Piggy bank parking meter

I went to San Antonio TX last week, and after I parked my car in a public parking lot I had to use this not-so-modern-but-definitively-clever parking meter. No people involved, no ticket for the dashboard, no time metering and no technology at all. Just the good faith of the clients and the warning that your car would be towed if no money was deposited in the proper slot.
I left the lot with the doubt of how the owners would know the car currently parked in a given spot was the car that actually paid for it.... Weird, and only in Texas!

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The Marlins to be leading

My friend Julio has made an excellent statistical analysis (in Spanish) of the current positions in the East Division of the National League.

After an easy analysis (at least for him who is a Ph.D. in such thing) of the results up to yesterday 06/08/05, he concludes the Florida Marlins is the team who is the most likely to be leading their division, but has been victim of some random factors, like this for example, that have made them fall down to the bottom of the table. After his analysis, he concludes, in Spanish:

Como conclusión final podemos decir que esta división no está peleada, lo que ha sido es víctima de un azar incontrolado que ha dado cuenta de lo que debería ser un paseo en el parque para el mejor equipo del grupo, que sin duda alguna y tal y como lo demuestra su plantilla son los Marlins de Florida.

Google translated, and slightly fixed by me:

As final conclusion we can say that this division is not fought, but has been victim of a uncontrolled chance that has given into account of which would have to be a stroll in the park for the best team of the group, that without any doubt and as it is demonstrated by its rooster are the Florida Marlins.

I, as a Marlins fan, completely agree with his prediction: The Marlins will raise up to the leading position anytime soon.

Link (Google Translation)

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How to get fast haircuts

The barber shop I used to go ran out of business. There, I always had my hair cut by the same person, and because I wasn't the only one who thought she did a great job, sometimes I had to wait up to 1 hour to get serviced.

Today I tried a Hair Cuttery near home. When I entered I had to write my name in a waiting list along with the name of my favorite stylist. The list was quite long, with 10 people before me, but anyway I wrote down my name along with "any". A unoccupied stylist called me immediately and I was serviced at the moment, while other people had spent an hour of waiting.

I learned the lesson, next time I will not show any preference for getting fast haircuts.

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Jun 1 to Nov 30

Although the hurricane season already began for the Eastern Pacific, today officially marks the first date for the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which is really the one that concerns me.

According with the National Hurricane Center (capital letters are theirs):

TODAY MARKS THE FIRST DAY OF THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON... WHICH WILL RUN UNTIL NOVEMBER 30TH. LONG-TERM AVERAGES FOR THE NUMBER OF NAMED STORMS AND HURRICANES ARE 10 AND 6...RESPECTIVELY. WHILE CONDITIONS APPEAR TO FAVOR ABOVE-NORMAL LEVELS OF TROPICAL CYCLONE ACTIVITY IN 2005...AT THIS TIME IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CONFIDENTLY PREDICT THE NUMBER OF CYCLONES THAT MIGHT AFFECT LAND.

THE LIST OF NAMES FOR 2005 IS AS FOLLOWS...

NAME           PRONUNCIATION      NAME          PRONUNCIATION
-------------------------------------------------------------
ARLENE                            MARIA          MA REE AH
BRET                              NATE
CINDY                             OPHELIA        O FEEL YA
DENNIS                            PHILIPPE       FEE LEEP
EMILY                             RITA
FRANKLIN                          STAN
GERT                              TAMMY
HARVEY                            VINCE
IRENE                             WILMA
JOSE            HO ZAY
KATRINA         KA TREE NA
LEE

They predict "above-normal levels of tropical cyclone activity in 2005", but I only hope this year's season doesn't be as active as last year's... I definitely hated being canned like sardine inside my house.

Link

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