Travels and Images
WEEK 17 2006
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Saturday 29 April
2006
Saturday
- went out to Apollo Park, took some pics. I also went by the local
camera shop, in a 'Support your Local Photography Shop' sort of spirit
to pick up a haze (UV) filter. They were out. They were also out of a
couple of other item's I was looking for, but it was fun talking to the
clerks - they weren't very busy on Saturday afternoon - about camera's,
digital and otherwise.
I also had some new passport pictures taken - my passport has expired,
but if I send it in, along with some new pics of myself and $$ they'll
send me another. I've no current plans to travel - but "luck" is where
preparation meets opportunity.
It was a warm day - 85F maybe, and nearly windless. I did a lot of yard
and house work - the place merely looks sloppy now, rather than
abandoned.
In the evening we went to a production of HMS Pinafore. I admit to having had confused it with Pirates of Penzance, and was saddened by the lack of pirates, but it was still fun. "Poor little Buttercup, poor little Buttercup..."
The last two shows we will be attending this season, in May, are La
Cage Aux Folles and Tamburitzans.
Somehow I've lost the lens cap to the camera, between my brother's place and my house. Not in the car, not on the ground. After
I'd been to the camera store. Oh well, I'll buy another next week when
they notify me that the 58mm UV filters are in stock again.
Friday 28 April
2006
Friday - I was talking
to someone today and they mentioned that we have ground owls on the
center. I was astonished - with all the coyote's around there it
hardly seems possible. But it seems that the rather byzantine layout of the security
fencing has left a field entirely enclosed and coyote proof, and that
the owls somehow figured that out. There are now several nesting pairs.
I went by but they weren't visible - mornings are supposedly when they
are most active.
I finished Book #22, The Mauritius Command, by Patrick O'Brian. Book #4 in the series, and delightful. *
After the end of the book, there was some space on the tape which they used for a preview of George Washington: 1775-1783, a biography. It sounded interesting, and it may be a good book, but the narrator had the worst voice in the world! If you've ever seen a parody of a science teacher on teevee, boring, droning, nasal and dull - that's the sort of voice I'm talking about. Only worse!!
The O'Brian narrator, as I've said, has a strange gritty voice, one that might
be considered unpleasant. I think of it as being close to Stephen
Maturin's voice, which he renders as a mellifluous Irish - contrary to
the books description. His imitation of Jack Aubrey is pretty close to
the voice, as I imagined it in my head. (I say imitate, but actually I think narration is best when it just hints at a different voice; a watercolor as opposed to a oil painting, as it were.)
* Note 30/April/2006: I messed up my count starting at Book #19, but this is correct...
Thursday 27 April 2006
Thursday
- went to the LPAC for a concert by Natalie MacMaster.
It was a lot of fun - good toe-tapping music, full of energy and
enthusiasm. It seems that she is related to the Leahy band that I liked so much when they came here a couple of years ago - she married one of them!
Saturday night is H.M.S. Pinafore - sounds like fun.
Didn't get home before 11:00. Ackk.
I helped someone do some car shuffling at work. Somehow my friend had a
car left at work and we needed to get it back to Lancaster. So, in the
morning he picked me up - in a 1967 Ford Mustang
- and drove in with me. In the evening I drove the 1987 Chevelle home.
Sheesh - why not the Mustang? But it was fun being the the 'stang, even
as a passenger. Heh. People in $50,000 SUV's would slow down to look at
our $8,500, forty year old, vehicle.
Wednesday 26 April 2006
Wednesday
- part of the problem with the code at work is now explained: it has a bug. The developer's admit it. Sheesh. You don't want to know how much time I wasted on that.
Went to a Mathworks Matlab
seminar in the morning - what an amazing program. And yet it's really
only an infant. It's astounding to think what it will be like in 10 or
20 years. I imagine it will combine parts of Matcad and Mathematica and
Data Explorer and who knows what else. I personally was interested in
the Distributed Computing Toolbox, but most people were interested in
the Simulink and the Controls stuff. To each their own I guess.
Simulink looks neat, but I haven't the time to play with it.
Got a free Mathworks tee-shirt out of it.
Went to some friends for a nice dinner, didn't get home until after 11:30. Ackk.
Tuesday 25 April
2006
Tuesday - my new digital camera, a Canon Digital Rebel Xt,
arrived last weekend, and I finally had time to assemble it on Sunday,
prior to heading out to the Poppy Festival. I charged the battery, put
a memory card in, and attached the lens. Then I took a quick snapshot,
of the cat, for a first picture.
Of course, Riley being a cat, he turned while I was fumbling for the shutter release:
First shot with the Canon Digital Rebel XT: my cat's butt.
The really nice thing about this camera is that the shutter release is
fast - like a normal SLR, rather than the slow three to four tenths of
a second of a normal digital camera. It takes some getting used to!
More pics of the Poppy Festival later.
Monday 24 April 2006
Monday - work, work, work.
I was reading some engineering documentation at work, and realized the
voice in my head was that of the narrator of the Patrick O'Brian sea
stories - a strange, creaking, british voice. Very strange.
Sunday 23 April
2006
Sunday - a less windy day than Saturday. Did some yard work, and went to the Poppy Festival with friends.
