Uebelhart . Net

Tuesday morning we are bound for Washington DC for a week of touristy stuff and Change Bell Ringing (for Dawn at least).
This week is the AGM for the North American Guild of Change Ringers. Info on the event is Here.

While Dawn is playing at quasimodo stuff, I’ll be running around seeing the sights, and of course going photo crazy. Since much of the AGM is at the National Cathedral, which is one of the most beautiful churches in this hemisphere, I’ll spend a bunch of time there taking photos.

Our hotel has web access, but they charge an arm and a leg for it, so I won’t be checking in too often ther. I might try and see if there are any open free wireless areas though and do some updates from there.

Yesterday was an adventure. A friend of ours turned 60 and he and some other friends planned a mystery day for a group of us (12 total). It entailed arriving at his house at 8AM sharp and planning not to be back until 9PM.

Well we got there and the mystery was a quick flight to New Orleans, champagne and caviar in a private courtyard in the French Quarter, Brunch at Brennan’s, and general shop browsing and stuff for the remainder of the day until a 7:40 flight back.

Great fun was had by all and a hearty thanks to Paul, Deb & Les for pulling this off.

Dawn ended up getting a nice imported paper-mache Mardi Gras mask of a cat with sheet music integrated into it. Here’s a pic:

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Okay, most people know I hate professional sports with a passion, and I find that college level organized sports are little differant.

A friend sent me a link to a news story today that is written by an insider that completly justifies my stance. Read it, it’s one of the best “Letter to the Editor” type things I’ve ever seen: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=educatingjeremy&prov=tsn&type=lgns

A friend sent this my way, and although I had seen it before, thought I’d repost it:

These apply to every person as they enter Texas. Learn ‘em & remember ‘em. East Coast and California-types should pay particular attention!

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot. You’re in Texas now… put on a belt.

2. Let’s get this straight; it’s called a “gravel road.” I drive a pickup truck because I need to. No matter how slow you drive, you’re going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

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I was thinking this blog would be a place to occassionally tell stories related to my job as a Private Investigator. So I shall.

Let’s first start off with “What is a PI?”

Well, that’s a complex thing.

I guess I should state what we are NOT: We are not Cops, Private Cops, or Wanna-be-cops (well most of us, I have met some that are). We have no more “powers” than the average citizen. Yes we are licensed, bonded/insured, and regulated (at least those of us that operate legally are). We subscribe to an ethical standard and maintain a level of proffesionality and take continuing education. All our license entitles us to is to hang our shingle as a PI and charge for our services.

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First off, an explanation of the name:
Uebelhart (You-Bull-Heart): This is the family name of Dawn, who is one of only a few Uebelhart’s in the U.S. (Less than 30). So you can see it’s a rare name (which is why she kept her maiden name as her last name, although she will answer to Mrs Poirier, go ahead, try it)

Brian purchased the domain name in the late 90’s in order to develop an online marriage proposal to Dawn. He did, she saw it, said yes, they got married. This was all that was needed to make it the most succesful website ever, in Brian’s opinion.

The site has undergone numerous design and function changes over the years since the marriage proposal and now functions mostly as a hodge podge area for the collected thoughts of Brian, a place for pictures to be placed for family and friends, and a general experimental section of the net.

Brian Poirier was lucky enough to have met, wooed and married Dawn, although he must suffer now due to her cat Sam.

Brian’s main source of employment is Paladin International, where he is a private investigator, case manager, and all around JOAT(not MON).

He has two side companies that attempt to gain a little financial compensation for his hobbies of web design and photography.
Web Design: Steel-Sun.com (on the back burner right now, but did design the choir, bell, and Paladin pages referanced in this section)
Photography: SunStockPhoto.com (in the process of being organized - will feature stock photo CDs for sale as well as prints)

He’s also the one doing most of this Blog.

Dawn Uebelhart, for whom this site is named, is the lovely and talented wife of Brian. She’s a wonderful and talented singer (soprano, if you must know) among her many skills, and has been a featured soloist with St Paul’s UMC (and she still is there), Houston Masterworks Chorus, and various other choral and opera organizations.

She currently works at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, where she is the Director of Communications and a featured soloist in the choir. She also frequently sings for weddings and funerals. St Pauls installed change-ringing bells in late 2001 and she is a co-tower captain for the bell tower ( StPaulsBells.com )

She has a pure white cat named Sam.

Next time you are driving down the road in Houston, look up at the poles around town. You’ll notice little white cameras that various government agencies have placed to spy on the citizens. Oh sure, some say they are for traffic monitoring and control, emergency notification, or security, and we can trust Uncle Samies boys in black to only do what they publically say, right? I trust them as much as I trust the government to be fiscally responsible.

Paranoid? Maybe, but only if I’m not right.

So I have started a project on documenting where government run/placed cameras are. I’ll map them, try to take pictures of them, and maybe even identify who is primarily responsible for running them. A fellow non-trusting-of-the-government-type suggested I get a GPS reader and get the coordinates of the cameras also. I may do that one day. NOTE/Update: I don’t think I’ll be taking pictures/GPS readings as that would be a fulltime job. Just driving from Calumet on 288 to 610 to S Post Oak (about an 8 mile stretch of highway) brings you past at least 39 cameras. Even taking as little as 5 minutes each (stop and snap a pic) would take over 3 hours, not including drivetime between shots. And this is a little slice of Houston. These numbers really disturb me. So initially I’ll just be getting counts of the number of cameras in certain stretches of roadway or areas, and later I may actually map/document each one. Total Cameras counted and placed into descriptions below as of 10/4/04: 69

I’m basically dividing the city into 5 sections to start off with for ease of sorting & doing: Downtown and 4 quadrants. For the quadrants basically I-10 will divide north from the south, North I45 will divide the northern half, and 288 will divide the southern half.

Here’s an online realtime traffic camera map: http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/devmap/ This only shows a small percentage of the cameras out there.
Also here’s a related camera list (also incomplete): http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/cameras/

Another blog has also posted some info on this topic: BlogHouston

This place got ticked off enough in Boston to map them and make it interactive. appliedautonomy.com

Area Description: Basically the Downtown are of Houston. Borders are roughly Pierce Elevated (45) to the South and West, I-10 to the North and 59 to the East.

Major Highways: I10, 45, 59N

Known Cameras: Known cameras right now are the Federal Building on Main, and I believe the Metro transit center. Some are also possibly near the courthouses, jails, various Metro train stops, outside the sporting venues, and near the performing arts centers.

Counts as of 10/4/04 of cameras along select stretches of highway:
Pierce Elevated (from 59S merge to I-10W exit): 6