we went to Orlando for a law school

graduation.

I missed the Endeavor's launch this morning (I'm about three hours away from Cape Canaveral; I woke up when I should have already been gone for an hour and a half!), but for a good reason!

Went kayaking yesterday afternoon on the Lacoochee River with my aunt -- and I have proof! Tottles had to stay home for this one; couldn't risk him floating off if I tipped over. I cooked dinner for my aunt and uncle afterward, so I knocked out right away and got up pretty late.

And so, here's the proof that I really did go kayaking:

And no, I never tipped over.

Ballad of the Cantaloupe

This being my first blog post as a fully-employed college grad, I wrung my hands for a couple months trying to figure out the perfect ramble.

And then, I found it. It was perfect.

I left work at the butt-crack of dawn a couple weeks ago and found a cantaloupe sitting forlornly on the bench at the front of my apartment complex.

I am the melon. The melon is me. Teeheehee. Yeah, not very sharp stuff popping into my head, but it was 6 in the morning. I snapped a few shots and then drove off to work.

When I came back for lunch, the cantaloupe was gone. Ah, woe is me.

Look twice

CNN posted an interesting story about the recording industry's plummeting sales. In the last decade, sales dropped by over $7 billion. The RIAA laments that free, unauthorized digital copies of songs are to blame. Ah, so the blame game continues. Yet, there's not solid proof that the music industry is indeed losing revenue because of illegal downloading and piracy. Something to think about...

Anyway, what really got me is the graph that accompanies the report. The scale starts at $6 billion and goes up by increments of $3 billion. That's a cut scale that doesn't accurately show the data. Instead, it makes it look as though sales have plunged to near zero. It hasn't! Step up, CNN, and don't be lazy.

Koreans win world-wide texting contest

According to an article from the Seoul Journal, the champions of the last two international texting competitions hail from Korea. These crazy kids text while they walk, eat, study... In fact, they'd rather text than talk. And I thought I was anti-social.Interesting article. While it does include insight from the champs' parents, it wryly points out that those "old folks" are just as busy texting.

Keeping information "private" on Facebook

The New York Times put out a great article outlining the new settings Facebook users should pay attention to. Now users can control who sees their status updates and even how individual people see their profiles. It not only tells readers what the new settings are, but how to find them, change them and what each option means. The article even has step-by-step directions. So check out your settings and make sure those steamy photos of you on your 21st won't make it on someone's blog.

And yes, "everyone" means, like, the entire world... even the FBI or some random stalker pervert out in bufu.

Illinois updates Freedom of Information Act

It's quite lovely. The updated Illinois Freedom of Information Act went into law this month. Here are some significant differences:

• Public bodies or officials must respond within 5 business days (instead of seven)


• Time limits on their responses can be extended by no more than 5 business days (instead of seven)


• Section on redaction (the blocking out of information) was repealed

Those aren't all the updates. I just happened to notice them when I was reading through it while working on a project for friend. Go see it for yourself.