Snow Country, Part Two

Since I worked late yesterday, I came in late today. And since it had stopped snowing and rain is on the forecast, I took that opportunity to go hunting. A beautiful day in the woods, I even saw some deer, lots of deer tracks, and some odd tracks from some small mammal that I couldn't ID. Made it in to work by 11:00. But at work, the power was out, so everyone had gone home, and thus I could have stayed out longer. Of course the power came back on shortly after I got back, and I guilted myself into staying since the books for the benchtop instruments are pretty full and Simon's already left. Random acts of responsibility suck. I probably won't do any actual work today, I'll just be on hand in case someone breaks one of the machines.

For my fellow music nerds: I was pleased to see that geek rock king Rivers Cuomo of Weezer is going back to school. Pleased because the two best Weezer albums (The Blue Album and Pinkerton, duh) were made after Rivers subjected himself to the punishments of stints of higher education.

B out...

Snow Country

Here's pictures of the dog on Saturday night:


That snow disappeared, but it got replaced today:



And here's a delicious meat pie I made for dinner a while back. The "B" is for "Beef," mmmmmm. Meat pie.

The stove was cleaned shortly after this picture was taken...

Monday Madness, Tuesday Torpor

If anyone checks out the links I have off to the side (over there ⇒) Peter shared with us the changing weather we've had of late. Snow last Saturday. Up to a foot by tomorrow (I doubt it - it hasn't even started falling yet - no, wait, yes it has). I'll post a picture I took when I get around to flickring.

Speaking of pictures - if there's any anonymous rich people that happen across this blog entry and want to donate to me my own camera, I'll send you my mailing address. I'd like to take some pictures when I'm out and about, but Cindy barely lets me out in the yard with her camera (for good reasons! I do try to take care of it though!). Like the weird balloon shooting range I found whilst stalking game last Saturday. Or the myriad natural wonders I see when walking through the woods. Or the crazy redneck trailers that are parked all up and down Route 30 right now.

Does anyone know how to do screen grabs so that a picture/webpage can be saved and posted? It would have helped with my links that didn't work as planned on the last post. I remember learning how at some point in a college course, but damned if I can remember it now.

Okay. Here's a question for the ages. I'm working late again today. Right. So I brought in extra food for lunch, figured I'd have a snack with the leftovers before I start my infected sort at 5:00. Simon and I debated whether it would be better to eat a snack later, or gorge myself at lunch time. Without bringing any personal issues involving gluttony into the discussion, which would be a better way to operate? Answer in 3000 words or more, submitted on $20's.

Fun With Magellan

In anticipation of hunting I've been playing with my GPS unit - in many ways I've been learning how to use it in place of blindly stumbling around with it in order not to get lost - ie using all of those bells and whistles that it's got. Here's some digging I did with coordinates I had saved on it:

This is where all of the other men in my family are right now - hunting camp in Twisp, WA. Kinda wish I was there right now. The white line that runs N-S on the map is the logging road we ride up in the morning. It's 4 miles if we go all the way to the top. To the east you can see Loup Loup(sp) ski area - the littlest ski hill on earth (probably not really, but it's small). Our camp lies just south (I think) of Highway 20 on the map:

So the stars in slightly the wrong spot...

Anywho, we usually come from the west when driving in to camp. But the last year I lived in Washington - not the last year I went to camp, mind you - Cindy and I came in from the east via the North Cascades Highway. I don't think there's a more beautiful drive in the country. You pass scenic alpine lakes, craggy mountains, rocky gorges. Mostly pristine. Sometimes looking down hundreds or more feet at rivers and lakes. I recommend it to anyone. Coordinates to camp - 48 22.375 -119 56.938.

And for my friends in the Ellensburg area - the last time I was through Ellensburg to bird hunt (unsuccessfully) I found a skull from a young big horn ram. It's probably nice and clean by now (or dust). The coordinates are 47 08.152 -120 22.063 if anyone's interesting (its up Cook Canyon, I think. Or maybe Coleman Canyon - go get it, Pittses). An aerial is here, it should be just east of the road, if I remember correctly. A GPS unit of decent quality should get you within a couple of feet. And here's a map:

This time, the star appears to be in roughly the right spot.

Enough tech nerding - I need to get to bed so I can go do some Elmer Fudding tomorrow...

I've Been...Busy?

Or something. Since last I've posted, I've done a few things. But nothing picture worthy, and thus, nothing post worthy.

I fought and won a war with fleas - The dog has flea medication but the buggers still lived in the shop. So I brushed bug repellent into his coat and out him out on his run, then bombed the shop. No more fleas. Haven't seen Cooper scratch once since last Saturday. The dog also barks in the middle of the night now to let me know he has to pooh. Which is good, I'd prefer getting up to cleaning up. But last night it was cold (supposed to be colder tonight), and after he crapped, he ran off into the trees. There I stood in my PJ's on the porch, watching his curly tail bob off into the darkness. He came back eventually.

I took yesterday off to stay home with Connor while Cindy took Ethan to Burlington to have a weird inverted hair follicle thingy on his arm checked out. A poly-something-noma to those in the know. I ate much bad food, played much guitar, played much with baby, felt like a lump about the time Cindy got home. Today I have grumpy tummy from my sedentary and dietary day.

Today I got to come in late! So I could work late! And then the internets were out all day, so I had multiple hours of nothing to do! Joy!

Woad. B, out...

Incense And Peppermints, The Color Of Thyme

Nothing new to report - the weather's been too bad here in the ADK's to get up to anything at all. No jogs with the dog, no kids playing out in the yard. Just wetness. I'll probably be cooped up all weekend too.

But I think I'll make tortilla soup one night, and that always makes me happy...

Woad

Tuesday Is Monday

And the sample I'm running right now is l-u-m-p-y. Constant tweaks of the differential knob needed to keep things running at all.

One thing that happened to us this weekend that I failed to mention yesterday is that Cindy and I undertook amateur treadmill repair to absolutely NO success. The treadmill's been on the fritz for six weeks or so - it started making a small grinding or whisking noise, then seized up and wouldn't go. At all. So Cindy makes a call to the home office of whoever, and some lady that's hundreds or maybe thousands of miles away insists that it's got to be the circuit board that controls the speed of the thing, and don't worry, we're at the tail end of the warranty she'll send one on out. We get the thing, Cindy connects it, we turn the treadmill on, and...Nothing. I crank on the motor and - surprise - it's seized. Just like Cindy had trie to tell the lady. At first we thought maybe one of the kids had managed to drop something in under the shroud that covers all the moving parts, but no, it's just a piece of $#!%. But it has a longer warranty. Cindy makes another phone call. End result: motor received last week. So Saturday - or maybe Sunday, I set about replacing the old with the new. I follow the included directions to the T. All wires are connected properly. All belts are now in place. Next step - plug in, turn on, adjust speed.

Plug in. Check

Turn on....Oh Shit! Fire! One of the transistors on the newly replaced speed control board sparks, pops, flames, smokes. We unplug and try to determine if I hooked it up wrong (no).

But now what? Time to play phone tag again, I guess. I'm mostly frustrated because the weather's starting to get cold enough that I know I won't want to run outside much after this month, but I'm finally feeling like I'm getting into shape...And now my yuppie health luxury is broken. Not to mention I was looking forward to giving my joints a chance to heal on it's shock absorbing belt over the next few months.

We also took the pets to the vet Saturday. The cat was amazingly clean and healthy, according to the vet. Amazing, seeing as how we rescued him from trailer trash that left him locked up on their porch after they moved out. Sadly, for him, he'll be minus two bodily protrusions sometime before the end of the month. But he'll be allowed inside after that. The dog, however, had fleas and tapeworms, both of which have been treated successfully, but sick me out nonetheless.

Sunday I also went out looking for places to chase whitetails in two weeks time. Man, I live in a cool spot. If one can find their way away from people with long established hunting camps, there's some cool countryside to explore. I even managed to see some deer - noisy dog in tow and all.
How was your weekend?

Anybody know what it would mean if one "talks in maths?"

Bloggin's Back To Normal

I get the day off today - Yay! I don't recall celebrating Columbus Day back in Sea-Town, so a mid October day off is something special. I guess. I'll blog normal today, a respite from my recent rambling ways.

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my own - here's a few:

Here's the fam with the three pumpkins that survived Deer, dogs, kids, etc.

Kinda looks like I shot them within the span of about 1.5 seconds, eh? Truth is, we just couldn't get Connor to stop throwing his pumpkin!

Here's E-Nut with the custom pumpkin I "made" for him:

They will still orange up indoors, right?


The big pumpkin is flattened more than it's big. Are they supposed to be rotated during growth? I was worried that I would break the stems.


Disregard the chubby, greasy man in the background. Both kids have problems eating or drinking without making a mess!


I'm still taking my guitar lessons, although about all the instructor is trying to teach my right now is techniques in tossing the pick into the soundhole. I's really hard to do rockstar poses with little hands feeding a steady stream of picks into the nearest guitar. They (the picks) even disappear sometimes, only to be found in one of the guitars that I haven't played in a while.


I'll probably get into trouble since Cindy took these pictures. She took the kids to the park while I was yogging with the dog, and in between bouts of misbehavior, the boy managed to sit still long enough to have a Monarch land on him.

B, Out...

Arthursday3 - A Day Late And More Than A Dollar Short

I recently saw some pictures on Fark of this years DragonCon. From what I understand, DragonCon is a yearly meeting of Übernerds that gather mostly to compare Star Wars costumes and quote obscure Sci Fi to each other. But...


These two images pretty much sum up my entire childhood in a nutshell. Minus Jar Jar.

I don't know whether I should be proud or ashamed.

Okay. Here's a new artists website that I've been looking through. The person(guy?)'s name is Jinyoung Shin. The art is bizarre - cool/weird symmetry to most of it; "anime outlandish" style (you'll see); figures that are often androgynous; and many rock and roll poses. Here's examples, tell me how much you hate them...


Wham, Bam, Thank You Glam

His site's as odd as his style - wierd, rambling commentary/stories, I don't know. But peruse the galleries - he's got some cool stuff. I especially like that many of the people's limbs are see-through or something. I don't know. I look forward to hearing how much some of you despise my taste in art...

B...Out!

Right Coast, Right Handed, Right Brained Rambling v1.2

Lately, my brain has kind of gone into overdrive. I don't know what it's caused by - perhaps the regular exercise I've been getting (I can now fasten my belt one or two holes more than a month ago - although my ankles, knees, and shins constantly ache due to my flat feet); maybe it's because I've cut back drastically on both my caffeine and beer intakes (both due to the better fitness level I'm working on); or it might even be that the shortened photoperiod a la oncoming winter has kicked my brain into short days/stuck indoors mode. Anyway I look at it, the voices (yes, voices, you're just jealous that they only talk to me) have become almost as long winded and random as Colonel Kurtz from"Apocalypse Now", minus the thinly veiled threats of violence and discussions of dismemberment.

Now comes the part where I open up and share some of my recent meanderings over absolutely nothing resembling significance, deep thought, worldliness, or relevance - unless those all mean the same thing. In which case just pick your favorite word out of the list.

The horror...

While reading Newsweek, I think, a while back (Thank you, Gar), I caught a snippet about a guy who made a stuffed animal a day for a year as an effort to do something creative every day. And his stuffed animals were rad, resembling no creatures that have walked the earth. Ever. He said his motivation was brought about by a friend who had set out to record a new blues song every day in order to become a better musician. People are out there stoking the creative fires daily, while I sit idly spinning my wheels, exercising none of the creative gifts I might have. Of course, I can hardly hang too much blame on myself - not until someone invents a 28 or 30 hour day. There's just not enough time to:

• Wake Up
• Shower
• Take dog outside to poo
  
• Breakfast/Coffee/Tea
• Make lunch for Ethan and myself (not everyday...)
• Go to work, watch cells fall into tubes, eat lunch, go home
• Help with squirt watching
• Go for a jog
• Get Ethan to bed
• Take dog out to poo
• Watch TV
• Read before falling asleep
• Sleep

In a day as it is. But the hunger's still there - I'd love to be able to put aside an hour a day to "study" guitar (as in learn some more theory, styles, actually improve...), sketch, paint, something! Heck, I'd love to put aside an hour a day just to reread some of my old science text books so that I can better understand the strange language that everyone at work speaks - 90% of which I was fluent in at one point, but fell out of my head at the end of each respective quarter at school. How do parents find time to do stuff? Is it selfish to want to?

Lately I have been doing some reading - mostly because I can squeeze somewhere between 10-45 minutes of it in when I go to bed. And I've been reading some wonderful, mostly Sci Fi books. Right now, I'm reading Chapterhouse: Dune, an accomplishment that I share only because I've started reading the Dune series about four different times, starting at about age 14, and just recently have I gotten past the first three or four books. The great thing about them is that they are oddly prophetic - international/national economies built with precious natural resources bought from afar at high prices, many nods to Islam, discussion of fallibilities of governments. Definitely Sci Fi for the cerebral person.

Cindy and I watched "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" the other night. It was an okay movie, but ultimately just another bloated Hollywood attempt at raping a few dollars out of much loved stories. Who makes the decisions that ruin so many of the books that I've admired? I can't even to begin to count how many times vividly painted mental imagery has been trashed by translation to the big screen. Usually Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage, or Bradley Pitt are to blame...

Speaking of Nicholas Cage, WTF is up with naming his kid after Superman? Personally, I despise the guy and most of the movie's he's made - "Adaptation" being the sole exception (Okay, he did have a bit part in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"). But why brand your offspring like that? It doesn't help that I have to imagine that poop eating mouth muttering "Hey... Kal-el...getcher dad another beer...wouldja?"

I've been pondering a conversation between Homer and Grandpa Simpson, in which Homer asks Grandpa something about keeping up with the times, and Grandpa replies to the effect that he used to be "with it," but then "with it" became something else that he didn't understand and was wierd. This is something that I'm dealing with. I'm somewhat of an audiophile - it kind of goes with the territory of being a timewasting, guitar playing, retarded minkey. But I just don't "get" half the messiness that's on the radio now. Some of it's awesome. Most of it is utter crap. I don't just not like it, it makes me want to commit war crimes against the people responsible for creating it. Even some bands that I liked in a past life fall in to this category - the more recent offerings from some great bands of the 90's is rubbish. When did this happen? Is it a result of my not being "with it?" Or have I just developed more discerning tastes? Or ar the kids these days just morons that listen to retarded music? I'll spend my time listening to 70's rock, 80's alternative, and early 90's metal until I get it figured out...

Okay, I've temporarily exhausted myself. I'll be back with more, later...May even post an Arthursday3 before I go home today.

The Man And The Electron Microscope

I think I ripped this off from the BBC's website - they had ten cool scientific pics:


I'll give a gold star, or a kick in the pants - your choice - to anyone who can guess what the two objects pictured are.

I wanted to do another Arthursday last week, and may do one this week, even though I think I get more satisfaction out of them than anyone else. The only problem is, the one or two artists pages I've seen recently that caught my little eye were kind of bizarre and might not go over well with some of you, my faithful viewers.

Woad to ya mother...

BTW - I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that my lovely wife got to play with an electron microscope a bit towards the end of her college days. I think they're a pretty neat piece of equipment - I could handle having one in my garage.

Semi Charmed Kinda Life

Awwww.....

Nothing much exciting has been happening lately, so I haven't had much to post. Even my weekends have been decidedly bland - I don't spend them in front of the TV or loafing around; yet when they're over I don't feel like I did anything much. Fall weather has come to the ADK's - Peter's got some nice pic's from one of the local mountains over at his blog (Question Pete: Why is it that every time you get out into the outdoors, the following blogpost is titled ...Not a good idea?). I'm getting excited to go chase whitetails through the woods later this month - they've been getting more and more aggressive with the plants in my garden (packing on those pre-winter pounds?) so in addition to liking venison, I've also got the revenge thing going on. The weather here has been bouncing around quite a bit - chilly all day, wind the next (and how!), then we get warm days and nights, and we're supposed to be back down in the 40's and 50's by the end of the week. No constant gray like I experienced on the Wet Side of WA growing up.

Check ya later,
-B-

(Anyone who blogs have trouble with the spell checker? It often doesn't actually make the changes it suggests, or puts some odd word in it's place when it does. I just had it replace "happenign" with "avenging." Never once have I mispelled the word avenging that way, and I sure as heck didn't tell it to replace poorly spelled "happening" with "avenging.")