Off-topic

Jul 02 2022

United Flight 5918 – June 29th – “Get in your brace positions!!”

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: 2 Comments

Our family had a wonderful vacation in Kauai, spending 9 days on the island. On the evening of June 28th, we headed to the airport in Lihue for the long trip home, with flights from Lihue to Denver, and Denver to Sioux Falls. If everything went well, we were due to be home at 1:30 pm on June 29th. We ended up arriving in Sioux Falls an hour late, safe and sound, but it was anything but a routine experience. Instead, it ended up being one of the scariest experiences our family has had. Given I have yet to see a filed FAA incident report or other information about that last flight (Denver to Sioux Falls, UA Flight 5918), I wanted to record what happened here…partially in case others on the flight were also wondering what the hell happened.

Our first flight was United flight 1685 from Lihue to Denver. We were supposed to depart around 7:10pm (June 28th), arrive in Denver early the morning of June 29th, and have plenty of time to catch our plane to Sioux Falls. From the start, things in Lihue were chaotic. We saw a flight from Lihue to Los Angeles was delayed until the next day, and while we waited for our flight, a flight from Lihue to Seattle was simply cancelled, leaving many angry customers milling around trying to find a way home. As we sat at the gate awaiting our flight to leave, there were no staff at the gate when we first got a text message from United, noting our flight to Denver was delayed. The reason…”Our maintenance team is servicing a fluid leak on our plane before we can depart for Denver”. Little did we know that “fluid leaks” would be the theme of our trip home, with this one being the least of our worries.

United message on flight UA1685 on June 29th from Lihue to Denver, noting a delay for a fluid leak.

We had to wait 2 hours for a replacement part for our Lihue to Denver flight to arrive from Honolulu. Not once during that time did we get an update from an on-the-ground gate person…no verbal notice stating the flight was delayed, much less a reason for the delay. The on-screen status for the flight continued to show “on-time”, even 2 hours after we should have left. It wasn’t until the plane was getting ready to board that the gate crew finally announced we were boarding. Thanks to signing up for text alerts, we knew about the delay, but many in the gate area were puzzled as to what was happening that whole time.

We boarded without incident, sitting in the first exit row next to where people boarded the plane, across from the jump seat where a flight attendant sat. The flight attendants didn’t seem familiar with each other and things were chaotic as people tried to settle in. After taking a long time to load the plane, the ground crew gave the thumbs up to leave and closed the main entry door. However…the door failed to close completely, as the gate pulled away and the ground crew left. The flight attendant in front of us said “it’s not my job to close the door”, so she went to get help from others on the flight crew. One of them finally came over and said “we’ll shut it ourselves”, which they did (is that acceptable procedure?) After the on-the-ground fluid leak and the chaos in the gate area, it wasn’t exactly a reassuring scene, but we were on our way home finally, and that’s all we cared about at the time.

We arrived in Denver with plenty of time to catch our flight to Sioux Falls. We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for the gate, where things were much more organized. The plane was loaded without incident, and we departed Denver for the short 1 hour 15 minute flight home to Sioux Falls. We were in row 9 of an Embraer 175, with my son and I on the right side of the aisle, and my wife on the left. Our window view gave us a view of the right wing. We settled down, thankful we were almost home.

Seating on an Embraer 175. We were seated in 9B, 9C, and 9D, and thus had a good view of the right wing outside of seat 9D.

The first half of the flight was uneventful. I was looking out the right window and saw Yankton, South Dakota and Lewis & Clark Lake off to my right. We were getting close to home. And that’s when we first heard a loud “thunk”, a shudder to the plane, and a whining noise. It was definitely different than turbulence, but given the noise quickly abated, we didn’t think much of it. That changed a few minutes later.

The pilot came on the intercom and said without emotion “We have lost hydraulics and are going to try to make our way to our destination in Sioux Falls.” Simple and short, and it certainly caught people’s attention, but at first there wasn’t any sense of concern or panic. That was the last I remember hearing from the pilot himself until we were on the ground. Given what happened over the next 25 minutes, I have many questions as to why we weren’t given more updates from the pilots, although I’m sure they were quite busy working the emergency.

From that point on, until the plane stopped on the ground, all communication was through our flight attendants. At first, they too were calm, but that quickly changed and the sense of calm in the main cabin began to disintegrate. At one point they said something like “the pilots are working the problem, but if it can’t be addressed we will have to make an emergency evacuation.” The seriousness of the situation really started to dawn on the passengers when the flight attendants came on the intercom and said “Do we have any fire fighters or policemen on board? We would like to move them to exit rows to facilitate a potential emergency evacuation”.

The tension was now quite palpable on the plane, and it only became worse when a flight attendant came on and said in a VERY tense and nervous tone: “Please take the safety cards from their pockets and make yourself familiar with the content. We are facing an emergency landing. The plane may make multiple hard impacts before coming to rest, at which point you may be asked to make an emergency evacuation”.

Embraer 175, the kind of plane United Express was using for flight UA 5918.

We were approaching Sioux Falls from the southwest at this point and I could see the city up ahead. As we circled to the north of Sioux Falls and positioned ourselves for a landing towards the south, the cabin got increasingly tense, with prayers being given, people crying, and a general sense of foreboding. As for myself…it seemed…surreal. Like it wasn’t really happening. The next few moments certainly made it “real”.

About 5 minutes before landing, the flight attendants were quite frantic, and the cabin really went into panic mode when the lead flight attendant starting running up and down the main aisle stating “Get in your brace positions!!! I want to see everyone in their brace positions!!!“. Everyone leaned down and covered their heads with their arms, awaiting impact. Now people were wailing loudly as we all waited for what happened next.

What was quite obvious during this time…the hydraulic problem clearly was impacting multiple systems. We never heard the usual “clunk” and whir of the landing gear going down. Did we even HAVE landing gear down??? The runway ahead already had fire trucks waiting…were we going to land gear up? Equally troubling…looking out at the right wing, and seeing no movement of the flaps or spoilers (right term?) as usually happens as you’re landing. Given the warning that “we may make several hard impacts before coming to rest”, did we have brakes? Steering? Were we anticipating an inability to slow down upon touching down? Was the only thing stopping the plane being a “heavy impact” (as they’d stated) into the ground or an object?

It was 5 minutes or less that we were in brace positions, but it seemed like forever. Someone said to keep the windows closed, but I opened mine a bit, just to see when we were getting close to the ground. My son leaned into me and buried his face in my side and gave me the tightest hug I’ve ever had as the ground approached, and I said “any moment now…any moment now!!”.

And…we hit. The landing itself was actually relatively smooth at first, but the stopping of the plane certainly wasn’t normal. There were no flaps to slow us down, and now we strongly suspect the main braking system was out with the hydraulic leak. Our current understanding is the backup braking system did kick in and thankfully was working. It was a VERY heavy application of the brakes, and the plane actually came to a stop much quicker than it normally does.

The plane erupted into cheers and clapping as the pent-up tension and fear was all released in a moment. A smell of smoke and burned rubber started to enter the cabin, but the pilot (finally) came on again, and said “The smell is from the braking system, but we show temperatures within parameters” (in other words, they weren’t going to catch on fire). Firemen surrounded the plane and were checking it out, and the pilot came on one more time to note “We have lost all steering and cannot make our way to the terminal. We will have to wait for a tow in”. We ended up on the tarmac about 45 minutes before getting towed back.

All’s well that ends well, but one reason from blogging about this…what the hell really happened!?!? How much danger were we really in? We clearly had lost steering, flaps, some braking, but between the announcement of losing hydraulics, and the message about the smoke in the cabin and brake temps after we landed, we had no information from the pilots. There wasn’t any information on the problem itself from the flight attendants other than “hydraulics”. I can’t find any FAA flight incident recorded yet. That leaves speculation.

Our brother in law, a flight mechanic in Lincoln, gave us the following summary of what he thought happened (complete with schematic of an Embraer 175!!):

If he’s correct, If I would have known that was “all” that was wrong, I would have felt better as we came in to land. Obviously still a major cause of concern, but…We didn’t know anything! We didn’t know if the landing gear were down! We were told directly we may “come to rest” after “making several hard impacts”, and have to do emergency evac!!

Given that BOTH of our planes (two very different types) had “fluid” issues (a “fluid leak” on plane #1 from Lihue, loss of hydraulics on plane #2 from Denver)…given all of the flight cancellations lately….given our witnessing of flight crews that clearly hadn’t worked together before, it does give you pause as to whether maintenance too is suffering during this airline labor shortage. I realize flying is extremely safe overall, but none of us have slept too well since the event, and it wouldn’t surprise me if my son is extremely resistant to ever flying again.

I just wish we had better communication during the incident from the pilots and/or flight crew, as given what we were told, we had a lot of people expecting the plane to crash upon landing! Again, a major motivator for blogging about it is to get something out online in case others are wondering what happened during that flight.

Apr 29 2019

Avengers Endgame – Spoiler free review on the most important bird-related theme

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments
A Common Loon, which evidently not only lives on Earth, but also on…whatever planet bad guy Thanos retired to after the end of the previous Avengers movie, Infinity War. Would “EndGame” show proper respect to the use of bird vocalizations in a movie?

What a great night from an entertainment perspective! My son and I went to see Avengers Endgame this evening. After 10 years or so and 22 movies, we were pretty invested in the storylines and characters, and the movie certainly delivered! Without giving anything away, it hit all the right notes and is definitely one of the best of the lot. That was followed by watching the newest episode of Game of Thrones. Wow…another satisfying and highly entertaining show.

But there’s one elephant in the room that I’m sure is on EVERYONE’s mind regarding the Marvel movies and the Avengers storyline. It all goes back to “Infinity War”. At the end of that movie, big baddie Thanos snaps his fingers, and BOOM, half of all sentient beings in the universe turn to dust…including many of our favorite Marvel characters. Thanos then retreats to an idyllic planet to “retire”.

The problem that was on EVERYONE’s mind after watching Infinity War…the audio that accompanied Thanos and his retirement. As the scene goes to this strange planet, what sound are we greeted with in the background? THE HAUNTING CRIES OF A COMMON LOON!!!! Now, Hollywood certainly is guilty of using the vocalizations of a few species in movies, particularly Common Loons, Red-tailed Hawks, and Kookaburra. But a Common Loon…ON AN ALIEN PLANET!?!? That was a new low.

When we got to the theater tonight, the lot was by FAR more full than I’d ever seen it. We got there 50 minutes early and still stood in a massive line to wait for our screen to open. While waiting, we overheard a theater working noting that the day before, they had 4,901 tickets sold, a record for one day. ONE THEATER, in a city of 180,000, and they had almost 5,000 people visit for this movie! And what was on EVERYBODY’S mind? That’s right…Was Marvel going to have a major bird-related faux pas again?!?!? So as the movie got going and we caught up with our favorite (surviving) characters, I, like everyone else in the theater, had my ears tuned to the sound track. Would we have a similar ridiculous audio misstep?

It was relatively early in the movie where I heard, yes…THE CALL OF A COMMON LOON!! AGAIN!!! But alas, THIS time Marvel got it right!! It was a stage in the movie where we visited Tony Stark and a home on a lake. It looked like what might be typical northern woods surrounding the lake, and yes, this was on Earth. A PERFECTLY normal place to potentially have a loon call!

WELL DONE MARVEL!! I hereby brand “Endgame” to be a total success, and at the end of the movie, everybody was clapping, which I’m SURE was also related to the proper use of a Loon call!

Apr 21 2019

Wingspan! Great board game for birders, and board game enthusiasts

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments
Wingspan Game - Review

We had a very nice relaxing day with the family at home today for Easter. A delicious meal of cheesy shrimp risotto, some coconut cream pie, and a day of games. Today was the day we broke out the new “Wingspan” game! The game has gotten incredible reviews and quickly sold out the first few printings. When I saw a new printing becoming available, I ordered right away.

I’m glad I did! The game is a 4-round strategy game, where you’re stockpiling birds on your “network of wildlife preserves”. There are 170 different birds, with cards for each detailing that species food needs, nesting capacity, habitat needs and “special abilities”. It’s a turn-based game, where a player chooses whether to:

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  • Gather food from the “feeder”, making sure to select food items that support the bird species in your preserves (if that food is available). The different categories of available food include “invertebrates”, “seeds”, “fish”, “fruit”, and “rodent”.
  • Select new bird cards, providing additional species options for placement in your preserves
  • Place a bird in your preserve, making sure that you have the proper food to support that bird. Birds require anywhere from 1 to 3 food resources, and you must have those food items in your possession to be able to place the bird.
  • Having an individual species in your preserve lay eggs
  • Carrying out any actions. Some species provide rewards as the game proceeds, depending upon the action the player takes that round.

The game itself is deceptively simple once you understand the rules. Your choices don’t go far beyond the options outlined above, but once you play it you realize the need for strategy right from the start. For example, the game is played in four rounds. Each round has a specific scoring goal. For example, Round 1 may focus on providing points to players who place the most wetland habitat birds in their preserve. Round 2 may focus on cavity-nesting birds that lay the most eggs. The priority for each round is chosen at the start of the game, so long-term strategy comes into play. You want to maximize your points for the current round, but if you don’t also set yourself up for scoring priorities in future rounds, you’ll likely do poorly.

By the end of the game, scoring is tallied as followed:

  • Individual round scoring. During each individual round (4 rounds total), you are ranked against your competitors. In the first round example given above, for example, the player who had the most birds in their preserve who used wetland habitats would have gotten the most points for that round. More points are awarded in later rounds than in the first round, so the fourth-round 1st place scorer gets more points than the first-round 1st place scorer.
  • Points from birds in your preserve. Different birds are worth different scores. For example, I placed a Bald Eagle in my preserve, which was worth a very healthy 9 points (the highest point total for a bird, I believe). Point values for each species are partially related to how difficult it is to place that bird in the preserve. For example, to be able to place that Bald Eagle in my preserve, I had to stock up on 2 fish resources and 1 rodent resource before I could place him on the board. Other, lower-point birds are easier to place, with some birds that are only worth two points only requiring one food resource for placement on the board.
  • Eggs – Players receive one point for every egg on their final board.
  • “Bonus” cards – During the game, each player collects unique bonus cards. Bonus cards include titles such as “photographer”, “prairie manager”, “wetland scientist”, “backyard birder”, and much more. Each card rewards points at the end of the game based on certain characteristics of the birds in your aviary. For example, there are four types of nests birds build in the game: 1) platform nests, 2) bowl nests, 3) cavity nests, and 4) ground nests. My bonus card provided +4 points for having four different birds who build platform nests in my preserve.
  • Food on bird cards – Some bird species “cache” food on their cards. For example, the American Kestrel can collect rodents! If you can use it during a turn, it can collect one or more rodent tokens that are placed on the species card. Each cached food item counts as a point for the final scoring.
  • “Tucked” cards – Some birds can form flocks! For example, the American White Pelican can effectively form a flock, with other bird cards tucked behind the pelican card in your preserve. Each bird in a flock counts as a point.

After four rounds, you add up the final scores using the 6-category scoring system. From what I’m seeing online, final scores for a winner are typically between 65-85 points.

At first it’s a bit confusing, but once we watched this short YouTube video on the rules of the game, it really is quite straightforward. Straightforward, but rather elegant! While the rules themselves may be straightforward, there’s definitely quite a bit of strategy involved! In the first game we played, the winner ended up with 65 points…on the low end of a winning score from what I’ve read. But now that we understand the rules and the strategy more, I’m sure our next game will be higher scoring.

Great game! It’s also very well put together. Materials are solid, and the artwork on the cards is absolutely beautiful. I love the “bird feeder”, a device you construct that allows you to roll dice that represent foods available in the feeder. A few times I caught myself just looking through the cards, as it’s fun not only to look at the beautiful artwork, but to see the special attributes and abilities the gamemakers assigned to each species. A really enjoyable game, and I can see a lot of replay value, given that each game’s goals and birds will be different.

Highly recommended, if you can get a copy! And hey, if my non-birding teenage son can get a kick out of it and ask to play again tomorrow, it’s a great indication that the audience for this game goes far behind just birders!

Wingspan Game - Closeup
A closeup of the game. Note the eggs on the gameboard here…did you know the Yellow-headed Blackbird laid such shiny eggs? Well, it WAS Easter Sunday! We did happen to have some candy “glimmer eggs” laying around! So we augmented the game with candy eggs, and some liberal rules about when a player could raid a nest and eat those eggs. 🙂
Apr 13 2019

Bird sounds in cinema – Confirmation I haven’t just been hearing things!

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Someone on Twitter pointed this story out from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I’m glad they brought it to my attention, as I was almost wondering if I was just hearing things all of these years!

There is nothing quite like the calls from a loon. Hollywood can’t get enough of them, either.

Evidently I’m not the only one who has noticed that Hollywood LOVES to use certain bird songs in movies…whether or not it’s appropriate. Common Loon (any kind of “wilderness), Red-tailed Hawk (the default vocalization for ANY raptor they show in a movie), and Laughing Kookaburra (pretty much in any “jungle” movie scene) seem to be the three that I notice the most.

This piece in the Star Tribune provides a nice list of movies where the Common Loon pops up. I’m glad I wasn’t imagining hearing a Common Loon cry at the end of Avengers: Infinity War!  That one takes the cake as most ridiculous, given that it was happening not just in inappropriate habitat, but on another planet!!  I missed some of these, as in Game of Thrones!

Apr 29 2018

“Infinity War” – Spoiler Free, Bird-related PLOT HOLE!!

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: 3 Comments

Common Loon - Gavia immer

A Common Loon in breeding plumage. Are Common Loons truly alien visitors to our planet? Does Hollywood know something we don’t, because they certainly use Common Loon calls in pretty much any possible movie situation. Even when the setting is on an alien planet.

My son and I just got back from Avengers: Infinity War.  No spoilers here, other than we both really enjoyed it.  But as I SO often do for movies, I have a beef.  A BIRD-related beef, as always.

So…end of the movie, pretty much the last scene.  I won’t say who is in the last scene or what it’s about. I WILL say it’s set on an alien planet.  And when the scene first fades in, what sound do we first hear in the background?  THE CALL OF A COMMON LOON!!!  WHY, Hollywood….WHY!?!?!  Why are you SO freakin’ enamored with the call of the Common Loon that you feel the need to put it into practically any situation, no matter how ludicrous!!?!?

Outrageous!  A travesty!!  Ok, no, I really don’t get too worked up about such things, but as a birder, you DO notice!  C’mon Hollywood, out of an entire universe worth of sounds out there, surely you can broaden your scope a bit and stop always relying on the same sounds, no matter the situation!

Mar 02 2018

Birds in Movies – “Gamenight” gets it right!!

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: 1 Comment

Common Nighthawk Drawing - Chordeiles minor

Drawing of a Common Nighthawk I did a few years ago. They have a VERY distinctive call when flying around at dusk or at night, something that really stands out on the soundtrack when watching a movie! Kudos to “GameNight” for the correct use of a bird call, in the proper time and context!

As a birder, one major pet peeve of mine…Hollywood’s (mis-)use of birds in movies! It seems that Hollywood typically has about 3 different bird vocalizations that are used in any situation a bird is present. One is the ubiquitous Red-tailed Hawk screaming cry, something they use for ANY raptor that happens to even tangentially appear on a screen. Conan O’Brien wasn’t alone when making this erroneous use of a Red-tailed Hawk call, but he WAS called out by birders for his actions!! Bald Eagles are often shown in movies and TV, but the more iconic Red-tailed Hawk call is usually used instead of the real Bald Eagle cry.

The second iconic call that’s heard ALL the time is the haunting call of a Common Loon. Occasionally it’s used in the proper setting and context, but there are SO many times when movie characters are out “in the wild” and the call of a Common Loon is dubbed in the background.  What’s that?  Your favorite character is roaming the forests of the Appalachians? Perhaps it’s a wild setting, but NOT EVERY WILD SETTING SHOULD HAVE LOON CALLS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND!! This site notes several “misplaced” birds in TV and movies, including the mis-use of Common Loon calls in Murder She Wrote and Raiders of the Lost Ark (presumably while in Peru!!). The Common Loon has also been mis-used visually…something I noticed IMMEDIATELY when watching Finding Dory. “Becky” is the loopy Common Loon that plays a role in the rescue scenes in Finding Dory, along the California coastline. The presence of a Common Loon along the California coast isn’t out of place IN WINTER.  But “Becky” in Finding Dory is a Common Loon in full summer breeding plumage…NOT LIKELY!!

The third call that’s heard in EVERY jungle scene is the laughing call of a Kookaburra. They’re a bird found in Australia, but listen to any jungle scene supposedly set in Africa, South America, or southeast Asia, and you’ll STILL likely hear the wild calls of a Kookaburra.

Given how often birds are mis-used in movies, I always get a bit of satisfaction when I see a movie that gets it right!  Tonight my wife and I went to see “GameNight“, starring Justin Bateman and Rachel McAdams.  It’s a really funny movie!!  We both greatly enjoyed it.  The only time birds were evident (and surely ONLY to me, among the movie crowd) was a scene late in the movie.  It was a setting in a relatively dense urban setting, on a bridge over a large river and fairly out in the open. Large buildings could be seen in the surrounding area, and it was night. As the scene played out (I won’t spoil the movie for you here!), I could CLEARLY hear Common Nighthawks giving their typical flight calls.

PERFECT!! You often DO hear Common Nighthawks as they fly through the night skies in and around urban areas, picking off flying insects in flight with their massive, gaping maw.  One of the places I’ve heard them the most is at the airport here in Sioux Falls. They typically use rocky areas to breed, and the rocky roofs that many urban buildings use work perfectly for their purposes.

WELL DONE GAMENIGHT!!  You get a rare GOLD STAR for proper use of a bird in a movie!!

Feb 24 2018

Free at least! GOODBYE, StartLogic…

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Statistics on Domains Served - StartLogic

From webhostinggeeks.com, a graph of how many domains StartLogic has served over the years. I think I sense a slight downward trend!! Given my recent interactions with them, you can now also add my site to this declining trend. GOODBYE, StartLogic.

HOLY.  COW. I’ve had my main website, sdakotabirds.com, for nearly 20 years now. It’s a massive, sprawling, out-of-control website with literally thousands of photographs, and hundreds of pages of information on birds of the United States.  It’s been a labor of love over the years as I slowly add to it, but I’m not exactly a web programming wizard.  I still rely on some basic, simple tools to make my website (primarily Microsoft’s Expression Web, so old it’s now freeware), and over the years have struggled to keep up with new web standards.  But despite my lack of technical expertise and lack of any direct “help” on my website, I’ve managed to maintain my site in good working order.

Over the 20 years, I’ve only had two web hosting providers. The first was “Tripod”, back in the days when things were quite a bit a bit simpler.  I don’t remember the exact reason I switched from Tripod, but know I had outgrown what they were providing, and I wasn’t happy with the technical support.  For someone like me with no real training in website or blog development, I NEED that technical support!  So about 12 years, I switched to StartLogic.

For many years, StartLogic was…OK. That’s about as high a compliment as I can give them, because I’ve always had occasional issues with their support of my website.  Over the last few years, that “support” has become worse and worse.  Three or so years ago, someone somehow hacked into my website, and inserted a ton of malicious code that was forwarding my traffic to seedy locations, particularly from my blog.  StartLogic couldn’t have been LESS helpful during that time, to the point that the only way they said I could “save” my site was to permanently delete much of the content!! In the end, I ended up deleting my blog and starting fresh with the new blog you see here.But I stayed with StartLogic, as the technical challenges of changing hosts was more than I wanted to tackle.

Things just went downhill from there.  Issues with my website were incredibly difficult to resolve through StartLogic. Online tech support was weak or non-existent, and often DAYS would pass between communications attempting to resolve problems.  This past week was the last straw.  Over the past 8 years or so, I’ve used a specific piece of software to “crawl” my site and automatically generate a sitemap. That sitemap helps Google and other search engines to map and index my site.  I’ve always used the same piece of software, and hadn’t run into any problems, until this past week.  I updated a number of pages on my website last week, and wanted to re-run the sitemap generator to get a fresh sitemap.  The sitemap generator ran for about half an hour, pinging pages on my website as it generated the sitemap. It finished, and I uploaded the fresh sitemap to my online site.

And then the fun began!  Within minutes I got an email from StartLogic, notifying me that they had shut down my site!  They cited “resource abuse”, noting I was on a shared server, and that “abnormally heavy traffic” on my site resulted in some automatic bot flagging my site as “abusing” those shared resources.  StartLogic told me to inform them when the problem was corrected, and that they’d then review my site and consider restoring access.

I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, given the horrible support offered by StartLogic over the last several years. I responded in their online support “ticket”, telling them that the “problem” was undoubtedly the sitemap crawler I had just run.  I told them I’d run the crawler countless times in the past without any issue, but begrudgingly ALSO told them that in the interests of avoiding such a site shutdown in the future, I would stop using that sitemap crawler.

I waited. StartLogic responded a day later, saying they were temporarily restoring website access while they reviewed the case.  Indeed, for one day, things seemed back to normal. But less than a day later, when trying to access my own website from my home computer, it showed the site was down.  I tried different browsers. I tried logging on from my desktop, laptop, my iPhone, and my iPad, to no avail. I could not access my site from my home WiFi and IP address. I COULD, however, access my website from my work computer.  Clearly StartLogic had blocked access TO MY OWN SITE from MY OWN IP ADDRESS.

I again went to their online help.  FOUR TIMES over the course of a week, I initiated an online chat with a “help” representative.  The “help” is in quotations, because StartLogic’s online support had been degrading for years to anything OTHER than real support. I explained the situation to the online chat support.  Four different times, I explained the sitemap crawler, and that in the interests of avoiding future issues, that I would no longer use it. Four different times, the FUCKING CLUELESS StartLogic “support” said they’d forward my issues to…whatever higher-up authority that could actually do something about it.

Meanwhile, DAYS had passed where I could not access my OWN FUCKING WEBSITE from MY OWN COMPUTER. In addition to initiating online chats four times, I updated the online “support ticket” several times.  Finally, two days ago, I received an email. It simply said that StartLogic had flagged my IP address as a “security risk”. They said that once something had been flagged, they had no mechanism to remove the block of that IP address.  Their “solution” they proposed?

They laughingly told me the only way I’d ever be able to see my OWN SITE from my OWN HOME HARDWARE would be if I went to my internet service provider, and had THEM change my home IP address!!  In other words, instead of simply removing the IP block on THEIR end, something THEY initiated in response to a “problem” i said would never happen again, they washed their hands of the issue.  One more interaction with them on a chat, and they said sorry, they just cannot remove any security block once it had taken effect.

GOOD…FUCKING…BYE, StartLogic!!  Given my lack of technical expertise, I dreaded moving to another hosting provider, but enough is enough.  With just a bit of online research as to a reputable and reliable hosting provider, I purchased the services of InMotionhosting.  I was prepared for a struggle in trying to move my site over to InMotion, and was particularly apprehensive that it wouldn’t be possible to transfer my blog (and long blog history) over to the new provider.  However, I was easily able to figure out how to transfer most of my site, and for a very small fee, InMotionHosting very quickly (less than a day) backed up my blog databases from StartLogic and successfully transferred them to the new host.

A hosting provider that actually provided wonderful, FAST, and efficient service!! After struggling with StartLogic for so long, I had no idea such service was even possible!  I’m now happy to say ALL content from StartLogic has been successfully transported to the new host. The main website content, the blog, and even security components like SSL and the like….all transferred quickly and painlessly, and the site is working just as it should.  And may I say, much FASTER than it ever performed when hosted by StartLogic.

In a rather funny conclusion to the story…despite StartLogic saying that security policy made it impossible to unblock my home IP address…within HALF AN HOUR after going out to their online support one last time and basically telling them (more nicely than they deserved!) that I was DROPPING their wretched service….they suddenly unblocked my home IP address!  Followed up with a pathetic email stating the issue had been “resolved”!!

Given my level of “dissatisfaction” (to put it kindly) with StartLogic, I’ve also taken the opportunity to provide reviews of their services to several online web-hosting review sites.  One of those, webhostinggeeks.com, provide a summary of recent reviews, and also provided a graph of how many domains StartLogic has serviced over the years. Not surprisingly, the number of websites using StartLogic has been declining for years.  If by chance you’re reading this and happen to still be using their services…stop. Just stop. You can do better…

Nov 30 2017

“She had a dream” – A Christmas story

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

There once was a beautiful princess, born in a tiny village in a place far, far away, called “Nebraska”.  The princess was loved by all, and had a wonderful childhood. As she grew, the villagers asked what she wanted when she grew up. “I have a dream…I want to marry a prince, and live every day as if it were a celebration!!“.  The princess was particularly fond of Christmas, and grew up surrounded by lights, glitter, and merriment. “As long as you live in our castle, sweet Princess, you’ll always have the brightest and best Christmases!”, declared King Roger.

The princess at her wedding

The princess at her wedding to Prince Humbug

But the Princess knew she couldn’t stay in the castle forever. She left for a life far, far away, 3 LONG miles from the castle where she grew up.  It was there that she met a Prince, and fell in love. Prince “Humbug” was young, dashing, and captured the heart of the princess. They were married on a fine spring May Day, and left for a new adventure in Big City, half a continent away.

Prince Humbug wasn’t rich.  Prince Humbug couldn’t afford to give his princess a castle.  For two years they lived in squalor.  At Christmas, there were no vast expanses of shiny lights.  There was no glitter. Missing their friends and family and merriment, Prince Humbug and the Princess left for the Great Frozen North, and moved into their first castle.

The castle was small and humble, but they were happy.  At Christmas, the Princess dreamed of her Christmases growing up, and asked Prince Humbug if she could have lights, glitter, and merriment as when she was a child. But as the years passed, Prince Humbug was inflicted with a terrible case of the Grumbly Grumpies.  Prince Humbug scoffed when the Princess asked for a castle lit up with lights and glitter.  “There are more important things to worry about,” groused the Prince.

Years passed, with the Prince and Princess having a perfect young son, and eventually they moved into a larger castle. “This is the castle of my dreams!”, said the Princess.  “If only we could decorate it like the castle from my childhood!”.  Prince Humbug couldn’t resist a bat of an eye from the Princess, and for a few years, despite the Grumbly Grumpies, he grudgingly obliged the Princess. At Christmas, the exterior of the castle was often lit with colorful lights and glitter, and the Prince tried to provide the merriment the Princess had as a young girl. But as he got older, Prince Humbug fell deeper under the spell of the Grumbly Grumpies.  When Christmas time came and the Princess asked if the castle could be decorated with lights and glitter, the Prince said “BAH!!!  Humbug!  Why spend hours putting up silly lights that will just have to be taken down again when the Holidays are over?!”  Even a bat of the beautiful Princess” eyes couldn’t sway the Grumbly Grumpy  heart of the Prince.

Dark times fell on the land. Evil Orange Overlord took control of the land, and the people were afraid. Up was down, down was up, news was fake, science wasn’t real, and deception and hatred became commonplace. As the darkness spread, Prince Humbug’s heart became ever blacker. The Princess did everything she could for their son the recreate the glorious Christmases of old, and despite the Grumbly Grumpy Prince, they were happy. But the Princess was afraid she would never again have the lights, glitter, and merriment from her youth.

As Christmas approached, Prince Humbug still was under the spell of the Grumbly Grumpies. “Christmas lights??!? BAH!! HUMBUG!!” he shrieked.    “It’s silly!!”, he thought. “It’s a lot of work!”, he thought.  But deep within Prince Humbug’s black heart were two shining stars, the stars of his love for the Princess and their beautiful young son. He knew what he had to do.  He now knew that the lights, glitter, and merriment may not have mattered to him, but they WOULD make the Princess and their son just a little bit happier. And in a dark world, Prince Humbug decided to do anything he could to make things a little brighter.

The Prince traded some of his gold for some colorful Magic Glitter Twinkles.  While the Princess and their son were away, the Prince placed the Magic Glitter Twinkles about the face of the castle.  After all the wonderful years married to the Princess, he knew exactly what she would like. Straight!! Orderly!! Without a hint of sloppiness!  The Prince carefully arranged the Magic Glitter Twinkles, placing each Glitter Twinkle in a cradle of its own to make sure they were straight.  He then awaited the arrival of the Princess.

The Princess’ face lit up when she arrived back at the castle. “My Grumbly, Grumpy Prince, what have you done?! I had never dreamed of again seeing the lights, glitter, and merriment of my childhood!”.  The Princess and their son was happy.  “They are so straight!  They are so perfect!”, exclaimed the Princess. The Prince knew he couldn’t recreate the exquisite displays from the Princess’ youth, but upon seeing the Princesses’ happy face…he now realized he didn’t HAVE to.  The Princess didn’t need the World’s Best Glittery Display.  She just wanted a hint of the dreamy Christmases she had as a girl.

And by obliging his beautiful, beloved Princess, Prince Humbug realized that perhaps the world wasn’t QUITE as dark as he had believed.

Castle Lights

It wasn’t the biggest castle in the world. It wasn’t the brightest and most glittery Christmas display. But it was all the Princess needed, and she was happy.

Apr 22 2017

A day of sanity (no, not the science march)

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: 1 Comment

 

3 very nice northern pike, just a perk on a great day with my son.

Today was the Science March, and we actually had a March in Sioux Falls. I didn’t participate. Ever since the election, I’ve been in a funk. Particularly living here in very “red” South Dakota, it’s hard to avoid the conservative mindset, a mindset where greed is good, helping others is bad, and,yes, science isn’t to be trusted. When your career is focused on trying to help people through science, and that involves assessing the impacts of climate change, it’s hard not to let America’s anti-intellectualism get you down. I’ve tried to do what little I can to fight back. I’ve stood up for science. I’ve let my voice be heard. But I just can’t keep letting it dominate my existence. Hence my decision not to march today.

Part of the reason also is based on my continuing battle with Sjogren’s Syndrome. It seems like every time I “solve” one issue, or at least learn to live with some fun symptom, another thing pops up. The dry eyes and resultant vision impact has been addressed with my scleral contact lenses, something that’s saved my career, my sanity, my spirits. But in the last few months the arthritis part of Sjogrens has unfortunately started to make itself known. It’s only minor right now, but I was hoping that part would never show up, because chances are it will just keep progressing. My hands/fingers are already feeling stiff at times, and my knees getting awfully cranky at times too.

As all of this had been going on, I’ve had to do some hard thinking about how I want to cope. The whole feeling-sorry-for-myself thing isn’t a great long term strategy! Neither is the negativity I’ve felt since the election. Put it all together, and today I decided to focus on what’s really important, and that’s not the Science March. It’s my son and family. So today was a wonderful day with my son!

We headed up to Lake Thompson to do some fishing. It’s a place we usually have some luck, but it’s 1 1/2 hours away. Today that drive was actually a blessing. I LOVE that my soon to be 14-year old son still loves hanging out with dad and being goofy. The drive up to the lake was filled with music!  And goofy singing and air guitaring along!  Another thing I love is how he’s taken to some of the music I love, and hence some of the tunes playing included AC/DC, The Beach Boys, Elton John, ELO, and Chicago.

The fishing was great as well!  We were actually trying to catch walleye, until the first big pike attacked my bait. All we had were light poles and 4-lb test line, and we had no steel leaders to protect the thin line from the pike’s sharp teeth. But after that first hit (and break off) we started using a long, thin Rapala crankbait, one where the pike would hit it and get hooked up, but where the line was away from the pike’s mouth. It certainly worked, and with plenty of open water and nothing for line to get caught on, we were able to just let the pike run for a while before bringing them in on the light line.

Scrambling on the rip-rap (rock) along the shore wasn’t fun at times for my increasingly arthritic knees, but the music on the way up, the silly conversations with my son, the excitement and sheer joy of seeing him land some really nice pike…for a while today, I was largely able to forget about the Sjogrens. I was able to forget about the political bullshit going on. I was able to forget that I live in conservative hell with bigoted, greedy people.

In short, I had a wonderful day, focusing on the most important things in life. A day well spent, despite missing the March for Science.

Apr 15 2017

World’s most expensive dog bowl

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Our two beloved spaniels, Oscar and Felix, are rather quirky. Given that they were originally found living by themselves in the wild, they were used to trying to find food, shelter, and water in the outdoors.  In the couple of years since we got them, they’ve become truly wonderful, sweet, loving pups, although they’ve maintained several of their original quirks.

The most maddening to deal with…their refusal to drink water if it’s inside the house. One of the two will sometimes drink from a water bowl inside the house, but strongly prefers drinking “outside water”.  The other?  There were a couple of days last fall, after I’d put the birdbath away for the winter, before there was any “delicious” snow to eat for a water source, where Oscar was refusing to eat much.  Even offering some of his most decadent, beloved treats…like some fresh cooked chicken breast…resulted in a turned up nose.  Wondering if the issue might be water, we placed a pan of water outside.  When we let the two outside, Oscar timidly approached the water, and then proceeded to guzzle the entire pan.  We let them back in the house, tried food again with Oscar, and he downed an entire bowl full.

It’s been maddening to try to get them to drink water, but my bird bath outside has always been their preferred drinking source, from the very first day we got them. However, that bird bath recently broke.  The only solution? Replace it with what’s got to be the world’s most expensive dog bowl (video at the bottom)!  I truly love this fountain…it’s from “Henri”, called their “Phoenix” fountain. It’s got a unique, modern style, has a big deep reservoir that holds a lot of water, has a wonderful shallow pan on top that the birds love to bath in, and most importantly, it’s very low and accessible for the pups!  And expensive, and back-breaking solution to get the dogs a reliable drinking water source!

Oscar and Felix - Birdbath

This is from the very first day we got Oscar (left) and Felix (right) from the rescue group. Almost immediately they found the joys of the bird bath, and for the last 3 years, it’s been their primary summer drinking source. Alas, this is the same bird bath that recently broke, requiring a replacement with the NEW world’s most expensive dog bowl.

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