Seek!

March 30, 2012

something

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 8:15 am

It’s ever so slightly more than shaking my fist at the sky…

I installed Folding@Home on all three of my computers. They’re running all the time anyway and F@H does some cancer research.

Now for a call to the American Cancer Society to start a recurring donation.

Research won’t help my friend but it will help the species.

March 21, 2012

Filed under: Life — admin @ 11:09 pm

I have a dear friend with a serious illness.

The world got just a bit darker today.

March 15, 2012

Chimney climbs

Filed under: Climbing — admin @ 1:30 pm

When climbing, sometimes you have two slabs of rock facing each other. We call it a chimney and climb it by pressing on both walls in opposition. This provides enough friction to let you lift yourself up. This is an excellent example of the technique:


taken by John J. Glime, found on MountainProject.com

March 12, 2012

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 8:01 pm

Things Never Said About Restaurant Websites

Brought to you by the nice people at Tastee Freez

March 11, 2012

Bronx Zoo

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 11:26 pm

We visited the Bronx Zoo yesterday.  Here’s a fossa. He’s the top predator in Madagascar.

image

This guy was hanging out on the railing in the bird house.

image

Here are some King Vultures

Sluts redefined

Filed under: Politics — admin @ 10:46 pm

A singing group has redefined “slut” for Rush Limbaugh. Here’s an article and video which is lots of fun.

March 3, 2012

gun safety for kids

Filed under: Politics — admin @ 10:30 pm

Class teaches gun safety by putting guns in kids’ hands

A martial arts school in Meridian, Idaho is teaching a free class for kids to teach them gun safety. Unlike the stock picture that the news crew picked, the kids in the video exhibited excellent trigger discipline. I didn’t see anyone’s finger inside the trigger guard which was very nice. Kudos to Ultimate Karate & Jiu Jitsu for teaching this class.

The NRA suggests these gun safety rules (and I agree) as a start:

  1. ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
  2. ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
  3. ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.

February 29, 2012

gas prices

Filed under: Politics — admin @ 6:08 pm

Here’s a chart of gasoline prices for the last 20 years.

It’s disingenuous to point to the price of gas when Obama took office.

February 25, 2012

new blood types

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:01 pm

Two New Blood Types Were Identified by University of Vermont biologist Bryan Ballif and colleagues.

February 15, 2012

random events

Filed under: Climbing,Gaming,Ham Radio,SAR,Uncategorized — admin @ 10:59 am

Life has been insane. Busy and stressful. We’re thinking and talking about big, real life goals and it’s not easy.

I’m working with the FIRST robotics team at Albany High. It’s not as amazing as last year but I think that’s because it’s not the first time any more. Still, they learn things and I learn things. I wish I could be there more often but since I’m new at my current job, I don’t have a lot of brownie points to spend yet. Maybe next year.

Saturday is the warmup practice day for robotics and Sunday we’re doing a public exhibition. Let me know if you’re interested in checking it out and I’ll get ya directions. Last year that event was ADD-ferret disjointed but it was fun to run from problem to problem, helping out.

Two coworkers invited me to go shooting with them. It’s been a really, really long time. My grouping was pretty good and my little 22 rifle was mostly a pleasure. My eyesight is far worse than I remember. :) I tagged the bulls-eye a couple/three times at 50 yards. I learned that 13 degrees F is too cold to go target shooting. Fingers should not tingle when they warm back up. And I still don’t understand why people with large caliber guns don’t have shock absorbing pads on the stock.

Skyrim is The big adventure video game right now and it’s eating up my free time. I could talk at length about it but I’m sure no one cares. The visuals are really impressive though. They are pretty darned amazing.

My brothers and I started actually working on a little side project that might turn into a sell-able product someday. I’ll be happy if we sell a dozen to hobbyists.

The turbocharged car is still a lot of fun to drive and I’m still looking for interesting roads which are empty enough to enjoy. Age, apparently, has a way of making other people’s safety more important than my own fun. Maybe I can join the parking lot racing club in the spring. 40 m.p.h. is fast there and the courses are apparently tough and fun. It’s possible that I need a new clutch but I’m not telling anyone that. (shhh)

The ham radio came out of the Element at Jenny’s request and hasn’t mounted itself in the Subaru yet. It looks like I’ll have to do that myself. I got the Haynes repair manual for the car so I should be able to take apart the dashboard without breaking anything. The current plan is to fabricate a sheet metal mount for the radio faceplate and squeeze that through the trim to an imagined (but not located) bolt.

Work is letting me borrow a couple of handheld infrared cameras tonight. They might be useful for search and rescue but I don’t have high hopes. It’s still an expensive, limited technology but one of them is only $2K and about the size of a beefy flashlight.

Still climbing at the gym but only once a week due to time constraints. EMS had a sale and I got the climbing helmet and grigri belay device that I wanted. Real rock this year!

And work is still an amazing challenge. We’re hiring programmers and interns.

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