Ants Marching - "they all do it the same way"

Recipe: quinoa/squash curry-tahini (Indian-American-medit.) experiment

2010-02-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

Indian, as in dot, not feather. American as in Native American. I threw this together a week ago, but can't remember it too well. This is mostly for my reference.

Baked spaghetti squash
quinoa
saute onion and garlic (e.v. olive oil)
fresh ginger
(?--not sure about the spices) coriander, allspice, cinnamon, salt, pepper
Tahini paste
lemon juice

Something like this.. anyways, it was good

Ode to Gnuplot

2009-12-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

In writing an academic research paper, I needed a break and come up with this. Publishing here for reference and as inspiration to all chart-makers everywhere!

Gnuplot, ode to ye of great graphical complexity.
Draw thee line, axis, label, and series;
with you in my text who would dare reject me?

Tomato WINE

2009-05-29T16:34:00.001-07:00

Found this online.. wow!

Medium Dry Tomato Wine
4 QUARTS unpeeled tomatoes
1 gallon boiling water
2 lemons, sliced thinly
2 oranges, sliced thinly
3 lbs sugar
yeast

Clean crock or large pickle jar
Strainer/Cheesecloth
Large Saucepan
Fermentation Jar
Siphon

Place the fruits in the crock. Pour the boiling water over top. Bruise well with a wooden spoon or squeeze it well with your hands. Repeat each day for 3 days.
Strain the liquid into a large saucepan. Warm to lukewarm, stirring in the sugar until it is all dissolved.
Remove from heat. Add the yeast.
Set it away to work in a fermentation jar until it is clear. Then siphon, bottle, and store for at least One Year..maybe even Two..

Garden 2009

2009-05-29T16:07:00.001-07:00

I just spent all afternoon planting things.. (just for my own reference)
West Strip planter:

Celebrity tomato (from Dave)
cinnamon basil
mint
Sun Gold cherry tomato
Japanese eggplant
Brandywine tomato
Blue Lake 274 stringless beans

East Strip planter:

Hubbert (?) winter squash
Yellow zucchini
Giant Belgium tomato
Juliet cherry tomato
Black Beauty eggplant

Misc:

Potted Celebrity tomato - patio
Morning Glory (scarlet o'hara) east strip along neighbor's garage (will trellis as a screen). Also right side of patio and in front of front porch.
Hyacinth Bean (purple) - left side of patio and in front of front porch.
Corsican Violet - Mediterranean wild violet. perennial. Good for Utah climate. Should have gravelly soils. In front of front porch
Dead Nettle - transplanted from neighbor's hard (with permission!) - front of front porch.

Work overwhelming?

2009-04-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

Couldn't have said it better! Although humor is obviously the aim of this graphic, it really puts things in perspective! Don't fret the small stuff, smile, and enjoy what time we have!

Making one think.

2009-01-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

At Mass today, there were two moments that really made me think "whoah, that's different." The first was the Priest apparently was going into some engineering/science where computer programming was involved, before he found his calling for the priesthood. Interesting - not what I would expect. The second moment came during "prayers of the faithful" where a guy said something like: "for the members of Osama's family and their loss." A few more heads than normal turned to look back at him. I'm not sure what or who he was referring to, but I do hope it caused others besides me to think something like "hmmm, thank you for the reminder that we should attempt to love even our enemies and wish them the best."

Anyways, I enjoy things which happen that throw people out of their comfort zones and make them think (yes, I'm including myself in this group).

Feeding the Hungry - Epilogue

2008-12-09T09:51:00.001-08:00

This is a followup of my original entry "Feeding the Hungry" a few months back.

I was just getting in my car with some groceries, after having passed a ringing bell for Salvation Army, when who should spot me and approach me..? Oh yes, Mr. Smooth-talking "I'm hungry since I spent all my money on car repair today". I instantly recognized him and asked "So did you enjoy that Wendy's?" It took him a while, but he remembered me as the "math guy". Close enough. The point is, he was still running his panhandling, but in a different location. I completely got taken by him last time. He's probably making more than I am. I wish I confronted him more about it.. but it probably wouldn't have changed anything. It made me quite angry that he didn't own up to it, and tried to pass another story "oh, now it's my house that I need money for".

This is further reinforcement that I should give money only through the proper channels. I haven't donated nearly, however.

No, no. Pregnant teens are more likely to watch Sex and the City.

2008-11-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

I ran across this article that states a study shows teens who watch sex on TV are more likely to soon get pregnant.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4691259

I wasn't expecting much from the "user submitted comments", but there were a few gems.

"I would link teen pregnancy to teen sex"
"I'm Married. I wish sex on tv would lead to more sex for me. Haven't seen that happen."

My take on the whole thing is it is silly to claim that watching those shows CAUSE a teen to have sex. That is not what was studied! The study simply shows that a individual who is into that show is also into sex. Not really a groundbreaking conclusion.

Taxing the weathly disproportionally is unfair?

2008-10-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have heard this argument for those against a steeply progressive tax with respect to income: "We've earned it, and thus should keep it, and not give it to someone lazy and unwilling to work! That will only encourage more to be lazy."

This argument makes some assumptions, which I bring into question:
1) There is a strong and linear association between "hard work" and making money.
2) Those making just enough to get by are lazy.
3) A rich person earns all they make.

(1) Some professions no doubt have this association as a cornerstone principle. Logging, construction, gold mining, and professional running as examples. Yet even these are subject to many other parameters, namely luck (gold mining) or natural-born talent (running). Many other professions are simply more income-earning than others, regardless of how much work is put into them. A computer scientist will make more than a postman or postwoman. Therefore, a big part of how much a person makes is choice of profession, not necessarily working any harder. More about this under assumption (3).

(2) While the lazy poor no doubt exist, I believe more typically there are those who are working as hard as they can simply to exist and feed their family. Working minimum wage jobs, sometimes multiple ones, does not allow one to move up in society, go to college, or positively influence the future generation. It is a vicious cycle, and in my opinion, why poverty exists in this country. It is much too difficult to break out (and more pointedly, influence children to do so). India's and China's people have it right - they see education, engineering, and medicine as a way forward and a high social status. Here, it is socially "uncool". But I digress...

(3) What is the worth of one's time? I read a comment about someone making over 250k/year that he shouldn't have to pay more % in taxes than anyone else because "I worked 80 hours/week to get here! I don't want to give it to someone too lazy to work!" So what if you work 80/hrs a week - I guarantee there are plenty of people working at least that hard that earn 1/10 of what you do. Which brings me to the question again: what is one's time worth? There needs to be incentive to work harder and "get ahead", but when one breaks past a threshold of money, one doesn't have to worry about food anymore. It's all dessert after that, and that is what is being taxed (to help those eating rice).

If one truly holds to "I work 80 hrs/week and earn all this", and that the relationship between earning money and working hard is proportional, consider the following. John works 15 hrs/week and makes $15k/year. Maybe he's "lazy", maybe he just want to spend more time with his wife and enjoy life a bit more. But it matters not. Sam really wants that BMW and is willing to work hard for it: 80 hrs/week. Proportionally, he should earn $80k/year. This all assumes they do the same type of work. What if Sam spends his 20's going to medical school? How does this change things? Well, no doubt the market will dictate what Sam should be making, and that is fine (say $200k/year). But to say that Sam "earned" all that extra money is not quite accurate. Sam probably had good guidance growing up, did well in school, worked hard in medical school, and had a long-term vision. This is the *environment* he grew up in. John, meanwhile, had no guidance, as his single mother was busy working two shifts just so he could come back from his crappy schools to a small plate of food. So LUCK has a huge influence on who makes the big bucks and who doesn't. Same thing with business. If Steve now makes $10M from a company he started, good for him. But don't tell me he worked 666 times as hard as John. Many others worked just as hard as Steve, and also tried to start a business, but failed.

Luck plays as big a role as anything.

Not to mention that once one reaches the high values of income, making money is easy. If I become a high-earner (fingers cross.. luck! and I have the skill..), sure I'll bitch about paying taxes. But will I vote for social justice over me being able to get a 2nd (or 3rd) BMW? Hell yes! (Health care, education, social security all deserve OUR money before German automakers). I would consider the higher tax as repayment to a system that allowed me to climb into a secure role in society. Repaying a loan, if you will.

Garden 2008: Fin

2008-10-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

It is just about the end of my gardening season. I still have a few tomato plants and an eggplant plant that I was able to cover up during a recent cold-streak. It'll be in the 70's degF for a week so hopefully I'll get a few more goodies. I took out all my squash plant remains today. The cold got them quite easily. I have one large squash still out there that I'm going to see if it will be OK - sort of an experiment. My supply of Sweet Meat squash should last me through the winter!

For record, I am documenting what I planted and some thoughts about each variety.

1) Early girl tomato. Very easy to grow. The west side plants grew very large, and produced many fruit early. The east side plant started off very slow, and seemed malnutritioned, but took off in late summer. Medium, tasty tomatoes. A favorite! Required much pruning to keep under control. Will probably plant again, but not as many plants.
2) DX 52-12 tomato. A locally-bred variety designed for cool weather. West side plant didn't do much, and died early. Perhaps outcompeted by others? East side plant started slow, but really did well in cooler weather, with beautiful medium-large tomatos. Taste varied, but was good. Less pruning needed. Probably won't plant again (rather try something else)
3) Yellowpear tomato. Weird.. probably a bad cross-polinated, because it was certainly not small pear tomatoes! Crazy, ribbed, gree/orange/yellow/red tomatoes that were pretty, but did not taste that great. Plant didn't grow too well. Try again next year!
4) Sunsugar cherry. My favorite plant this year! Very very yummy and pretty golden cherry tomatoes. Grew very fast and large. Trellising would work well for it, I think. A winner. Back again next year.
5) Black Beauty eggplant. A very fun, pretty plant. Beautiful purple flowers and big green leaves. Will do again, probably 2 plants worth. Plant early, since it grows more slowly than tomatoes.
6) Cornell's Bush Delicata winter squash. A smallish-bush type winter squash plant, that produces small, pretty and very tasty winter squash. It won an award back in 2002 for best heirloom variety. Bred at Cornell University. May try again.
7) Sweet Meat squash. The star of the show this year! I didn't know what I was getting myself into with this one. It sprawled onto my lawn to densely cover a 8' x 12' section, and that only because I started cutting it back! Squash only appeared late, when the plant got pretty big, but it sure didn't disappoint. Many 10-15 lb squash of very dense and delicious meat. I couldn't even cook a whole one, cut into pieces. On baking trays, 1/2 of one takes two! Amazing 2" thick meat. The only negative is the amount of space this one took in the yard. I should note that I let the fruit grow as large as they could, and not pick while still soft, as the "infocard" told me. It seems from info online that it is normally picked late, as I did. I wonder what the difference is? I luckily have a few smaller, "new" ones to try.

Beer Brewing - a crash course.

2008-10-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has been home-brewing beer for a while, and thought it would be fun to get me into it. We each picked out recipes and ingredients from the Beer Nut homebrew supply store - I got a simple brown ale, and Pete a Fuller's ESB-clone. We both upgraded to liquid yeast by White Labs (002 - English Ale), as it simplifies the process slightly and produces amazing beer. He had an extra fermenting bucket, but I had to buy a large stockpot from Walmart. The ingredients for 5 gallons (about 48 12 oz bottles) was $38 or so. I'm trying to collect and save non-twistoff bottles so as to not have to buy empties.

The process is not too hard, but care must be taken, especially in disinfecting things. Bacteria can ruin a whole batch of beer! It basically works like this: clean everything, heat water, steep grains (like tea), add malt extract (molasses like substance), boil, add hops, boil, cool, put in fermeter, add more water, add yeast, let sit for a few weeks, add a bit of "priming" sugar, bottle and cap, let sit a few more weeks. Done!

While Pete and I were the brewmasters for this round, we had some help from our friends. Mainly in drinking beer so we'd have a nice bottle collection ;-) But also in stirring, pouring, taking pictures, etc. Here are some highlights. Still to come is the bottling phase.

The gang, minus the helpful woman taking the picture :-)

Pete and his huge panty-hose full of grain.

Boiling our malted wort

Bag o' hops. I had never smelled hops before, but it was a delightful odor!

Pete pouring his second malt extract.

Cooling in the bathtub. Quickly cooling is desirable to prevent foul tasting things from forming. Can't remember why, exactly.

Pouring cool wort into fermentation bucket.

Getting ready to add the yeast. White Labs English Ale strain.

Result after 24 hours. Gorge yourself, little yeasties!

The first tri (troisième partie)

2008-10-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

My IT Band Syndrome was worrying me as I ran out of the transition area for the second time. The trail followed the road through the campground near the start. It didn't seem too bad at first, but I fought to prevent my weakened muscles from slowing my pace down too much. My knee pain continued to stab as I passed the 1 mile mark, but I concentrated using a running style which has helped me avoid ITBS during training. Unfortunately, right as I reached the 1.5 mile mark (half way), my knee almost gave out under me! Oddly enough, that seemed to push my brain over some threshold, and on the way back to the finish line, the knee was slightly better. At about 2.2 miles, I upped my pace to pass a man i was following. Every person I passed gave me one place higher in the standings! I was determined, especially as I closed on someone in my own age group. That guy was a bit tougher to pass, and as I was really pushing hard, perhaps at 2.7 miles, I got passed by someone just flying! No way I had that kind of speed. Well, basically anyone I could see in front of me, I passed, so that extra effort gave me 3-5 more places. I couldn't see my parents as I sped into the paved finish area, and was too busy following the cones to the joyous image of the finishing time-gate! The 'beep' as I passed it indicated my muscles could relax. An announcer gave me my time (about 1 hr 20 min), asked my my name and where I was from. Surprisingly, I answered coherently! For the next hour or two, my parents and I walked around the area, got post-race goodies, watched the other finishers, packed up my stuff, took pictures, and relished in the accomplishment. My knee was screaming still, but it was still overpowered by a sense of relief in meeting my goal.

There will be another tri.

A complex man, now simplified.

2008-09-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Not sure what I should say or make public. My thoughts, good-wishes, and prayers go out to Jay's family. Especially one in particular. Peace to all.

The following was posted today in the "Bonneville Cycling Club News" blog:
http://bcc-news.blogspot.com/2008/09/jay-lepreau-gone-camping.html

Start in Politics?

2008-09-11T11:50:00.001-07:00

How can I do this? After witnessing so many politicians shoveling their crap at the media who happily blend it up and dump it on the clueless public, I think some good ol' fashioned logic, reason, compassion, and engineering is needed in government leadership. Perhaps I have a few of those traits?

Am I game? I may be too much of a nice guy... but damn this is frustrating to witness.

The first tri (deuxième partie)

2008-09-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

Upon reaching the bike area I noticed a tub full of water to quickly rinse the sand away. I plunged in both feet and headed to my bike (I hope that tub was supposed to be communal!) and slipped into some bike socks, shoes, helmet, and shirt. A ClifShot energy gel packet completed the attire. I pulled my one-of-a-kind bike off the rack and proceeded out the transition area to the bike mount line. I clipped my feet in and stormed out on my all-mountain, full suspension Rocky Mountain ETS-X with slick tires. Another competitor, which I passed, was struggling into his shoes attached to the bike hardcore tri-style. Onto the road where friendly police were making sure we weren't broadsided by some rednecks in big trucks. Bummer! I noticed my bike computer was not working so I had no good reference for speed. A few serious road bikes past me as I was fiddling trying to get it functioning. Oh well. I kept pace with them for 10 minutes or so, and just past the turn up the East side of the lake made a move to pass a few. Oh how I LOVED going by their skinny machines with my (relatively) Hummer of a bike. It lasted a while, but they re-passed me shortly before the turnaround. From this point on, there were a few passes, but no real place changes. I did get a ton of looks from those behind me still riding to the turnaround. Priceless. I did have a bee, wasp, fly, or other insect hit me in my chest. It felt like it was still there, so I looked down and shoed it away. This must have seemed funny to a guy heading towards me who had a grin on his face as I looked forward again. It was about this time when I noticed a familiar tinge of pain on the outside of my knee. NO! Not that IT-band crap I thought I had fixed! Sure enough, the annoyance built to a solid pain near the end. It turns out I had only trained by riding in hill-country, not level ground with constant cranking and no breaks. That change of environment must have caused the flare-up. Anyways, I had made it to the transition area and had to dismount before a particular line. The volunteers must have thought I couldn't stop as fast as I really could (it's a mountain bike with disc brakes for hell sakes!) and gave me a few shouts to remind me. I unclipped my right shoe, swung it over the saddle, brought it in front of my left, coasting like that just before the dismount line. At the line I smoothly unclicked the left foot, immediately running. This is mountain style-yo! I ran to my towel, now with just a shoe-change and 3.1 miles of running separating me from the finish. Will my knee hold out? Can I still turn a good run after pushing hard on the bike? Stay tuned...

The first tri

2008-09-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

Damn, another Tri=try pun.. I'll tri not to let it happen again because it is making me sick!

The 2008 Bear Lake Brawl was "epic", to use an outdoors-culture pop-adjective. I completed it in the time I expected to, even a little faster when factoring in the extra time in transition. But the overall time is irrelevant. The fact that I trained for this (more or less) and executed my plan successfully was the main goal.

preparation. I had all the proper gear, but the logistics of how to actually DO a triathlon was a little intimidating! What shirt should I wear? Should I wear bike socks or running socks or no socks? Should I wear my normal swim goggles that I am familiar with, or risk problems with my extra pair that are tinted for bright sunlight? Should I try to use the restroom once more before the start? What should I eat in the morning? Well, I figured it all out and everything went off without a problem.
The swim was first. Many people find this the most intimidating part of the tri. And for good reason! I was a bit worried about how cold the water was, how many people there were, the waves, the sun, getting kicked, getting lost, drowning, and every other thing you can think of. However I definitely kept my nerves and let the excitement take over for fear. Thus I enjoyed this immensely! My "wave" of competitors waded out to the start point, at about waist deep water. The countdown commenced, and we were off! The lake bed is a very shallow grade, and for the first hundred feet or so I could easily walk in the water as fast as those around me were swimming. People churning the lake were all around me, and I kept running in the water waiting for an opening to start stroking. When it came, I just headed toward the buoy. I had a brief moment of over-exertion and couldn't get my breath, but I told myself to slow down, breathe deep, and continue. I got into a decent rhythm, only interrupted when others hit me, or I hit them. After rounding the first buoy, we swam parallel to shore towards the 2nd buoy, and the sun. The sun turned out to be a bit of a problem, and I could not see the 2nd buoy! I just tried to follow the majority of splashing in front of me. No problem. I turned on the speed here, as I thought I was near the back or maybe even the last person! I could still see the bottom of the lake, which gave me a familiar sense of speed, movement and saftely just like the pool. Around the 2nd and last buoy... a guy cut too close and must have hit the wire and weight holding it in place. It stopped him and allowed me to pass the bastard. hehe. Now on toward the beach! very quickly the water got shallow enough to walk instead of swim. I noticed many in front of me were standing up and running underwater, and I did this. It turned out to be a mistake, as it was very tiring on my quads which I would need for the next two events. Needless to say, I got through the timing gate where I stripped off my wetsuit and slipped on sandles for the longish run up the beach to the bike area.

...to be continued...

Tri to Prepare

2008-09-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

I swore I would avoid using the overused "try=tri" triathlon pun. Oh well. My first triathlon (a "sprint" distance) is this Saturday, and I am in final-preparation mode. I have swam my last lap before the open-water, and luckily, swam my fastest 800 m at exactly 16:00. I also practiced "sighting" ahead, as my open-water practice swim last Saturday showed me I had the nasty habit of veering right. C'est la vie.

To shed a few more pounds I also got my hair cut today. It's a pretty good cut, nothing fancy, though. It is a bit shorter than "normal" for me, at least lately, but should serve me well for now. Eventually I may figure out how to become stylish. Here's my before, after, and a month or so after the cut before this one.

Feeding the Hungry

2008-09-02T22:34:00.001-07:00

Or at least I'm assuming he was. A guy called out to me as I was walking out of Ace Hardware, wanting money for food. He looked totally clean, just an everyday guy. I kind of hesitated as I pondered what to do. I just said "OK, let's go." and we walked to Wendy's. We chatted a bit about things - he said his car broke down just as he got into town, he had to pay the shop with the money he had on him, and didn't have anyway to get lunch. He mentioned he had just been in Boise visiting his wife's family. He seemed very uncomfortable with asking for food, and after getting it, hinted that I should just leave. I'm not sure if he was embarrassed and didn't want to waste any more of my time, or that he was just going to stash the food and repeat a scam on somebody else. Hhmm.. I always wonder about these people.

So I'm down 5 bucks. It could have made somebody's day. I just don't like the uneasy feeling that I am being used and manipulated by others who somehow smell my (over?)compassion.

Sweet Meat Squash

2008-09-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

I just had a dinner made from Sweet Meat squash from my garden. This is an amazing variety! There was 10 pounds of edible flesh that when baked was super good right out of the oven. I made squash soup with 3/4 of a large one. It was based on a butternut squash soup recipe - some veggie broth, honey, fresh ginger, cream, nutmeg, etc... Mmmm. Growing one's own food can be quite satisfying!

Deliciousness - Eggplant, tomato, cheese, herbs

2008-08-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

One (or two) garden-grown eggplant. Medium to large size. Peel, cut into 1/4" to 1/2" thick slices. Boil for 5 minutes in salty water. Place in casserole dish.
Cut a number of garden-grown tomatoes into slices. Place on top of eggplant.
Sprinkle with garlic and thyme. Maybe rosemary if you have it.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top, and/or pepper-jack slices.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
Enjoy!

Getting High

2008-08-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

Me, circling in a thermal to carry me up up and away.

"Hang gliding isn't a sport, it's a way of life" some say. Maybe, but I have an entire other life to live besides soaring like the birds. I found myself these last few months having much anxiety about hang gliding, and didn't fly from June 25 to August 24. I overcame this hesitation, and found myself enjoying one of the best flights of my life yesterday! Relaxing flying (mostly) to 15,000 ft above sea level (approx. 10,000 ft above the valley, and 3000 ft above the highest mountains). Upon landing, I was greeted by fellow pilots with a beer in hand, outstretched to me. Ahhh that is why we do this! The camaraderie is 1st class.

We disassembled our gliders nearing sunset in the middle of the sagebrush-covered desert, smiling and joking. The barren terrain and rugged mountains never looked sobeautiful.

Above launch.

The Political Process

2008-08-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

Think and say what you want about the political process and its shortcomings, but i am so happy to hear my college friend Walt is representing my age class of voters at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. He is a strong advocate of heath care reform, which I bill as the number one issue facing this nation, from moral and economic perspectives. He also sees this event and election as an opportunity to get increase the participation in the political process. I agree! Thank you, Walt, for your drive to make a difference.
Read his blog

Friends from the past

2008-08-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Me at Donut Falls. My hair is getting tooooo looong!

So here's another personal post about myself. I'm so damn selfish ;-) but it is good therapy.

It's been a great experience these past two weeks reconnecting with friends I have not seen in a while. First, I got in touch with quite a few from where I got my bachelor's degree. They are all doing well, several married or engaged, and still living in that area.

A friend with whom I used to be much closer with a few years ago asked to hang out last weekend. It was great! We totally reconnected and had a wonderful hike to a special waterfall that flows through a hole in the rock. Hopefully we can remain better friends.

Finally, I had dinner with a friend whom I got to know fairly well in the Spring, but haven't seen for a few months. We got caught up on some life-happenings, reconnecting with some amateur philosophy, theology, and sociology. An episode of Myth Busters quenched our somewhat geeky nature. We're good together like that ;-) Hopefully we will see more of each other, or at least do better than once a semester!

What does all this mean to me? I'm somewhat of a paradox: I'm a very analytic, independent, and introverted person when it certain activities and traits, but just can't seem to get enough social interaction with those I am close to, and can become quite the extrovert. Basically, good friends = good times.

Planet Earth

2008-08-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

It may be cliche to say we are all part of the same humanity, but that doesn't make this demonstration of what that means any less powerful. Amazing.

Delaying work

2008-08-08T10:45:00.001-07:00

I'm starting a new "chapter" in my research, the bit of a long uphill hike where my pack feels heavy and I'm stopping every 30 minutes. So here's a fun macro-zoom shot through my bathroom window at my rainy-weather friends (that wake me up at 7:00 or earlier). Not bad quality for a handheld zoom to 280mm equivalent, or so, through the glass window. I did crop and tweak contrast/saturation post-shot.

I noticed my garden's first eggplants today! It seems like overnight I got a baseball-sized purple thing, with a few other smaller ones. mmmm, can't wait! I also picked another handful of cherry tomatoes, and some more slicing tomatoes are ready as well.

How old am I? Or is it just that I'm in Utah? I went to a party last night for a friend's birthday, and I as in the minority by far. No, not by skin color, but by lack of a wife, baby, and dog! There were a few holdouts who I conversed with, had a yummy dinner, and went home.

My friend leaves for Yale tomorrow to continue her studies of Theater Sound Design and Engineering.

FAIL

2008-08-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

So it's been over 14 months since my first and last blog entry. Not doing so well. I may get better, I may not. Time will tell. For reference, here's some highlights of the past year:

Sunset from my Hillsboro apartment balcony.

Trip to San Diego for the Design Automation Conference (computer design research)

A surprised lizard. Or a camera ham.

Zion Narrows Hike. Jaw-dropping amazing.

I learned how to ride a motorcycle. At least this tiny one ;-)

Also in the past year, my girlfriend broke up with me, we got back together. Then we broke up again.

I've been training for a triathlon. My swimming is coming along well. Unfortunately my running has been limited by an IT-band problem.

I went to Europe for the first time. Also, my first time outside the USA. Newcastle, Scotland, London, Germany (Stuttgart/Tubingen area), France (Grenoble).

un velo pour deux (in Grenoble, with my friend)

My first cross-country hang gliding flight. Photo taken from approx 11,500 ft above sea level. I flew south from launch about 14 miles.

Growing my first garden!

Hike along the Escalante River.

SLC to Hillsboro, OR

2007-05-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

I drove from Salt Lake to Boise to Hillsboro for a 2 month internship. I've driven both legs numerous times, and this was not much different. Well, except for all the crap I took with me. The combination of my hang glider, bike, extra weight, and a 30 MPH headwind took its toll on my gas mileage (25 mpg, maybe) and power (had trouble maintaining 75 mph!). I'm storing my glider with a friend in Vancouver WA, as I just have a carport.

I stopped at the wonderful Multnomah Falls to see what my new Panasonic TZ3 could do. There's no way I could have captured the Falcon without its incredible 10X optical zoom! I miss the manual controls of my old A70, but it is pretty sweet, anyway.

Damn, I'm actually BLOGGIN?!

2007-05-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

I never thought I'd do this. But I am. These writings will try to document my thoughts and activities in such a way to demonstrate the individuality of this one ant in the billions marching through their lives. I do this mainly for myself, as I thankfully have real-world friends with which to discuss real-world issues!