What's UP?

From my mom:

There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this up is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP , you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now...my time is UP, so time to shut UP!

It all makes sense to me!

Local Burglaries...

Kimberlee Quarles, who is a neighbor of ours, wrote to make us aware of some burglaries occuring in the area. An excerpt from her blog post, with recent incidents:

INFORMATION REGARDING SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY AND BURGLARIES IN JAMUL
AS OF MARCH 18, 2009

Prior to March 10

A man was knocking on doors in the neighbor hood asking for work. He gave one of them a flyer that supposedly had his name (James Merson) and contact information. This man spoke with [a resident of Jamul Highlands] for some time and claimed to have worked for a local contractor. When the resident checked with that contractor they were told noone of that name had ever worked there. Both the resident and I called the phone number on the flyer, 619-342-8964, and it is not in service.

The home at 14782 Olive Vista was robbed twice in the week before March 10. Eleven guns, jewelry, tools, etc. were stolen.

There has also been strange activity at the end of Jamul Highlands – men fiddling with the lock on the gate up there, unknown vehicles hanging out, and groups of illegals coming through.

Tuesday, March 10

Our home at 2875 Jamul Highlands was burglarized sometime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. I have been told there were a total of four burglaries that day, but the only address I have for another home is 3028 Jamul Highlands. The woman at that home told me she was only gone from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and the house was broken into during that time.

Thursday, March 11

A Hispanic male in camouflage clothing and a lime green hat with several large bags obviously full of items was observed hanging around near 3025 Jamul Highlands. I called it in. The deputy responded quickly but the man was gone. I believe the deputy spoke to the woman there.

In the afternoon an attempted burglary occurred at 3191 Jamul Highlands Road .

Friday, March 12

Late in the afternoon two Hispanic males (probably in their 20's) with shaved heads in a white Silverado truck, lowered and with rims, went aft er a young teenage boy who lives on our street, chasing him on his expensive “50" dirt bike (so close they almost ran him down) from the dead end of Jamul Highlands all the way down the road and then chasing him on foot when he went off onto the dirt road near 3025 Jamul Highlands. A young man at a nearby house intervened and asked the men what they were doing, but apparently they did not respond and instead got back into the truck and took off. The young man followed them up Lyons Valley Road and was able to get their license plate number, which is CA 7W49564, and went home. This same truck was seen on Jamul Highlands shortly after but left when they saw they were being observed by the same young man.

I have been told that the Sheriff’s Department checked the plate and the vehicle belongs to someone in Valley Center . I checked with the neighbors at the end of the road and they do not know anyone or have anyone visit their home of this description. There seems to be no reason why these individuals would be in the area (especially several times) or why they would chase a boy, other than possibly to stea l his dirt bike. Someone at the dead end of Jamul Highlands can watch the comings and goings of our neighborhood from that vantage point.

Monday, March 16

I have been told that as of this date, there was a third attempt to break into a home at 14782 Olive Vista.

Read Kimberlee's entire post for all the details.

Command-Line Fu...

Here's a site that any geek will love: Command-line-fu. It lets anyone post their favorite command line hacks, and then the readers vote (up or down) on them, or comment on them. The idea is to organically find the most useful hacks, and to let you find the hack you want very easily.

Cool stuff, in a very geekly way...