Author: Joey deVilla

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The Missus works in St. Petersburg, and we live in Tampa. The commute can be lengthy and soul-killing, as the preferred routes are limited to a couple of bridges, which can be bottlenecks if there’s an accident.

I work in my home office, which can lead to cabin fever if you do it all the time.

My proposed solution was to offer to drive the wife to St. Pete once a week, where I’d work from one of several places with wifi where they tolerate my hanging out. St. Pete is an extremely low-traffic city, which makes it perfect for biking, so I bring the bike with me, park the car at my wife’s office parking, and use the bike to zip around town.

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This morning, I’m working on the outdoor patio of the Salvador Dali Museum. It’s a beautiful spot barely a block away from the water, and aside from the landscaping guys and the occasional jogger or photographer (it’s probably the most-photographed building in St. Pete) passing by, I’m the only one around. It’s a fantastic place to get work done.

Here’s a closer look at my setup:

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I’m spending most of the day today make presentations and videos for a week-long trip to visit the Indian offices of the company I work for, GSG. With a decent connection, a brand-new MacBook Pro (my first one with a solid-state drive, and wow, is it fast), and beautiful, peaceful surroundings, I’m pretty productive. Here’s a close-up of what my “office” for the day looks like:

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And here’s the view from my “desk”:

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If you’ve got the freedom to work remotely and are in the St. Pete area, check out the Dali Museum’s patio!

Let this be a lesson in the value of good proofreading. A rare 17th-century bible missing the word “not” in the commandment “Thou shalt NOT commit adultery” is going on sale in a London auction next month, and it’s expected to fetch a pretty penny.

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“Caveman” is a little more workable given our climate, but it’s nowhere nearly as interesting as the costume ideas that people in other states are Googling for:

• I’m not sure why people in Indiana would want to dress up as trees, and I’m even less sure why people in Ohio want to dress up as potatoes.
• Hey, New York, New Jersey, Washington and California: we’re not surprised.
• Hey, North Carolina trick-or-treaters: just eat South Carolina’s trick-or-treaters!
• South Dakota is either simply asking for costume ideas, or getting deep, philosophical, and downright meta by dressing up as a costume idea.
• It appears that the states of Louisiana and Arkansas are going as the primary hand-held weapons of World Wars 3 and 4: “gun” and “rock”.
• I had to look up “Doc McStuffins”, which sounded a lot like a male porn star name. It’s the name of a Disney show for kids, and its titular character, a seven year-old girl who’s a “doctor” for broken toys and doll.
• As a friend of mine commented earlier today: “I learned something new about Texas.”
• And finally, Illinois: “Slutty pumpkin?” Where’d that come from?

Thanks to Peach Flambee for the find!

I voted in Canada’s election via the advance out-of-country ballot, (while I’m still allowed to).

…we’re well on track to throwing out our dickish, robotic, control-freaky prime minister. Do let the door hit your ass on the way out, Stevie.

Back in August, I gave an Ignite presentation in which I posited that Florida Man and Florida Woman were not embarrassments, but promising signs that Florida was up-and-coming. I posted the video, which my wife Anitra shot on her iPhone 6S (and it came out quite well).

The official videos of all the presentations at Ignite Tampa Bay 2015 are now up, and here’s their video of my “Florida Man” presentation, which includes straight-on shots of my slides. Enjoy!

It’s election day in Canada, and for those of you outside Canada, here’s John Oliver’s explanation of what’s going on in the Great White North, with the help of special guest (and Canadian) Mike Myers. If you’re not in Canada, watch and learn; if you’re in Canada and eligible, vote if you haven’t already!