Local Haunts - A New Jaxperience

I was stuck with a weekend lineup that did not interest me, so I tuned into Local Haunts, mostly because of the cheesiest intro ever. It's a local Jax version of Ghost Hunters or the like. Steve Christian and Pamela Theresa are the stars of this show, and it's something. Steve is the tech guy and Pamela Theresa is the medium, meaning she can communicate with spirits without gear. The rest of the crew fits well into the stereotype of what a paranormal investigation team might resemble. What I mean is they seem legit in some way, like they LARP hard on non-investigation weekends. Or work as zombie or UFO-abductee extras in local college films.

Cell Towers That Look Like Giant Trees Look Like Cell Towers Dressed Up As Giant Trees

When I got off the #10 bus the other day, I looked up over some apartments and saw what looked a little like an artificial Christmas tree trying to cover a cell tower. I'd never seen this before. Generally, cell towers look like cell towers. This one looked like a cell tower, too, but like it was wearing a disguise. A bad disguise, really. It's not blending in with the other trees because it's three times taller. And it looks like it's mostly dead. Then there's the giant nest on top. I suppose it might be aesthetically pleasing from a mile away, but for the people who live right next door, this doesn't really do the trick.

Time to Find Out: What Are People From Jacksonville Called?

I've been making assumptions about the name of people from Jacksonville, but I have yet to look it up. In fact, I will wait until I offer my best guesses before I actually look for the real answer. I know I am now a Floridian (which means I need to drive around shirtless more often), but I'm still trying to figure out my city and county name for myself.

Is It Legal To Shoot My BB Gun In My Back Yard In Jacksonville?

I took my son to a Cub Scouts New Cub Shooting Sports event because he was a new Cub Scout to the area. I'll post more about that in another article, and maybe I'll save you some heartache. The experience got me to wondering if I could set up a target in my back yard rather than waiting for an hour and fifteen minutes to shoot five arrows and a few BBs. However, even after doing some research, I'm still not sure whether or not BB guns are legal in JAX.

What's With The Fog Lights, Jacksonville?

I wrote a decent article last year about why you don't need to drive around with fog lights on all the time. But that was back in Kansas/Missouri, where I estimated around 10% usage of fog lights for no reason. I estimate upwards of 20% of Jacksonvilleans use fog lights all the time, at least over here in Arlington. In fact, my estimates tend to be 20-30%, based on the scientific method of counting cars when I drive down the street.

Action News JAX Busy Mom Ad Should Bother Us

I'm all for good-looking moms who want to take care of themselves. That's not my issue with the Action News JAX ad. The problem is that the ad depicts an alternate reality that is not obtainable by most of us. Let's take a look at the ad storyboard and break it down for analysis.

Fall Family Fun: Amazing Grace Crop Maze Review

If you live in Arlington, the options for fall festivities on anything resembling a farm seem to be limited to an hour's drive. That's not a huge deal, but since we figured this might be our last year convincing the kids they want to participate in some of the activities, we wanted to make it one of the more interactive attractions. That left it between Amazing Grace and Conner's A-Maize-Ing Acres. The main reason we chose Amazing Grace was the slightly lower price, teacher discount, and the fact that we were a little uncomfortable with the Redneck Olympics at Conner's. Overall, it was a decent (and pricey) outing that was a little less than expected.

Historical Places - Mosquito County, Florida

I love it when people are literal in naming of places. Obvious names, like Steep Canyon, are more fun than British aristocratic names, like any number of Jamestowns. Even modern desires to somehow connect with ye olde England leads to stupid modern subdivision and cookie-cutter home names like The Kensington.

Brooklyn Cyclones Fitted Cap in Blue With White and Red Logo

Sorry, I don't have this hat available for you to purchase. That's what I was trying to do in order to play with the Bold City Cyclones of the Jacksonville MABL/MSBL. But it's not as easy as you might think to find some other city's obscure minor league team when you can barely find your own city's obscure minor league team gear at any stores.

X102.9 is Jacksonville's Alternative, Kinda -- And Now It's 106.5

I have to admit I listen to X102.9 in Jacksonville. The station goes out of its way to claim to be alternative. I like that. I listened to true alternative stations in Milwaukee and Kansas City, so I was hoping for a little more of that. X102.9 is kinda like those stations, but not quite. I knew this for sure when one of my son's fellow fourth-graders said this when we gave him a ride: "102nine; I love that station."

PO Problems: Dishwasher Disconnect

If you have a previous owner, then you have problems. Here's one of ours: the dishwasher disconnect.

Our inspector ran the dishwasher. I told him we wanted to make sure it was working, since the last house we'd bought and had inspected was lacking electricity to the kitchen. That was odd, but this house was newer and in a fancier neighborhood, so we did not expect anything odd at all when it came to the dishwasher.

Are There Any Rare Books at The Jacksonville Public Library?

I was doing research on local history, and I figured maybe the library would have some books for me. I was kind of right, maybe. I found a rare books page https://www.jaxpubliclibrary.org/rare-books-manuscripts . It seems to list a few books, but only a few. And all the links are dead. No pdf versions of the books or image galleries.

The Sketchy History of Fort Caroline

I took the tour of Fort Caroline with my kids' school. It was an interesting tour, but I wondered a bit at some of the history being taught, so I researched it on my own. Basically, it's a time of sketchy history, and probably the best accounts are buried in France or Spain, but I figured I'd weigh in on some what I learned.

Sandalwood Teacher Web Pages Make Me Wonder If That's The Place For My Kids

When I was teaching, I had possibly the best Language Arts (English) high school teacher website ever created: menofalls.com. It's gone now, but here's another one I created simultaneously for our department https://sites.google.com/site/brianjaegerenglish/ and another one I created so that I could use the computers the school district was implementing: https://sites.google.com/site/brianjaegerteachingpage/welcome 

Did Jacksonville Never Have Ice Hockey Before?

I saw this ad that I clicked on that was about the Jacksonville Icemen. The website seemed to be mostly about the legacy beginning, leading me to believe this is the initial year of the team.

This assumption was confirmed after some searching, though the city did have a hockey team named the Lizard Kings for about five years. After reading a bit about the history of the ECHL, I have to wonder a bit about this whole minor league hockey thing.