Finally, Hawaii! Offlede has been visited by all 50 states

I see you, Kamuela.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

I've been waiting months for this. But finally, The Offlede has scored a visit from someone in Hawaii, the final state to be represented in the blog's Google Analytics report.

The visit comes from Kamuela, which is on the northern end of the Big Island. It was a direct visit, meaning the person either typed the URL into a browser or clicked on a link that I couldn't trace (I have no record of a referring link). And the visitor viewed three different pages on the site, including The Offlede Jobs page (more about that later).

Hi, Hawaii! Nice of you to join.

I have much planned for the immediate and distant future of The Offlede.

I had a frustrating and satisfying day yesterday in St. Petersburg.

It was frustrating because I was taking photos the entire day with two huge spots on my UV filter. Then, I stayed up late to take photos of lightning just to find out that the best shots I got - and they were pretty good - were out of focus (so I guess they weren't so good). It's difficult to focus in such low light, and I definitely failed at that task.

But the trip was satisfying because I enjoyed myself. And I needed that.

You'll learn more about it soon. And if I get the motivation, I'll even have a video to share.

No more sugar = more water at Lake Okeechobee

I had never seen sugar cane before taking this photo.

Lake O still has some water.

I took a trip in January to Lake Okeechobee, where I investigated the surprising lack of water in the lake and toured the refreshingly rural area that surrounds it.

Go here for that post.

Years of farming crops such as sugarcane have sucked the water out of Lake O and the connected Everglades. Corn, left, is also cultivated in the region.

But Gov. Charlie Crist, in a big conservation move, announced today that the state o' Florida will buy U.S. Sugar for $1.7 billion. The company owns 187,000 acres of land around Lake O and has contributed greatly to its downfall. A New York Times story says:

"The intention is to restore the Everglades by restoring the water flow from Lake Okeechobee, in the heart of the state, south to Florida Bay. That flow had been interrupted by commercial farming and the Everglades have suffered as a result."

U.S. Sugar Chief Executive Robert Buker Jr. said, "It the right thing to do." (Yes, that's right, he left out a verb in that sentence. Or maybe The Times left it out? Not sure.)

I thought this would be a great time to revisit my map of Lake O.

I took a counter-clockwise drive around the lake and took photos and notes along the way. I capped the day with some fried okra at a local hole-in-the-wall diner.

Enjoy...


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Living with crime in Brevard County

In the Baymeadows subdivision in Melbourne, them streets is hard.

I've witnessed some gruesome things in some tough cities.

I saw a drunken homeless man get nailed by car in Philadelphia. I saw a 7-Eleven clerk get assaulted in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington. I saw a woman walk out of a Dunkin' Donuts without paying for her Coolatta in Manhattan.

But this weekend, crime hit home.

When I got back from work Saturday night, a message from the roommate asked me to park my Chevy Prizm on the street. He wanted to remove an old refrigerator from the garage in the morning.

So I backed my vehicle from its covered safe haven. When I walked away from it, I thought I should check to see if it was locked. But why bother? Nothing bad would happen on the one night since I moved here that I parked my car outside, right?

When I awoke in the morningafternoon, my roommate was searching for his wallet. We checked under the couch, in the couch, in the trash, in the sink, on top of the refrigerator, in the refrigerator. Nothing. He checked his car. Nothing. But he noticed a few items inside his new Dodge Magnum that were out of place.

We were firmly in denial of what took place, so we concluded that he had left his wallet at his girlfriend's place. No need to worry.

Then the doorbell rang.

I opened the door. It was a sweaty woman in running shorts. "Who lives here?" she said. We told her. Then, she presented my roommate with his Social Security card. She had found it while jogging past our house. And it confirmed our deepest fears: His car had been burglarized.

Luckily, the paper card was the most valuable thing in his wallet. His plastic cards and various IDs could be replaced. And nothing on his online bank statement flagged any use of his credit cards.

But oh no. What about my car?

I checked it. It was locked. Phew. My two cameras and my GPS unit were spared.

But the ordeal was a bucket of water in the face. When I went for a jog yesterday, I noticed the shady characters who had been roaming the neighborhood since I moved here.

A boy in a tattered tank top rumbled down the street on a skateboard decked with subwoofers. He formed his fingers into the shape of a handgun, and he pulled the trigger.

A Vietnam vet-looking dude in a cowboy hat and aviators rolled over the crosswalk with a guitar slung on the back of his wheelchair. I'm sure the instrument carried bags of crack.

A woman in high heels and a short skirt meandered down the sidewalk, likely tired after a long night on the job as a prostitute.

The ground was littered with tops from fast-food soda cups. Stuck through them were straws that could double as needles with which to shoot drugs through the nose or as barrels with which to shoot spitballs at rival gangsters.

And I'm sure the Starbucks being constructed in my neighborhood will prove an inconspicuous hangout for gunslingers and weed dealers.

This 'hood is going to pot. Literally.

But I'm a man of faith, and I know that if I keep that faith, I will be safe. This neighborhood will experience a resurgence. If it doesn't, I'll leave.

So, pray for me. Pray for everyone in the Baymeadows subdivision.

Harris Corp. should use Craigslist to sell company

No one is home at Harris HQ at 2 a.m. Corporate executives were clearly avoiding me and any questions I would have asked them about the potential sale.

Our esteemed fellow journalists at The Wall Street Journal have reported that Harris Corp., the Melbourne government contractor, has entertained bids from a couple of heavy-hitters.

Citing unnamed sources, of course, our News Corp. buddies in South Brunswick, N.J. (1,076 miles from Melbourne), said the suitors could be Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. But these companies run the risk of insulting Harris with their $70-per-share bids ($10 billion total): The company was hoping for between $75 and $80.

The news of a possible sale first broke earlier this month in The Journal.

(Reading about a definite sale of Harris would provide nearly the same level of geeky excitement as when I first learned about the in-flight Web service effort by JetBlue and LiveTV, another Melbourne company, in The New York Times.)

Harris stock rose 6.2 percent Friday and closed at $65.78 a share, making it one of the superstars on Wall Street. I should get me some of that. It's better than Gannett.

Seeking comment for The Offlede, I went down to Harris' corporate headquarters on Nasa Boulevard earlier. But the campus was dark. Few people were around at 2 a.m.; executives were obviously avoiding The Offlede's tough questions.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Harris wasn't getting much love at its yard sale. Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics stopped by and said, "Hi," but no one was very serious because the product field Harris offers is too narrow, and U.S. defense spending is about to peak.

The Offlede's financial advice: Harris should use Craigslist. It has a burgeoning "Space Coast" section. And there are plenty of people on that thing willing to overpay, such as the person who gave me $100 for a bike I bought at Wal-Mart for $80. (Granted, I did pimp it out with pinstripes and alloy spokes, but honestly, the cardboard the bike came in was worth more than the pedaling machine itself.)

Some former Harris products are antiquated, such as the publishing system, NewsMaker, left, that I use each night to make newspaper pages. It likely wouldn't sell very well on Craigslist. This arm of Harris was sold years ago, however, so it's not weighing down the company anymore. Just me.

Something you should know before Discovery lifts off

The "D" on shuttle Discovery is in the sans-serif Helvetica font and is the size of a small person. (Photo by NASA)

Discovery will launch at 5:02 p.m. Saturday from Kennedy Space Center. But before it goes up, there's an important piece of trivia you should know.

The typeface on the shuttle is Helvetica.

That's right. NASA has no room for showing off - no flourishes, no serifs. Plain, old-fashion Helvetica.

Serifs are obviously not aerodynamic. The choice of Helvetica for the shuttle was not for aesthetic purposes: It was clearly an engineering decision. If NASA went with a serif font - say, Garamond or Georgia (used on The Offlede) - the shuttle wouldn't have the power to make it into orbit.

Though unpretentious, Helvetica is an attention-grabber. I used to use it as a headline font for special newspaper layouts. So, it's also obvious that NASA used Helvetica to make sure that, if they're out there, the aliens would see the shuttle.

Discovery's liftoff will be the first daylight launch since I got my telephoto lens. Unfortunately, I'll be at work during the launch and will have a distant view of the event. I'll still shoot it, but my 200mm Nikkor isn't powerful enough to pick up the Helvetica all the way from Melbourne.

Discovery astronauts wave at reporters, who don't care what the shuttle font is. (Photo by NASA)

Reporters experience crisis in covering gas prices

Somehow, I've managed to hold back my urge to rant about journalism stories about gas prices. I have resorted to sarcasm before, though.

The master of sarcasm and all things parody got me off the hook. Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" expressed my own thoughts the best in the above piece, so I don't have to. Take a look.

Central Florida wildfires: Map shows destruction from fires in Brevard County

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I took a little trip around the county to chronicle the destruction.

Use the pointer to navigate around the map. Click a blue marker to view photos of the destruction at that location. Use the scrollbar in each window if necessary. When done with each window, simply click off and move to another marker.

Update: This map is being changed because FLORIDA TODAY is using it.

Central Florida wildfires: Video: Fires near Corey Road in Malabar

I still don't have that nice video camera, but this is better than nothing.

Central Florida wildfires: Stupid moment: Fire starts near Offlede's house

This fire on Babcock Street was near two gas stations, but firefighters had it mostly contained.

I was wondering why I smelled smoke when I returned Monday evening.

A small brush fire ignited near my house sometime in the afternoon while I was gallivanting in South Brevard. Because my roommate isn't home right now, I feel responsible for the house. But it's a good thing our dear Melbourne firefighters were able to quickly knock down the flames.

I went back out Monday evening, and there was a fire burning next to Babcock Street that hadn't been there earlier in the day. I used a timed exposure to get the streaks from the passing vehicles in the shot.

I hope whoever is starting these things thinks twice about the next one.

Breaking news: It's windy

This is co-worker Beth's car after a tree had its way with it. Some tough luck there. Sorry, Beth.

The wind also is blowing flames around Florida. Interstate 95 in Brevard County is closed because of smoke.

It's going to be a long night at FLORIDA TODAY.

Video: You can almost feel the burn at Viera wildfire

I edited this quickly in Final Cut Express, so it's not awesome. I can't for the life of me figure out how to export a Quicktime file without overly compressing it or not compressing it enough. This file is only about 6 megabytes, so the quality isn't awesome.

But at least it shows a little of the scene of the fire this morning.

Update: I boosted the quality and uploaded the video to Viddler, instead of YouTube.

Fire threatens homes in Viera, but firefighters come up big; the real casualty of the blaze? palm trees

Firefighters spray water at the fire, above, and at the trees on someone's lawn, below.

Update: My employer linked to my Floridatoday.com blog from the home page. The Offlede is going mainstream. Uh oh. They also made a photo gallery with my shots.


When I got out of work around 1 a.m., I heard that a fire had burned 60 acres in Viera. It sounded like a good photo op, so I set out to chase down some flashy lights and orange glows.

Driving along Murrell Road, I saw several TV crews doing pretty little standups with the orange sky silhouetting the homes in the distance. So I knew Murrell Road wasn't where the real action was. As usual, the TV guys were miles from the scene. They dared not get their feet wet.

So, I found my way to Starling Way, a little street in a large subdivision with expansive, expensive homes. The fire was burning the pines, palms and palmettos just feet from the buildings. Poor trees.

Then, I got my feet wet. A sprinkler came on as I walked by one house. It soaked my pants, my socks and my shoes.

But I didn't care. I snapped photos like crazy and forgot about it. The heat from the fire dried my clothes anyway.

A group of about 10 youngish-looking individuals were watching the flames behind the homes. Some said they live in the area. Others were the residents' friends who just came to watch a good show.

But apparently, someone forgot the marshmallows. Or do they just not do that here in Florida? Does anybody know about s'mores?

The firefighters stood around and watched as the flames shot 30 feet into the air. They occasionally soaked a tree on someone's lawn or the screening around several of the homes' covered patios. Luckily, the wind was blowing the fire away from the homes and into land that had already burned: It had nowhere to go.

The fire burned southward behind the homes lining Starling Way. It probably burned 400 yards in the few hours I was there.

When it reached a pond, the men stood between the blaze and the marshy area. They spritzed it a few times with their mighty hose. A large stand of palms and palmettos crackled into flames. It reminded me of that bonfire I went to a few years ago when the Red Sox won the World Series.

But that was all. Around 3:15 a.m., there were only small flames, and the firefighters were ready to ship out.

The owner of the house closest to where the fire stopped was grateful.

"I'm so glad it didn't go any farther," he said. "We have a beautiful view of the pond, and I wouldn't want the fire to ruin it."

"Thank you, guys," he said to the firefighters.

"Oh, no problem," one firefighter said. "That was easy."

I took 858 photos, or 1.73 gigabytes of disk space on my new Mac. Looks like an external hard drive is in my future. I'll post video later. I should get sleep first, though.

My first shot when I arrived. This is where I started to get my feet wet.

A couple of concerned residents near one of the more modest homes of the neighborhood. The flames were only feet away, but the wind was blowing them away from the homes.

People, including myself, got close enough to roast a few marshmallows. It was quite safe because of the wind.

One of the younger residents climbed onto his roof to snap a photo. He probably got better shots up there than I did on earth.

One of the less modest homes here. Just after I shot this, the flame flared up two houses down the street, threatening a house. These people scattered when that happened.

Firefighters hosed down the screens of this house's patio area.

Viera = hell?

Nope. Not hell. Firefighters don't go there. Viera, you're off the hook.

The fire brought together a bunch of teens from the neighborhood. Some good, clean Thursday night entertainment! I was talking with a homeowner in the area, and she asked what caused the fire. I didn't know, and then one of these guys said that teens had set the recent brush fires in Brevard County. He said he had no part in any of them, though.

I think the teens had more fun taking photos of the fire than I did. This one used his cell phone.

The burning carcass of a palm tree. RIP. ... Not.

This was the firefighters' last stand. Once this palm was dead, it was done. Good night.

Breaking news: Gas prices are high (it's official)

I've never paid this much to fill my tiny 11-gallon tank.

That's right! You heard it first on The Offlede: Gas prices are ridiculous.

I equate "breaking news" in the above headline with "it's official."

It's a statement of the obvious. It's almost like the headline "It's raining outside" that I wrote about an obvious weather story.

Offlede.com hits No. 1 search result on Google

I've been following it for the past few days. Today, it finally happened.

Two days ago, a Google search for the word "offlede" didn't even show my Web site on the first page of results.

Early yesterday, Offlede.com became the No. 3 result. My YouTube page was No. 2.

Later yesterday, Offlede.com hit No. 2.

Today, it's No. 1, above. (No. 2 is an About.com page about journalism.)

The world is a better place.