Whyy's Ramblings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccNGXov-2u4

Spend a few minutes and be educated.

I picked up my Sonic Screwdriver a couple of days ago and got a light but no sound.

Thinking that it was just batteries I finally got some and tonight I installed them.

Brighter light but still no sonic. :-(

Ordered : May 30, 2010.
Delivered : June 4, 2010 - June 9, 2010
Died : June 5th 2011.

A cat on a boat and a dolphin interact.

http://www.slothster.com/2352-Cat-On-Boat-Plays-With-Dolphins.html

The anti-zombie house.

Well last night was the second and probably last concert I will be able to make this year.

Steve Miller with Gregg Allman opening.
( Cut to save space, avoid rantyness )

Yes even though I rant about the venues I usually enjoy the Music.
As Steve Miller is in my top 10 (if I have a top 10, can't remember) I enjoyed the concert very much.
May have to go see him next time he is in the area.

I am not a full-fledged Parrothead but I do like Jimmy Buffett.
I have been trying to go to at least one concert of every group that I like to listen to.
So last night I went to the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion.

It was the "Welcome to Fin Land tour" which if you know Buffett is a play on one of his songs.
( got a bit Verbose. Hiding to save space. )

As noted at the beginning I enjoyed the music. Disliked the Venue

Was it worth the money? As I stated at the beginning I have been trying to go to a concert of every band I like. If Jimmy plays in North Carolina again I will make an attempt at seeing him again. Just not at the TWC Pavilion. I will NOT go back to the pavilion unless it is the ONLY site for a band.

edit: added Group Ilo Ferreira

http://thestir.cafemom.com/beauty_style/117245/the_boob_clamp_best_commercial


I Feel for the girl at 1:50  but you know she had to get paid for the commercial.

As one of the comments states; "Corsets are not really a "new" idea."

Sat outside at my apartment's parking lot. Not a very night photographer friendly place but I could not find any other that was

1. dark enough and
2. not bothered by cops every 5 minutes with "What are you doing out here?"

So anyway. I took 149 pictures. Lots of cloud cover.

Interesting thing is that the "Mark I, Eyeball" saw mainly a white moon the whole time. Yet the photos clearly show a red moon. The only thing I can figure is that at night in low light the rods which out-number the cones in the eye fed "white" to the brain. The cones which are less numerous could not get the "color red" past the overwhelming "white" signal.

I also found out that I need a better tripod if I am going to do something like this again. I would adjust the camera and Center the moon. Let go and flop the tripod would drop it somewhere else.

The pictures were taken at a resolution of 3872x2592. They have been compressed for the web. If you are interested in any specific one Let me know and we can work out a way to get you the full picture.

Whyy's Photos

Stealing ClueGirls's phrase.

Boosting the signal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM

Belly Dancers  Short clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2dcbHwTpY8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUYln16PYJA

Harp players  Short clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgmqnpeT2y0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4I5otCC6HQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mfwl66_S1w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqc4rSVv_fg


Just short clips of the Belly Dancers and the Harpists.
Just samples

Videos from the BalloonFest taken on my Canon 780i

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPf7fbhoRw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8hK7GhlVNk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iRJERjNusE

Went to the NC Balloonfest yesterday.

For the 37 Annual it seemed very unorganized. 

Will add more later.

Pictures at  http://photos.whyy.net/

Pictures are a bit disjointed. Beginning pictures were taken with my Canon handheld as the Balloon Chase started prior to my getting there.
The naming convention put those at the end of the pics.

It is kind of interesting how many people find the "new and improved" Google Image Search a Pain in the Ass.

I really don't like doing a search, seeing a thumbnail, clicking on the thumbnail, then getting a new page with the SAME thumbnail that I now have to click on AGAIN. If I had wanted the damn thumbnail I would have kept to the results page.

It has almost driven me from Google. I use Chrome as my browser and like it pretty well but I like Firefox just as well.

A look at the help forums to find an easy way to go back to the old version is stunning. Several hundred forum entries with ten to twenty entries each.

The easy answer is "Do it Google's way." Google did add a "Switch to basic version" button. Of course it is at the BOTTOM of the search page. Pick a popular image and you have 10 pages of 5 rows each with 7 pictures in each row. 350 picture to scroll past. Oh and keep your mouse away from the actual pictures if you are using a scroll wheel mouse. Each picture you hover over stops you. VERY BLEEPing annoying.

From the Forums

FireFox has a fix that lets it go direct to the basic version of Google Image.
IE 8 has a "compatibility" mode that you can set to force it to ID itself as IE 7 and drop to the basic version.

Chrome as a Google product has no such 'easy' work around but it does have this.

http://images.google.com/images?complete=0&q=Einstein&sout=1&biw=1545&bih=1029

Past that in the URL and bookmark it. When you want Google Images click it and it will bring up a search for Einstein with Auto-complete turned off.

complete=0   q=Einstein

Replace Einstein with whatever you want. It is just a safe search term.

This is the same type of issue Google had with the Auto-Complete and it now has an option at the top of most screens. Why not do the same for Image search?
Who knows?

Yes, I have sent in suggestions and added my voice and vote to the forums but will Google listen? So far I have had no response and there is nothing in the forums.

I like to cook. I just don't really like to cook just for myself.

So I got a craving.
Growing up we did not have a lot of extra money.
We were clean and fed enough but there were times that Mom and Dad were worried.

One of the meals that I can remember from these times is Potato Soup.
Mom would peel and cut potatoes, with me stealing and eating chunks of the raw potato.

Potatoes, milk, a bit of butter and as I grew up bits of onion. Real simple fare.

Yet in over 20 years I did not try to make my own. Not sure why but I have been resisting making my mom's recipes.

So, I came home Monday night hungry for Potato soup.

Hooters has a good version.
Lone Star steak house has a good one.
Campbells soup is not too bad.
But most of them are "creamy", include cheese or other items that fill it out but take it far away from simple fare.

And all of them are closed at 2am.

So...

No potato soup for me.

That mean I needed to start digging.
Opening my freezer I found a package of Ore-Ida Steam-n-Mash potato chunks.
Originally made for mashed potatoes I realized that they were just chunks of potatoes in a bag to heat in the microwave.
They had been in the freezer for quite a while but were still under the expiration date.

They called for microwaving for 8min with 2 min cooking in the bag after. then mixing and mashing.

Inspiration hit. Microwaving for 6 minutes the potatoes were semi-soft in the bag.
Dumping them into the pan, I added milk and started heating it.
Stirring it to keep it evenly heating I got the milk hot and pulled it from the stove.

putting some in a bowl with diced onions, shallots and some butter. I pigged out.

The potatoes package says that after it is mashed there 'should' be enough for 7 servings.

This made one serving albeit a HUGE serving. I kept eating as I was not quite sure how to keep and reheat it. :-)

Very good but simple meal. Thanks Mom.
Maybe one of these days I will break down and cook her roast beef and noodles.

Closest recipe I could find on the net was
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,2248,154180-224203,00.html

They dump part of the water used to boil the potatoes out and replace it with milk.

Damn good essay. Spread it around.

Well I used this bot. http://iwl.me/

Interesting results

With my posted stories I got
First story


Second story


With two stories I have been working on since '92    

This I also got twice for two different stories one in queue '95 

a really ecelectic mix huh?

If only we could get more writers to read this.

http://www.movieline.com/2010/03/david-mamets-memo-to-the-writers-of-the-unit.php

( Pulled from there )</p></div></div></div></div>

The Owl Box

http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox

Carlos put up an owl box in his yard.
In the box he put one color camera and one Infra-red camera.
Color for Daytime, IR for night.
He switches the live feed and it runs on the net.

A female Barn Owl moved in (Molly) and her mate (McGee) visits.
5 eggs were laid and one has hatched (Max).

It is kinda addicting watching her nest and take care of Max.

Guess some people are born owlcoholics.

Holy FRACK


http://www.promnightinmississippi.com/

( Ok news from 2008 but I just found it.  )

this is the state where some schools still hold seperate proms, one for whites and one for blacks

Charleston High School had its first-ever integrated prom - in 2008. Until then, blacks and whites had had separate proms even though their classrooms have been integrated for decades
Why this suprised me I am not sure.
Ever the Optomistic Pessimist (Absolutly 100% sure things will go bad) and Still I am dumbfounded by things like this.

I can haz sleep?