Cold & a stuffy nose

[singlepic id=164 w=386 h=369 float=left]I missed the Fall cold and this winter too but not this Spring.  I have had the symptoms for 8 days not so I guess another week may just cure it all – at least I hope.  SAM had the same thing a month ago and still has the nasal quality.

I have become enamoured with the Wacom Intuos4 Large.   I can really do some meaningful art if I can afford to buy it.  I have done some artwork with a mouse and it really is a big limitation.  Now to find $500 for the tablet – anyone have a cheap one out there?

Today I spent most of the day doing a Lake Michigan seascape.  It looks reasonable.  I checked out the price to put it on canvas and that is $40 so one has to be sure it is what they want before committing to the printer.  I am working on a vase of flowers now and will add it to this blog when finished tonight.  SAM is at church so I have all night alone.  BFN.

Earth Cache, et al

[singlepic id=160 w=320 h=240 float=right]We went Geocaching yesterday and did an Earth Cache near our home.  As it turns out this one was not too exciting or in a particularly beautiful area.  It was interesting as the cache was a Water Level Station on Fish Creek.  I have seen it on the USGS site for several years but did not really know the physical location of the station.  The link in the previous sentence takes you to the national map and you can click on the little dot in your area to see the available gauges.  This is a pretty cool site – check it out.

After doing the cache we went for a short 1/2 mile walk on Fish Creek Trail near Hamilton, IN.  This particular part of the trail (pictured) is almost continual canopy & there are lots of deer, birds and ducks.  The trail itself is a little over a mile long and has a nice gravel trail.  Most of the time you will have it all to yourself with only an occasional walker passing by.  Adjacent to FCT is Robb Hidden Canyon, an ACRES Land Trust ground, and that is a little over a mile long too.  RHC has an interesting structure and is well worth the walk.

China is #1

More bad news that will change the shape of the world:

China overtook the United States for the first time last year in the race to invest in wind, solar and other sources of clean energy, according to a comprehensive new report that raises questions about American competitiveness in a booming global market.  They outspent us 2:1.  Here is the full article.

Oil Imports: How much is enough?

New Website

I have been working day & night, literally, to get a website for TR Water Services up and running well.  I have added a video player for this humongous wmv  file (44Meg+) and added a Captcha system for the Contact form.  There were also a bunch of minor things but since there 6 pages there was a lot of work to do.  I finished up about 1 AM today and spent a little time on it today.  The biggest problem is to figure out a way to compress that large WMV file.  Next comes an eCommerce solution and that promises to be an even bigger job.  The site owner has already contracted with a company to do the design.  Still there will be plenty for me to do.  All in all it has been a fun few days.

In the in between time I have added more audio tracts to the AAOG church site I developed.  Each week I get the Sunday AM service as a bunch of audio tracks.  I then Rip the tracks to MP3’s and Merge then into one track, Compress and Level the audio to 92 db then add the Track ID3 information and finally convert from 12kbps to 48kbps to save space.  It sounds confusing but really it is a simple job if you have the tools.  Now, if I just had a script to do all this with a push of a button ☺.

Ugh – Weather Forcast

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The above is not too encouraging after the nice Spring like weather we have been having.  As I look out at the lake the skies to the North are becoming more leaden and there are indistinct shadows that imply the spreading gloom.  I guess no kayaking this afternoon. 

The new Project J is happening tonight at church so we will attend.  The Saturday night church is aimed at young adult crowd and I hope it isa success.  We need to support this effort to reach out to this group as this is the future.

Angola Home & Garden Show

[singlepic id=157 w=240 h=240 float=left]SAM & I went to the Home & Garden Show this morning at the old AHS building (the one where I wnt to school way back then).  There were lots of politicians as well as some interesting displays.  I had a good talk with Dick Dodge who is the incumbent for district 51 State Legislature – he is a good guy and I think is more moderate.  I also talked with James W Burns who is running for Prosecutor in Steuben County and he as a lot of experience in all three disciplines of Judge, Prosecutor and Defense – I support him for his good values.  Troyer is running for Sheriff and after talking with some of the supporters, I probably will vote for him.  I got to talk with him directly and he seems reasonable so I will investigate more.

On a more personal note, I talked with Josh Thrasher who is a SCUBA diver and has a shop West of Angola.  He was talking to me about the new crushed neoprene dry suits that are more soft that the old tri-layer material.  If I could make double duty of diving and kayaking with the wet suit it might be of interest to me.  The cost is the killer though – $1200+. 

I made a tour of most of the booths and met old friends and acquaintances like Dwayne Oberlin, Emericks (Diane & Ralph), Donna Thrasher, and all the other people I cannot remember now.  Surprisingly, there was a lot of food this year.  The most memorable booth this year was the one for Troyer for Sheriff as they were giving out snazzy T-Shirts – well, really not so snazzy, but at least they will go with blue jeans when it fades a bit.  We met Tony Armey on the way out near the goat tied to a tree and had a chat with him too.  After that it was up to Coachlight Coffee to get an expresso Cubano – mummm.

Stayner Lake Boil

[singlepic id=154 w=160 h=120 float=right]We went to a very nice spot the other day on a Geocache – Stayner Lake Boil.  Stayner Lake is East of Mongo, IN about 6 miles and is North of 300 N.  To get to where we went you have to find the intersection of W 350 N & 1050 W.  Very near this point is a lane that is labeled K-3.  The lane leads to a small parking area.  The boil is immediately West of the parking down a short well defined path.

Also leading off the lot to the South is a deer path that is a nice walk to an overview of the lake.  We like the Spring and Late Fall for this walk as it is free of visual obstructions.  Do not do the walk in shorts or the Rose-of-Sharon will rip you to shreds.

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Future bio-nanotechnology to use computer chips inside living cells

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Continuing miniaturization has moved the semiconductor industry well into the nano realm with leading chip manufacturers on their way to CMOS using 22nm process technology. With transistors the size of tens of nanometers, researchers have begun to explore the interface of biology and electronics by integrating nanoelectronic components and living cells. While researchers have already experimented with integrating living cells into semiconductor materials (see “Scientists integrate living brain cells into organic semiconductors”) other research is exploring the opposite way, i.e. integrating nanoelectronics into living cells.

Raining but warm

[singlepic id=149 w=120 h=90 float=left]I can see patches of water down at the beach.  the wind sock is standing straight out with Easterly winds.  I went to the coffee shop this AM and then to the grocery for some missing items.  This afternoon I cut Teak plugs to replace bad ones on the boat deck.  All my good 1/2″ Teak is gone so I will have to make more from 3/8″ kiln dried Brazilian Teak which is darker and much more brittle.  The 1/2″ plugs are long enough that I can flush cut them on the deck and still have enough for another plug so it saves precious (& expensive) wood.

I spent some time watching a TV program on co-joined twins from Lebanon(?).  It was an interesting program as the twins were joined at the head and it was almost mission impossible.  Almost no expense was spared and it took almost two years to figure out how and if to do the operation.  The cost was in excess of two million $.  So much for The Great Satan huh?