A good deli can be hard to find - Cheerz Deli Durham NC

Having grown up in the North East I'm accustomed to Dunkin and Delis. Here in North Carolina there are a few Dunkin locations, but even fewer good delis. Sure one can go to firehouse, subway, and the like. But a good deli has a very different feel and is definitely not a chain. A good deli has crazy sandwich names, is family owned, and has great sides and of course yummy pickles.

Cheerz deli is just such a deli. Very good subs on recently baked rolls because as everyone knows, it is the bread that makes or breaks a sub.

Here is an example, the Hammer:

Turkey, salami, roast beef, cheese and bacon - its a great "club" sub. For $6.50 you can't beat it.

Check out the menu for yourself. See you at Cheerz.

Don't pave in Bolin Forest

Here is an email to the Mayor and Board of Alderman in Carrboro. There is, aparently, a plan to do some paving in Bolin Forest. This is 300 acres or so of forest, streams, and trails in Carrboro. I don't like pavement in forests. What do you think? Put your opinion in the comments.

The email:

Hi:

I'm a new resident of Carborro. I moved here from Cary this past June. I moved here for the trees and the smaller neighborhood feel of the town as well as schools within 5 minutes of our house. So far I like it a lot. Just the lack of horrible chain restaurants is enough to please me!

I'm writing today to let you know my dislike of the idea of paving trails in Bolin Creek Forest. My first reaction on hearing the news was "if you want that, move to Cary". Most of the trails there are neat and trimmed and perfectly paved. One may as well walk down the street as walk through the "woods" in Cary.

Though paving may seem like a good idea, I think it is detrimental to the spirit of the woodlands of Bolin Forest. The consequences of paving are degraded ecology and reduction of natural spaces available to residents.

Although this study from http://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/pdflib/TTP_289/W08/Modeling_effect_zone_11508.pdf involves roads, not smaller trails, some of the findings are relevant and can be applied at a smaller scale to a trail system.

Page 4 : "Transportation planning can involve many private and public entities and disciplines. Rarely does it involve natural sciences" (emphasis mine)

From Page 5:

• 10-100mRoad construction & roadside management, weeds, local pollution, road-kill, light and noise
• 100-1000m Downstream pollution, erosion, stream habitat alteration, noise aversion, habitat fragmentation
• >1,000m Landscape fragmentation, local & regional extinction, weed invasions, large mammal movement, air pollution, climate change

Let me address that last point. In particular the climate change. One thing I noticed as soon as my commute changed from all Wake to Durham County to/from Brier Creek Parkway in Raliegh is the noticeable temperate drop just west of Fayetteville Rd (after South Points Mall). I did some searching and found average temperatures for the last 30 years:

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?refer=&s=776113
http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?refer=&s=470713

It seems that our area is generally 1-3 degrees cooler! I believe the answer is as simple as looking at at sattelite view of the area on google maps (link). Notice how much more green there is where we are compared to just east of us. Pavement absorbs and holds heat and is at least partially responsible for the greater heat in Wake county.

I hope that another solution to the perceived problems with the unpaved trails can be found. If erosion is the issue - re-worked drainage and grading can help a lot without paving.

Thank you for your time.

   -mike

That wave came out of no where

This guy hit that wave on purpose. Imagine a surprise wave.



This guy is lucky to be alive.

things I don't know

I do a lot of "programming" and I think I know a thing or two about what I'm doing. Well maybe programming isn't the right term - so I put it in quotes there. What I do is hack around, a script here, a script there.

Today, I stumbled on a real programmmer's blog, Bartosz Milewski. I read (skimmed really) a couple posts. Amazing the level of detail in these. Then I went and checked out his business, peer-to-peer version control tool.

Wait, I thought, peer-to-peer is just for pirates and other scoundrals - right? But it really clicked with me. At my company we develop SoCs using many sites. I wondered how would this work for us? Can it handle zillions of gigs of data? I don't have time to investigate - plus its not my job - but some day, if I have the time, I'll read up on it.

Patriots lose - again

We are missing those key defensive guys that made the plays that win games. Remember when we'd sack the qb? Interceptions at the line of scrimmage? Stuff the run? Hit guys like we got hit last night?

Gone, all gone. 

Bill, I think, finally has either let too many go (Seymour, Vrabel), or guys just retired (Bruschi and Harrison) to have a high impact defense. The kind of defense that wins games...

The offense didn't help too much either. Gotta hand it to NO defense - stifling Tom and co all night.

Looks like they may need a miracle to get to the playoffs...certainly to do well if they get there.