A new blog is in town
Blog entries after April 2007 can be found here.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Krazy City
Bubbe and Zaidy took us and the kids to Krazy City today.
The usual rides:
We played mini-golf there:
They had an activity center with a gold mining-type operation. The bag of dirt placed in each pan contained bits of minerals:
They also had a fossil finding activity that had them sifting through sand they scooped into the trays:
There was also a play area with air-driven ball canons. For a half hour or so, Baila ran around collecting the balls while Mechel loaded them into his cannon and pelted unsuspecting youngsters. A good time was had by all!
On our way out, we stopped at the lego store:
The usual rides:
We played mini-golf there:
They had an activity center with a gold mining-type operation. The bag of dirt placed in each pan contained bits of minerals:
They also had a fossil finding activity that had them sifting through sand they scooped into the trays:
There was also a play area with air-driven ball canons. For a half hour or so, Baila ran around collecting the balls while Mechel loaded them into his cannon and pelted unsuspecting youngsters. A good time was had by all!
On our way out, we stopped at the lego store:
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Crayola Factory fun
We went to the Crayola Factory today. They don't actually make crayons there, but it was still fun.
One of the exhibits they have allows children to draw on an glass wall:
The upper two stories are the National Canal Museum. Mechel took a ship through some locks:
Mechel and Zaidy built a crane to unload the barges:
Out the window, I could see the windows of the next building:
Bubby and Zaidy:
Mechel and Baila watch a movie about the locks:
They had a train section, and Mechel and Baila played in a wooden train they had on display. Mechel practised his drumming:
Back in the Crayola section, we bought a baseball cap and handbag that Mechel and Baila colored with special pens that become permanent once ironed and washed:
Bubbe and Zaidy were very patient:
My attempt at "artsy" shots:
We then went to Lost River Cave in Hellertown, a few miles down the road. The store associated with it was quite ecclectic:
Going down:
Watch your head:
They have chunks of minerals set up that glow when subjected to ultraviolet light:
The river at the end of the cave. Where does it go? Nobody knows:
Rock formations:
It was a long day, but we had fun!
One of the exhibits they have allows children to draw on an glass wall:
The upper two stories are the National Canal Museum. Mechel took a ship through some locks:
Mechel and Zaidy built a crane to unload the barges:
Out the window, I could see the windows of the next building:
Bubby and Zaidy:
Mechel and Baila watch a movie about the locks:
They had a train section, and Mechel and Baila played in a wooden train they had on display. Mechel practised his drumming:
Back in the Crayola section, we bought a baseball cap and handbag that Mechel and Baila colored with special pens that become permanent once ironed and washed:
Bubbe and Zaidy were very patient:
My attempt at "artsy" shots:
We then went to Lost River Cave in Hellertown, a few miles down the road. The store associated with it was quite ecclectic:
Going down:
Watch your head:
They have chunks of minerals set up that glow when subjected to ultraviolet light:
The river at the end of the cave. Where does it go? Nobody knows:
Rock formations:
It was a long day, but we had fun!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Snowshoeing to the Timp
This winter has been a little strange. We had our only real snowfall this year, so I decided to go snowshoeing. Since I was by myself, I decided to do a known route, so I re-hiked the Bulsontown-Timp route I did two years ago.
This wake of Turkey Vultures were at the saddle below the Timp, no doubt waiting for me to make a fatal mistake:
I decided to ascend and descend via the Western face, as the Southern face is quite steep, and it seemed like a bad idea since I was alone.
I encountered these tracks near the summit. They were about three inches long. Wolf? Unlikely, they haven't been seen in New York for a long time. Maybe a wild dog. There were no human prints on the route, so whatever it was, it was alone.
At the summit, the winds were incredible:
In the distance, a city on an island:
Haverstraw power plant:
Bear Mountain Bridge:
On the next peak over to the west, there was a shelter:
I was pretty tired by the time I got back to the car.
This wake of Turkey Vultures were at the saddle below the Timp, no doubt waiting for me to make a fatal mistake:
I decided to ascend and descend via the Western face, as the Southern face is quite steep, and it seemed like a bad idea since I was alone.
I encountered these tracks near the summit. They were about three inches long. Wolf? Unlikely, they haven't been seen in New York for a long time. Maybe a wild dog. There were no human prints on the route, so whatever it was, it was alone.
At the summit, the winds were incredible:
In the distance, a city on an island:
Haverstraw power plant:
Bear Mountain Bridge:
On the next peak over to the west, there was a shelter:
I was pretty tired by the time I got back to the car.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Youth Redux
No Idea how we got on the topic, but I was speaking with someone about games we used to play, and this handheld game I used to play popped into my mind. It was a real life-saver on car trips.
Anyway, a quick google search helped me find it:
It was released in 1978. I probably bought it at a garage sale.
I don't know how it did the second time around, but it was re-released in 2002!
Anyway, a quick google search helped me find it:
It was released in 1978. I probably bought it at a garage sale.
I don't know how it did the second time around, but it was re-released in 2002!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Middle School Girls Gone Wild
Its hard to write this without sounding like a prig. But its just as hard to erase the images that planted the idea for this essay, so here goes. The scene is a middle school auditorium, where girls in teams of three or four are bopping to pop songs at a student talent show. Not bopping, actually, but doing elaborately choreographed re-creations of music videos, in tiny skirts or tight shorts, with bare bellies, rouged cheeks and glittery eyes.
They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They dont smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto....The girls spend a lot of time lying on the floor. They are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
As each routine ends, parents and siblings cheer, whistle and applaud. I just sit there, not fully comprehending. Its my first suburban Long Island middle school talent show. Im with my daughter, who is 10 and hadnt warned me. I'm not sure what I had expected, but it wasnt this. It was something different. Something younger. Something that didnt make the girls look so ... one-dimensional.
...
It is news to no one, not even me, that eroticism in popular culture is a 24-hour, all-you-can-eat buffet, and that many children in their early teens are filling up. The latest debate centers on whether simulated intercourse is an appropriate dance style for the high school gym.
What surprised me, though, was how completely parents of even younger girls seem to have gotten in step with societys march toward eroticized adolescence either willingly or through abject surrender. And if parents give up, what can a school do? A teacher at the middle school later told me she had stopped chaperoning dances because she was put off by the boy-girl pelvic thrusting and had no way to stop it - the children wouldnt listen to her and she had no authority to send anyone home. She guessed that if the school had tried to ban the sexy talent-show routines, parents would have been the first to complain, having shelled out for costumes and private dance lessons for their Little Miss Sunshines.
Im sure that many parents see these routines as healthy fun, an exercise in self-esteem harmlessly heightened by glitter makeup and teeny skirts. Our girls are bratz, not slutz, they would argue, comfortable in the existence of a distinction.
But my parental brain rebels. Suburban parents dote on and hover over their children, micromanaging their appointments and shielding them in helmets, kneepads and thick layers of S.U.V. steel. But they allow the culture of boy-toy sexuality to bore unchecked into their little ones ears and eyeballs, displacing their nimble and growing brains and impoverishing the sense of wider possibilities in life.
There is no reason adulthood should be a low plateau we all clamber onto around age 10. And its a cramped vision of girlhood that enshrines sexual allure as the best or only form of power and esteem. Its as if there were now Three Ages of Woman: first Mary-Kate, then Britney, then Courtney. Boys dont seem to have such constricted horizons. They wouldnt stand for it - much less waggle their butts and roll around for applause on the floor of a school auditorium.
By the New York Times' Lawrence Downes. Read the article.
They writhe and strut, shake their bottoms, splay their legs, thrust their chests out and in and out again. Some straddle empty chairs, like lap dancers without laps. They dont smile much. Their faces are locked from grim exertion, from all that leaping up and lying down without poles to hold onto....The girls spend a lot of time lying on the floor. They are in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
As each routine ends, parents and siblings cheer, whistle and applaud. I just sit there, not fully comprehending. Its my first suburban Long Island middle school talent show. Im with my daughter, who is 10 and hadnt warned me. I'm not sure what I had expected, but it wasnt this. It was something different. Something younger. Something that didnt make the girls look so ... one-dimensional.
...
It is news to no one, not even me, that eroticism in popular culture is a 24-hour, all-you-can-eat buffet, and that many children in their early teens are filling up. The latest debate centers on whether simulated intercourse is an appropriate dance style for the high school gym.
What surprised me, though, was how completely parents of even younger girls seem to have gotten in step with societys march toward eroticized adolescence either willingly or through abject surrender. And if parents give up, what can a school do? A teacher at the middle school later told me she had stopped chaperoning dances because she was put off by the boy-girl pelvic thrusting and had no way to stop it - the children wouldnt listen to her and she had no authority to send anyone home. She guessed that if the school had tried to ban the sexy talent-show routines, parents would have been the first to complain, having shelled out for costumes and private dance lessons for their Little Miss Sunshines.
Im sure that many parents see these routines as healthy fun, an exercise in self-esteem harmlessly heightened by glitter makeup and teeny skirts. Our girls are bratz, not slutz, they would argue, comfortable in the existence of a distinction.
But my parental brain rebels. Suburban parents dote on and hover over their children, micromanaging their appointments and shielding them in helmets, kneepads and thick layers of S.U.V. steel. But they allow the culture of boy-toy sexuality to bore unchecked into their little ones ears and eyeballs, displacing their nimble and growing brains and impoverishing the sense of wider possibilities in life.
There is no reason adulthood should be a low plateau we all clamber onto around age 10. And its a cramped vision of girlhood that enshrines sexual allure as the best or only form of power and esteem. Its as if there were now Three Ages of Woman: first Mary-Kate, then Britney, then Courtney. Boys dont seem to have such constricted horizons. They wouldnt stand for it - much less waggle their butts and roll around for applause on the floor of a school auditorium.
By the New York Times' Lawrence Downes. Read the article.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
This week's Rocket Ride
I started at the beginning in Nyack and finished with the peleton! 35 miles at 22MPH average.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
This week's rides
This past Sunday the Rocket Ride was intense. The riders were out for blood and we were going so fast the peleton fragmented several times between Sparkill and Engelwood. We rode from Rockleigh to Demarest holding a sustained 31.5MPH! I was dropped after 30 miles in Orangeburg, only 8 miles from the finish in Nyack.
Tour de Rockleigh went well yesterday. I rode through the Rockland Psychiatric Center to get the route down to 17.2 miles. Again, 18.7MPH average.
Tour de Rockleigh went well yesterday. I rode through the Rockland Psychiatric Center to get the route down to 17.2 miles. Again, 18.7MPH average.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
South Moutain hike
The four of us hiked a bit on the Long Path, like Mechel and I did in December of 2004. We were only out for an hour or so, as the sun was setting. Here are some pictures:
Here's a panorama assembled from 5 pictures:
Fun!
Here's a panorama assembled from 5 pictures:
Fun!
Back in the running
Thanks to last week's two "Tour De Rockleigh" rides, I was able to finish the Rocket Ride. It's the shorter winter route now, and I was running late, so Idrove to Rockleigh where I rode with what turned out to be a breakaway group. I held on for about 30 minutes before being dropped in Engelwood. The main pack caught up with me about 10 minutes later, and I managed to hang on 'till the end. The route comes back through Old Tappan, so when they headed towards Sparkill I turned South to get back to my car in Rockleigh.
29.6 miles, 21.7MPH average.
29.6 miles, 21.7MPH average.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Tour de Lunch
I found a great little one-hour loop! I can do it in about an hour. 19.5 miles, 18.7MPH average. The bridge on Sickletown Road over Nauraushaun Brook was being replaced, so I had to go around (see the bulge at waypoint #7). Looks like I can cut off a bit at waypoint #9 as well.
Northeast is up:
Northeast is up:
You can't keep what you earn
Between Sukkos and the colder weather, I hadn't ridden my bike in a few weeks. It showed - I got dropped after 22 miles this past Sunday on the Rocket Ride.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Rocket Ride to victory!
I rode the rocket ride for the first time with my new bike on Sunday, and actually finished it. I was running a bit late, so I drove to Sparkill, then rode North until I met the ride between Nyack and Piermont. I fell back through the Peleton on the hills at then end of South Mountain Road and Scratchup Road and manage to stay with a group of 7 poursuivants until the end. Typically I start at mile 30 of the ride in Nanuet and get dropped on those hills. Hooray!
22.8 MPH over the 41.5 miles I was with the group. I then had to ride back to Sparkill to get the car. I put in about 49.5 miles in total. I stopped at Toga where they told me my stem angle was two low, so I revesed the shim to get it to be horizonal. We'll see if that helps.
Here's the map. East in up. Sprakill is in the top center of the route:
22.8 MPH over the 41.5 miles I was with the group. I then had to ride back to Sparkill to get the car. I put in about 49.5 miles in total. I stopped at Toga where they told me my stem angle was two low, so I revesed the shim to get it to be horizonal. We'll see if that helps.
Here's the map. East in up. Sprakill is in the top center of the route:
Monday, September 11, 2006
Speedily on the new bike
I broke my all-time speed records the first time I rode my new bike to work. I averaged 20.5MPH riding in (19.1 previous best) and 17.7 back (16.9 previous best). Wow!
Monday, September 04, 2006
Sunday Ride
I did a ride with the local bike club from New City up to the tower at the top of Bear Mountain and back.
Here are some pictures - I think I need a real camera, not the one in my phone.
Rich and Steve ascending the big hill:
Coog and Jenni over the top (of the hill):
After leaving BSJ (Bee-Stung-Jenni) at 11am, I climbed towards Perkins. I met Rich and Steve while climbing Perkins Drive at around 11:20am. I found Coog at the top:
These sleeping folks made a nice picture:
The tower:
Coog and I rode back together, but he stopped at "The Cove" and I kept going. I rode into Stony Point park and walked around a bit, then rode back to New City.
Here's the ride profile. North is on the left:
Great ride y'all!
-Ben
Here are some pictures - I think I need a real camera, not the one in my phone.
Rich and Steve ascending the big hill:
Coog and Jenni over the top (of the hill):
After leaving BSJ (Bee-Stung-Jenni) at 11am, I climbed towards Perkins. I met Rich and Steve while climbing Perkins Drive at around 11:20am. I found Coog at the top:
These sleeping folks made a nice picture:
The tower:
Coog and I rode back together, but he stopped at "The Cove" and I kept going. I rode into Stony Point park and walked around a bit, then rode back to New City.
Here's the ride profile. North is on the left:
Great ride y'all!
-Ben
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Rocket Ride
Again, I got dropped on South Mountain Road. I have a good excuse this time, though - turns out I broke a spoke a few miles earlier and the wheel was rubbing hard against the brake pad with every revolution.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Family Kayaking in Piermont
Today we did more or less the same route that I did with Jason a while back. I ended up getting some great Heron shots:
Here's a closeup of the first one in the above series:
We paddled out into the Hudson:
After exploring the southern estuary, we returned to Sparkill, where Baila and Mommy splashed each other:
Looking at Google Maps, I noticed a boat on Sparkill (on the right) that was darker than the docked boats on the left side of the image. I suspected that the boat must be wrecked and sitting on the bottom of the creek:
After coming back in from the Hudson, we found the boat:
At the end of our trip, we ran into a Giant Egret:
I asked Trish to get close so it would take off so I could get some pictures of the bird in flight. He refused to be intimidated:
We had a great time!
Here's a closeup of the first one in the above series:
We paddled out into the Hudson:
After exploring the southern estuary, we returned to Sparkill, where Baila and Mommy splashed each other:
Looking at Google Maps, I noticed a boat on Sparkill (on the right) that was darker than the docked boats on the left side of the image. I suspected that the boat must be wrecked and sitting on the bottom of the creek:
After coming back in from the Hudson, we found the boat:
At the end of our trip, we ran into a Giant Egret:
I asked Trish to get close so it would take off so I could get some pictures of the bird in flight. He refused to be intimidated:
We had a great time!
Friday, August 04, 2006
1938 Redux
It is now a cliché to rant about the spread of postmodernism, cultural relativism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among the affluent and leisured societies of the West. But we are seeing the insidious wages of such pernicious theories as they filter down from our media, universities, and government and never more so than in the general publics nonchalance since Hezbollah attacked Israel.
These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the quarter-ton Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.
Yes, perhaps Israel should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.
In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around.
Read the article.
These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the quarter-ton Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.
Yes, perhaps Israel should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.
In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around.
Read the article.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sparkill Kayaking
Jason and I went Kayaking tonight. We've gone on a couple adventures together before. See here and here.
Here's our route map. We stared on Sparkill, in Piermont, NY:
We paddled downstream on Sparkill towards the Hudson. Along the way we spotted a Heron:
Eventually we got out to the Hudson and paddled south to another little creek. We tried going around the oxbow, but we ran out of water about 75% of the way around and had to paddle back out. It was so shallow that we were getting stuck on the bottom. The tide was going out, and I was worried we were going to have to walk our kayaking back out through the muck. Thankfully, that was not the case.
We paddled on as the sun began to set:
After going as far as we dared, we raced back out on to the Hudson. Here's Jason with the Tappan Zee bridge in the background:
The water on the Hudson was a bit choppy, but nothing we couldn't handle. What fun!
Here's our route map. We stared on Sparkill, in Piermont, NY:
We paddled downstream on Sparkill towards the Hudson. Along the way we spotted a Heron:
Eventually we got out to the Hudson and paddled south to another little creek. We tried going around the oxbow, but we ran out of water about 75% of the way around and had to paddle back out. It was so shallow that we were getting stuck on the bottom. The tide was going out, and I was worried we were going to have to walk our kayaking back out through the muck. Thankfully, that was not the case.
We paddled on as the sun began to set:
After going as far as we dared, we raced back out on to the Hudson. Here's Jason with the Tappan Zee bridge in the background:
The water on the Hudson was a bit choppy, but nothing we couldn't handle. What fun!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Sunday Rocket Ride, etc.
I set out on Sunday to do the Rocket Ride, but got dropped pretty quickly. I rode to Nyack nonetheless, then decided to ride South in hopes of meeting up with a Rockland club ride that had gone from Nyack to the GWB and back. I did run into a couple of the guys when I got back to Toga! at around 1pm.
At 51 miles, this is the longest ride of done this summer, and I could tell!
Here's the route - East is up in this image:
At 51 miles, this is the longest ride of done this summer, and I could tell!
Here's the route - East is up in this image:
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Love, exciting and new....
I stopped in at Toga and saw this last week:
I'm going to have to get another job to pay for it!
I'm going to have to get another job to pay for it!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Kayak Camping on the Delaware River
The last time we went kayaking, Trish said she would like to try a multi day kayaking trip. Last Wednesday, we decided we would try a two day trip on Memorial Day weekend. A local kayak outfitter recommended the Delaware River.
After consulting the map, we decided to try a trip from Dingman's Ferry to Poxono Access. If you have Google Earth, here's the route.
By the time we got the car packed on Sunday, it was pretty late. I had bought a bozen or so dry bags to store our stuff, and I managed to fit a 30 and 20 liter bag behind the rear seat, and a 30 and 20 liter bag up front. The kayaks were so heavy we could barely carry them down to the river. I was afraid we were going to sink, but it worked out just fine.
We paddled down the river as sunset approached. Here's Baila and Trish in their boat:
There were some Class 1 rapids that were not on the map - I suspect the river is a bit lower than usual. Mechel and I hit a 3 foot wave that got both of us a bit wet.
We saw a Great Blue Heron on the bank:
Baila directs traffic:
There were a few folks fishing:
We then saw another heron:
The sun set before we got to Buck Bar:
Finally, we got there. We could not find the sign that marked the campsite, so we paddled back up the other side of the island before giving up and settling on the clearing on the south side. We set up camp, and I rigged up a tripod to support our flourescent lantern. I used my camera tripod to support our gas lantern:
We had La Briute meals for dinner. Yum! There were lots of light-loving bugs:
The next day, I woke up around 5:30am. It was quite foggy out:
Sunrise:
Driftwood amongst the groundcover:
Eventually the rest of the family got up. We found some caterpillars:
A quick family portrait:
We got underway around 9am. It quickly got quite warm - it would be a muggy 93 degrees by day's end.
We found a nice spot to land for lunch and went up into the woods:
Kayaks on the other bank during lunch. We were the only overnighters on the river as far as I could tell:
While going around Depew Island we spotted an immature Bald Eagle:
And a mature Bald Eagle just north of Poxono Island:
We got to the pull-out around 2pm. Mechel and I drove the van we had left at Poxono up to Dingman's to get the car. We took the car back to Poxono to get the Kayaks. If we do this frequently, we'll buy a second set of HullRaisers for the van. While I loaded the kayaks, the kids played in the water:
We then drove to Dingman's to get the van and drove home. What a trip! We will definitely be doing this again.
After consulting the map, we decided to try a trip from Dingman's Ferry to Poxono Access. If you have Google Earth, here's the route.
By the time we got the car packed on Sunday, it was pretty late. I had bought a bozen or so dry bags to store our stuff, and I managed to fit a 30 and 20 liter bag behind the rear seat, and a 30 and 20 liter bag up front. The kayaks were so heavy we could barely carry them down to the river. I was afraid we were going to sink, but it worked out just fine.
We paddled down the river as sunset approached. Here's Baila and Trish in their boat:
There were some Class 1 rapids that were not on the map - I suspect the river is a bit lower than usual. Mechel and I hit a 3 foot wave that got both of us a bit wet.
We saw a Great Blue Heron on the bank:
Baila directs traffic:
There were a few folks fishing:
We then saw another heron:
The sun set before we got to Buck Bar:
Finally, we got there. We could not find the sign that marked the campsite, so we paddled back up the other side of the island before giving up and settling on the clearing on the south side. We set up camp, and I rigged up a tripod to support our flourescent lantern. I used my camera tripod to support our gas lantern:
We had La Briute meals for dinner. Yum! There were lots of light-loving bugs:
The next day, I woke up around 5:30am. It was quite foggy out:
Sunrise:
Driftwood amongst the groundcover:
Eventually the rest of the family got up. We found some caterpillars:
A quick family portrait:
We got underway around 9am. It quickly got quite warm - it would be a muggy 93 degrees by day's end.
We found a nice spot to land for lunch and went up into the woods:
Kayaks on the other bank during lunch. We were the only overnighters on the river as far as I could tell:
While going around Depew Island we spotted an immature Bald Eagle:
And a mature Bald Eagle just north of Poxono Island:
We got to the pull-out around 2pm. Mechel and I drove the van we had left at Poxono up to Dingman's to get the car. We took the car back to Poxono to get the Kayaks. If we do this frequently, we'll buy a second set of HullRaisers for the van. While I loaded the kayaks, the kids played in the water:
We then drove to Dingman's to get the van and drove home. What a trip! We will definitely be doing this again.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Fun drive
This morning I was driving South on Route 303 when four police cars passed me going North. They were driving very fast. A few seconds later, a Black Crysler 300C passed me at over 100 miles per hour. He disappeared over the rise just North of Oak Tree Road. I knew that if anything was in the intersection when he got there it would be a big mess - there was no way he would be able to stop in time.
A moment later, I heard sirens, and saw about 40 police cars in my rear view mirror. I pulled over, and they all raced by. After the last one went by, I continued down to Oak Tree Road. The Crysler was no where to be seen, but there was quite a bit of congestion, what with all the police cars being there. Most turned right on Oark Tree. As I was turning left, a Corvette Police car went zooming by.
In the end, they caught the guy in Fort Lee, NJ. UPDATE: Here's the final article from the Journal News:
NANUET ? A Bronx man accused of buying a $52,300 Chrysler with a phony name and forged financial documents led officers on a 30-mile chase through Clarkstown and Orangetown and into New Jersey yesterday, police said.
The 24-minute chase ended when, police said, Alexis Santiago crashed the new Chrysler 300 into a Fort Lee police car near the George Washington Bridge.
Santiago, 35, is accused of trying to run down at least two police officers, including a Clarkstown officer in the parking lot of a Chrysler dealership at 60 Route 304, police said.
Among nine charges in New Jersey, Santiago faces an attempted murder count, accused of trying to run down a Teaneck, N.J., police officer, police said.
"Due to the fact two officers were almost killed, we had the right to chase the vehicle," Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli said during an afternoon news conference at his police station.
"The car became a weapon," Ripoli said.
The chase started at 9:15 a.m. when Clarkstown police and a state Department of Motor Vehicles inspector attempted to arrest the driver of a black, four-door Chrysler 300 in the dealership's parking lot.
A man using the name of "Tirso Tavarez" of the Bronx obtained a dealership loan of $52,300 on May 6 to buy the car, Clarkstown Detective Sgt. Bernard Cummings said yesterday. A state DMV investigator determined that the buyer wasn't Tavarez and on Friday told the dealership and police. The investigator noticed "Tavarez" had given the dealership a phony driver's license, Cummings said.
The buyer was to return to the dealership yesterday morning for his car registration.
"We were sitting there waiting for him to show up," Clarkstown Detective Gerard King said. "We had him boxed in at the Chrysler dealership. He decided he didn't want to surrender."
In escaping, the driver nearly ran down Sgt. Gerald O'Connor, forcing the officer to jump out of the way as the Chrysler came at him and dented a police car, police said.
Clarkstown officers chased the Chrysler south on Route 304 but called off the pursuit.
"We felt that for a stolen car, there was no reason to put the public in danger with a high-speed pursuit," King said.
With the incident broadcast on police radio, Orangetown police picked up the chase on Route 304, but also stopped for safety reasons.
The chase continued with New Jersey officers in Closter, Teaneck, Hackensack and, finally, Fort Lee. The driver tried to fool police by pretending he went over the George Washington Bridge, said Ripoli, the Fort Lee police chief.
"He tried to outmaneuver everyone," Ripoli said. "At one point, some thought he crossed he bridge. He tried to hide and came back around into Fort Lee."
A Fort Lee officer picked up his trail, and the driver crashed into a police cruiser at Lemoine Avenue at 9:39 a.m., Ripoli said.
"We boxed him in, and he hit one of our vehicles," he said. "We heard he was coming, and our officers were prepared as best as possible."
Neither the officer nor Santiago was injured in the crash. He was arrested after a short struggle, police said.
Santiago was being held without bail in the Bergen County jail in Hackensack, pending hearings in Bergen County Superior Court.
Besides the New Jersey charges, Santiago faces a fugitive-from-justice warrant from New York City on a gun-possession charge, police said. Clarkstown police and the Rockland County District Attorney's Office have not filed charges. Cummings said the charges could include grand larceny, identity theft and assault in connection with trying to run down an officer.
The charges
Charges against Alexis Santiago, 35, of 643 Beach St., the Bronx:
In Teaneck: Attempted murder, resisting arrest, eluding and aggravated assault.
In Fort Lee: Aggravated assault, eluding, hindering apprehension, receiving stolen property, resisting arrest and a fugitive-from-justice warrant out of New York City on a felony weapon-possession count.
In Clarkstown: Police are preparing felony charges for grand jury consideration that could include first-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, first-degree identity theft and first-degree attempted assault.
Quite the morning!
A moment later, I heard sirens, and saw about 40 police cars in my rear view mirror. I pulled over, and they all raced by. After the last one went by, I continued down to Oak Tree Road. The Crysler was no where to be seen, but there was quite a bit of congestion, what with all the police cars being there. Most turned right on Oark Tree. As I was turning left, a Corvette Police car went zooming by.
In the end, they caught the guy in Fort Lee, NJ. UPDATE: Here's the final article from the Journal News:
NANUET ? A Bronx man accused of buying a $52,300 Chrysler with a phony name and forged financial documents led officers on a 30-mile chase through Clarkstown and Orangetown and into New Jersey yesterday, police said.
The 24-minute chase ended when, police said, Alexis Santiago crashed the new Chrysler 300 into a Fort Lee police car near the George Washington Bridge.
Santiago, 35, is accused of trying to run down at least two police officers, including a Clarkstown officer in the parking lot of a Chrysler dealership at 60 Route 304, police said.
Among nine charges in New Jersey, Santiago faces an attempted murder count, accused of trying to run down a Teaneck, N.J., police officer, police said.
"Due to the fact two officers were almost killed, we had the right to chase the vehicle," Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli said during an afternoon news conference at his police station.
"The car became a weapon," Ripoli said.
The chase started at 9:15 a.m. when Clarkstown police and a state Department of Motor Vehicles inspector attempted to arrest the driver of a black, four-door Chrysler 300 in the dealership's parking lot.
A man using the name of "Tirso Tavarez" of the Bronx obtained a dealership loan of $52,300 on May 6 to buy the car, Clarkstown Detective Sgt. Bernard Cummings said yesterday. A state DMV investigator determined that the buyer wasn't Tavarez and on Friday told the dealership and police. The investigator noticed "Tavarez" had given the dealership a phony driver's license, Cummings said.
The buyer was to return to the dealership yesterday morning for his car registration.
"We were sitting there waiting for him to show up," Clarkstown Detective Gerard King said. "We had him boxed in at the Chrysler dealership. He decided he didn't want to surrender."
In escaping, the driver nearly ran down Sgt. Gerald O'Connor, forcing the officer to jump out of the way as the Chrysler came at him and dented a police car, police said.
Clarkstown officers chased the Chrysler south on Route 304 but called off the pursuit.
"We felt that for a stolen car, there was no reason to put the public in danger with a high-speed pursuit," King said.
With the incident broadcast on police radio, Orangetown police picked up the chase on Route 304, but also stopped for safety reasons.
The chase continued with New Jersey officers in Closter, Teaneck, Hackensack and, finally, Fort Lee. The driver tried to fool police by pretending he went over the George Washington Bridge, said Ripoli, the Fort Lee police chief.
"He tried to outmaneuver everyone," Ripoli said. "At one point, some thought he crossed he bridge. He tried to hide and came back around into Fort Lee."
A Fort Lee officer picked up his trail, and the driver crashed into a police cruiser at Lemoine Avenue at 9:39 a.m., Ripoli said.
"We boxed him in, and he hit one of our vehicles," he said. "We heard he was coming, and our officers were prepared as best as possible."
Neither the officer nor Santiago was injured in the crash. He was arrested after a short struggle, police said.
Santiago was being held without bail in the Bergen County jail in Hackensack, pending hearings in Bergen County Superior Court.
Besides the New Jersey charges, Santiago faces a fugitive-from-justice warrant from New York City on a gun-possession charge, police said. Clarkstown police and the Rockland County District Attorney's Office have not filed charges. Cummings said the charges could include grand larceny, identity theft and assault in connection with trying to run down an officer.
The charges
Charges against Alexis Santiago, 35, of 643 Beach St., the Bronx:
In Teaneck: Attempted murder, resisting arrest, eluding and aggravated assault.
In Fort Lee: Aggravated assault, eluding, hindering apprehension, receiving stolen property, resisting arrest and a fugitive-from-justice warrant out of New York City on a felony weapon-possession count.
In Clarkstown: Police are preparing felony charges for grand jury consideration that could include first-degree grand larceny, second-degree forgery, first-degree identity theft and first-degree attempted assault.
Quite the morning!
Monday, May 01, 2006
Of a fire in a field
That's the theme and the pace and the action of "United 93:" How ordinary people, at first strangers to each other, found the courage to act together in the face of certain death.
Despite the whines and the cavils of the weak and the vile and the corrupt among us, "United 93" has no "message."
Despite the rising and continuing attempts to cheapen the film from the spiritually and politically bankrupt that batten off America, "United 93" has no politics.
You don't "review" this film if you have an ounce of soul left to you. You watch it.
"United 93" is a simply told, near-documentary look at how that fire in the field came to be. As I said above, the film has no message, but if you -- as I finally did -- choose to go, it will pose you a question: What would you do, an ordinary person in an extraordinary moment when life and death, good and evil, were as clear as the skies over America on September 11? Will you, as so many of our fellow citizens yearn to do these days, stay seated? Or will you stand up?
On one of our days to come, there will be another test. You'd best have an answer prepared.
Read the article.
Despite the whines and the cavils of the weak and the vile and the corrupt among us, "United 93" has no "message."
Despite the rising and continuing attempts to cheapen the film from the spiritually and politically bankrupt that batten off America, "United 93" has no politics.
You don't "review" this film if you have an ounce of soul left to you. You watch it.
"United 93" is a simply told, near-documentary look at how that fire in the field came to be. As I said above, the film has no message, but if you -- as I finally did -- choose to go, it will pose you a question: What would you do, an ordinary person in an extraordinary moment when life and death, good and evil, were as clear as the skies over America on September 11? Will you, as so many of our fellow citizens yearn to do these days, stay seated? Or will you stand up?
On one of our days to come, there will be another test. You'd best have an answer prepared.
Read the article.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Kayaking in Haverstraw
The four of us went Kayaking in Haverstaw last night. Here's the map:
What fun!
...The sunken barge is circled in red. Note the inlet at the bottom of the image.
We finally got to the inlet. As the map above shows, most of the river and the entire inlet are mud flats at low tide, but we were there a couple hours after high tide. We were padling in 6 inches of water in most of the inlet. It was really pretty back in there. We saw lots of Red Winged Blackbirds, a Heron, and what might have been a Sandpiper.
Back on the main river, it was getting dark, so we headed home.
What fun!
Thoughts on "United 93"
There are those who question the timing of this project and the painful memories it evokes. Clearly, the film portrays the reality of the attack on our homeland and its terrible consequences. Often we attend movies to escape reality and fantasize a bit. In this case and at this time, it is appropriate to get a dose of reality about this war and the real enemy we face. It is not too soon for this story to be told, seen and heard. But it is too soon for us to become complacent. It is too soon for us to think of this war in only national terms. We need to be mindful that this enemy, who made those holes in our landscape and caused the deaths of some 3,000 of our fellow free people, has a vision to personally kill or convert each and every one of us. This film reminds us that this war is personal. This enemy is on a fanatical mission to take away our lives and libertythe liberty that has been secured for us by those whose names are on those walls in Battery Park and so many other walls and stones throughout this nation. This enemy seeks to take away the free will that our Creator has endowed in us. Patrick Henry got it right some 231 years ago. Living without liberty is not living at all.
The passengers and crew of United 93 had the blessed opportunity to understand the nature of the attack and to launch a counterattack against the enemy. This was our first successful counterattack in our homeland in this new global warWorld War III.
This film further reminds us of the nature of the enemy we face. An enemy who will stop at nothing to achieve world domination and force a life devoid of freedom upon all. Their methods are inhumane and their targets are the innocent and unsuspecting. We call this conflict the War on Terror. This film is a wake-up call. And although we abhor terrorism as a tactic, we are at war with a real enemy and it is personal.
There are those who would hope to escape the pain of war. Cant we just live and let live and pretend every thing is OK? Lets discuss, negotiate, reason together. The film accurately shows an enemy who will stop at nothing in a quest for control. This enemy does not seek our resources, our land or our materials, but rather to alter our very way of life.
I encourage my fellow Americans and free people everywhere to see United 93.
Be reminded of our very real enemy. Be inspired by a true story of heroic actions taken by ordinary people with victorious consequences. Be thankful for each precious day of life with a loved one and make the most of it. Resolve to take the right action in the situations of life, whatever they may be. Resolve to give thanks and support to those men, women, leaders and commanders who to this day (1,687 days since Sept. 11, 2001) continue the counterattacks on our enemy and in so doing keep us safe and our freedoms intact.
May the taste of freedom for people of the Middle East hasten victory. The enemy we face does not have the word "surrender" in their dictionary. We must not have the word "retreat" in ours. We surely want our troops home as soon as possible. That said, they cannot come home in retreat. They must come home victoriously. Pray for them.
-David Beamer, father of Flight 93 victim Todd Beamer
The passengers and crew of United 93 had the blessed opportunity to understand the nature of the attack and to launch a counterattack against the enemy. This was our first successful counterattack in our homeland in this new global warWorld War III.
This film further reminds us of the nature of the enemy we face. An enemy who will stop at nothing to achieve world domination and force a life devoid of freedom upon all. Their methods are inhumane and their targets are the innocent and unsuspecting. We call this conflict the War on Terror. This film is a wake-up call. And although we abhor terrorism as a tactic, we are at war with a real enemy and it is personal.
There are those who would hope to escape the pain of war. Cant we just live and let live and pretend every thing is OK? Lets discuss, negotiate, reason together. The film accurately shows an enemy who will stop at nothing in a quest for control. This enemy does not seek our resources, our land or our materials, but rather to alter our very way of life.
I encourage my fellow Americans and free people everywhere to see United 93.
Be reminded of our very real enemy. Be inspired by a true story of heroic actions taken by ordinary people with victorious consequences. Be thankful for each precious day of life with a loved one and make the most of it. Resolve to take the right action in the situations of life, whatever they may be. Resolve to give thanks and support to those men, women, leaders and commanders who to this day (1,687 days since Sept. 11, 2001) continue the counterattacks on our enemy and in so doing keep us safe and our freedoms intact.
May the taste of freedom for people of the Middle East hasten victory. The enemy we face does not have the word "surrender" in their dictionary. We must not have the word "retreat" in ours. We surely want our troops home as soon as possible. That said, they cannot come home in retreat. They must come home victoriously. Pray for them.
-David Beamer, father of Flight 93 victim Todd Beamer
Monday, April 10, 2006
Bronx Zoo Adventure
We went to the Bronx Zoo yesterday with Bubbe and Zayde and the new big lens. We got there around 1pm.
First we went to the aquatic bird area:
Quite the day!
First we went to the aquatic bird area:
This flamingo was taking a bath:
More birds inside the building:
Next up, the monkey house:
Taking a break:
Then the tiger exhibit. Quite impressive!
The waterfowl area:
The bears:
Mechel loved the lions:
The randomly placed peacock:
More savannah action:
On the merry-go-round:
Flying high:
The butterfly garden was yet another a-la-carte attraction:
I got to see the first floor of the "World of Birds":
Quite the day!
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
NYC tomfoolery adventure
We went down to NYC on Sunday. The plan was to go to the Natural HIstory Museum. We took the train from Terrytown to 225th St:
At 225th St, we got on the #1 Subway:
From there, we took the train back to Terrytown:
There are worse ways to spend the day I guess.
Maybe.
At 225th St, we got on the #1 Subway:
We got off at 79th Street and walked to the Natural History Museum at 81st Street. Unfortunately, the wait for tickets was quite long, so we briefly walked in Central park (it was 20 degrees that day), then took the "C" subway to the #7 subway to Grand Central Station. There's a Kosher deli there, so that was fun. After slogging through the city, that was the best Pastrami sandwich I've ever had!
From there, we took the train back to Terrytown:
There are worse ways to spend the day I guess.
Maybe.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
A fascinating spring ahead
Nothing is quite as surreal as the Islamic world’s fury at the liberal and innocuous Danes. How could anyone wish to burn their embassies and kill their citizens, when they have always offered all the politically correct, multicultural platitudes and welcomed in any and all from the Middle East?
Now the furor over the cartoons, coming on the heels of the bombings in Madrid and London, the French rioting, the murders in Holland, and the failed European negotiations with the Iranian theocracy have shaken Europe to its foundations.
.
.
.
So now Europe is being thrust right into the middle of the so-called war against Islamic fascism. Once threatened, it will either react with a newly acquired Churchillian maturity to protect its civilization, or cave, in hopes that even more Chamberlain-type appeasement will satisfy the Islamists.
It should be a fascinating spring ahead.
Read the article.
Now the furor over the cartoons, coming on the heels of the bombings in Madrid and London, the French rioting, the murders in Holland, and the failed European negotiations with the Iranian theocracy have shaken Europe to its foundations.
.
.
.
So now Europe is being thrust right into the middle of the so-called war against Islamic fascism. Once threatened, it will either react with a newly acquired Churchillian maturity to protect its civilization, or cave, in hopes that even more Chamberlain-type appeasement will satisfy the Islamists.
It should be a fascinating spring ahead.
Read the article.
Saluting the 3rd
In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.
Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.
NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom. Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.
Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.
NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq
Monday, February 13, 2006
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Hamas victory is good news
From Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe:
I say that not because Hamas is anything other than a blood-drenched terrorist group, but because its lopsided win is an unambiguous reality check into the nature of Palestinian society. And if there is one thing that the West badly needs, it is more realism and less delusion about the Palestinians.
Read the article.
I say that not because Hamas is anything other than a blood-drenched terrorist group, but because its lopsided win is an unambiguous reality check into the nature of Palestinian society. And if there is one thing that the West badly needs, it is more realism and less delusion about the Palestinians.
Read the article.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
A Thin Line
I know the symptoms just as well as I know the adjectives: burning thighs, cramping calves, aching knees, screaming lungs, and side stitches so sharp I can't inhale. And all this on top of nagging back pain and that nasty stinger that pops up between my shoulder blades on occasion the last few years.
Sometimes it doesn't hurt too badly, like when I have to dig just a little. Maybe I've got to pull through at the front of a fast paceline, the effort's intense, but after a few seconds the next guy pulls through and everything's okay. Or the hill is steep but short. Other times, it's the duration, not the intensity that makes the pain so bad, like a huge headwind that beats down every bit of morale I ever thought of and I've still got 10 miles to go.
Or I curse myself as I cannot answer another rider's move even though I'm drooling and blacking out from the effort. Or the group disappears yard by yard up the road as my legs simply refuse to work any harder.
Why do I subject myself to this kind of suffering? Why do I ride when my legs are cement and I feel like ****? Or plan my entire Wednesday so I'll be at my strongest in order to suffer like a dog trying to hang with the Hammerheads? Why did I strap on a brace and go riding 10 days after I broke my collarbone?
There's something completely different about pain I choose to subject myself to. I do, after all, get to hold that internal debate about when enough is enough. And of course, Darwin teaches only the strong survive. I don't quite think this theory holds up in our coddled society, but I haven't entirely given up on it either. I do know that I remain enamored with growing stronger and faster, even though I can't figure out how all the suffering this entails benefits me one whit otherwise.
Except that hard rides provide frequent, powerful reminders of one of the great lessons humanity offers: that the fine line between pain and pleasure is very thin indeed, and one cannot truly know one extreme without knowing the other equally well.
Excerpt from The Adventures of Axel Kleat by Doug Kirk
Sometimes it doesn't hurt too badly, like when I have to dig just a little. Maybe I've got to pull through at the front of a fast paceline, the effort's intense, but after a few seconds the next guy pulls through and everything's okay. Or the hill is steep but short. Other times, it's the duration, not the intensity that makes the pain so bad, like a huge headwind that beats down every bit of morale I ever thought of and I've still got 10 miles to go.
Or I curse myself as I cannot answer another rider's move even though I'm drooling and blacking out from the effort. Or the group disappears yard by yard up the road as my legs simply refuse to work any harder.
Why do I subject myself to this kind of suffering? Why do I ride when my legs are cement and I feel like ****? Or plan my entire Wednesday so I'll be at my strongest in order to suffer like a dog trying to hang with the Hammerheads? Why did I strap on a brace and go riding 10 days after I broke my collarbone?
There's something completely different about pain I choose to subject myself to. I do, after all, get to hold that internal debate about when enough is enough. And of course, Darwin teaches only the strong survive. I don't quite think this theory holds up in our coddled society, but I haven't entirely given up on it either. I do know that I remain enamored with growing stronger and faster, even though I can't figure out how all the suffering this entails benefits me one whit otherwise.
Except that hard rides provide frequent, powerful reminders of one of the great lessons humanity offers: that the fine line between pain and pleasure is very thin indeed, and one cannot truly know one extreme without knowing the other equally well.
Excerpt from The Adventures of Axel Kleat by Doug Kirk
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Birding in Piermont Marsh
I went out to Piermont Marsh today to do some bird photography. A couple weeks ago I was on a ride through Talman Mountain State Park and ran into a fellow who had actually wandered out into the marsh to do some bird photography. That sounded like fun, so today I put on my rubber roots and overalls and headed into the muck.
Initially, I was walking on a 12 inch wide deer trail through 9 foot high reeds. I kept my feet near the edges of the path to avoid stepping into the water and mud in the center of the trail, which was about a foot deep. After 100 yards or so, the reeds gradually decreased in size until they were about 4 feet high. In the end, I walked almost to the Hudson (though I couldn't see it because of the reeds):
Here's the view from the end:
Here's the path back before the reeds before I got back into the 9-foot-high section:
I didn't see a single bird, but being out there was really something!
Initially, I was walking on a 12 inch wide deer trail through 9 foot high reeds. I kept my feet near the edges of the path to avoid stepping into the water and mud in the center of the trail, which was about a foot deep. After 100 yards or so, the reeds gradually decreased in size until they were about 4 feet high. In the end, I walked almost to the Hudson (though I couldn't see it because of the reeds):
Here's the view from the end:
Here's the path back before the reeds before I got back into the 9-foot-high section:
I didn't see a single bird, but being out there was really something!
Sunday, January 01, 2006
We went to the New Jersey Children's Museum today:
A good time was had by all!
Here's Mechel doing his best "I am Spartacus!" imitation:
Baila found this doll in the doll house and would not let go of it, so it accompanied us for the rest of our visit:
Mechel and Baila in ballet school:
"Digging" for fossils:
A good time was had by all!
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Winter walk at Willow Tree park
We took the kids on a walk today. I brought along my new 50mm f/1.8 lens to take some pictures:
I wonder what she's telling him:
I wonder what she's telling him:
Sunday, December 11, 2005
First snow of winter
Jason and I decided that last year's snowshoeing went so well that we would try it again. I found a good looking hike online. We met up around 8:30am.
After a while, we found an abandoned mine shaft. The pipe was used to pump water out the mine. How deep is the shaft?
Jason commited the catastrophic error of plunging his pole through the opening in the front of his snowshoe. I didn't get any pictures of the resulting fall.
On we went:
Eventually we got to the "Bowling Rocks" plateau:
After a while we took a brief detour to check out one of Harriman's shelters. There was a group of about 15 people inside:
From there we rejoined the trail, but for about 100 yards we were on virgin snow:
The trail took us up to the top of Hogencamp Mountain:
Here's a picture of us over Lake Skannatati, at the end of our hike:
After the hike, I took a picture of Harriman's "Church in the Wilderness":
By the time I got home, I felt really awful. Turns out I had Strep Throat, at by night's end I had a temperature of 103.5.
Not fun, but the hike was great!
After a while, we found an abandoned mine shaft. The pipe was used to pump water out the mine. How deep is the shaft?
Jason commited the catastrophic error of plunging his pole through the opening in the front of his snowshoe. I didn't get any pictures of the resulting fall.
On we went:
Eventually we got to the "Bowling Rocks" plateau:
After a while we took a brief detour to check out one of Harriman's shelters. There was a group of about 15 people inside:
From there we rejoined the trail, but for about 100 yards we were on virgin snow:
The trail took us up to the top of Hogencamp Mountain:
Here's a picture of us over Lake Skannatati, at the end of our hike:
After the hike, I took a picture of Harriman's "Church in the Wilderness":
By the time I got home, I felt really awful. Turns out I had Strep Throat, at by night's end I had a temperature of 103.5.
Not fun, but the hike was great!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Rocket Ride update
Here's the latest on the last few rocket rides:
10/2: I decided to join the ride as it went by house. No sense in getting up at 5:30am to be at Nyack at 8am so I can get dropped in Hackensack by 9:00am! So I rode out to New Clarkstown road and headed south to meet up with the ride near the Nanuet Mall. I got dropped up North (or, as they in Minneapolis, Up Nort) on Scratchup Road (a well deserved name) because the fellow I was following lost contact with the group. We rode back together.
11/6: This was the first winter ride of the year. The winter ride is shorter, and cuts back to Nyack through Orangeburg rather than going North to New City. Thankfully, it starts at 9am instead of 8am. Unfortunately, I was unaware of this. My friend Simcha from Monsey showed up, which was quite surprising. I felt like I was doing quite well, but then got a flat climbing out from Lake Tappan. Simcha stopped and helped me change the tire, then we rode back to Nyack.
11/13: I showed up at 9am, which was nice. I blew out climbing out from Lake Tappan, and got dropped on Rivervale Road.
11/20: This time, rather than riding down to Engelwood, then cutting through Orangeburg, we cut off the Engelwood section by riding through Demarest, but then completed the northern section from the summer ride. I got dropped on Scratchup, but managed to catch up with another fellow from the ride. We passed a couple other riders from the ride on the way back to Nyack. Simcha was along on the ride again, and got dropped earlier.
Here's the graph:
Here's the map:
10/2: I decided to join the ride as it went by house. No sense in getting up at 5:30am to be at Nyack at 8am so I can get dropped in Hackensack by 9:00am! So I rode out to New Clarkstown road and headed south to meet up with the ride near the Nanuet Mall. I got dropped up North (or, as they in Minneapolis, Up Nort) on Scratchup Road (a well deserved name) because the fellow I was following lost contact with the group. We rode back together.
11/6: This was the first winter ride of the year. The winter ride is shorter, and cuts back to Nyack through Orangeburg rather than going North to New City. Thankfully, it starts at 9am instead of 8am. Unfortunately, I was unaware of this. My friend Simcha from Monsey showed up, which was quite surprising. I felt like I was doing quite well, but then got a flat climbing out from Lake Tappan. Simcha stopped and helped me change the tire, then we rode back to Nyack.
11/13: I showed up at 9am, which was nice. I blew out climbing out from Lake Tappan, and got dropped on Rivervale Road.
11/20: This time, rather than riding down to Engelwood, then cutting through Orangeburg, we cut off the Engelwood section by riding through Demarest, but then completed the northern section from the summer ride. I got dropped on Scratchup, but managed to catch up with another fellow from the ride. We passed a couple other riders from the ride on the way back to Nyack. Simcha was along on the ride again, and got dropped earlier.
Here's the graph:
Here's the map:
"Peace" at any price?
..I see a frightening pattern here: the Democrats wanted us out of Vietnam, and never mind the genocide that followed. The Democrats want us out of Iraq and never mind that the Baathists will fill the vacuum and all Iraq will be screaming in pain except the murderers, who will exult — especially Osama bin Laden. Can it be that the Democrats really want to surrender to the same man who killed 3,000 civilians on 9/11 and laughed about it? Are we so weak that in only four years, after a war smaller in casualties than many unknown battles of the Civil War, we are already eager to surrender to the man who murdered women and children and made terrified couples hold hands and leap to their deaths from the World Trade Center? If so, there really is little hope for us as a people. My prayer is that careful reflection will convince the Democrats that while we are all unhappy about the war, war is hell, and surrender is far worse. Maybe the Copperheads in the Democrat party, like those who wanted appeasement of the slave owners one hundred and forty years ago, will be a minority, and those who want to keep up the fight for human decency will prevail even as the Neville Chamberlains speak of peace at any price.
Read the article.
Read the article.
Orienteering Sunday
Today I ran and orienteering event at Lake Kanawauke. I ran the red course, which was the most advanced course offered at the event. If the course were run along the red lines, it would be 6.55km (4.07 miles). Here's the map:
I had a watch with a split lap timer, but I failed to split the laps at each control, so I think my times are probably as follows:
S - 1: 13:57
1 - 3: 31:27
3 - 4: 6:08
4 - 7: 18:24
7 - 11: 32:59
11 - 12: 4:00
12 - 13: 8:07
13 - 14: 8:09
14 - 15: 5:59
15 - 16: 3:52
16 - 17: 4:20
17 - F: 0:28
For a total time of 2:17:55. The time limit is 2 hours, so my finish is considered OT (over-time).
I lost a lot of time on the first 3 controls as I tried to relearn orienterring, having not done it in several months. Here's the map:
Particularly irritating was control #2 - I had to give up and bear in the direction of control #3, which was next to a swamp. I found the swamp, found control #3, then doubled back to find control #2. Grr!
Anyway, loads of fun!
I had a watch with a split lap timer, but I failed to split the laps at each control, so I think my times are probably as follows:
S - 1: 13:57
1 - 3: 31:27
3 - 4: 6:08
4 - 7: 18:24
7 - 11: 32:59
11 - 12: 4:00
12 - 13: 8:07
13 - 14: 8:09
14 - 15: 5:59
15 - 16: 3:52
16 - 17: 4:20
17 - F: 0:28
For a total time of 2:17:55. The time limit is 2 hours, so my finish is considered OT (over-time).
I lost a lot of time on the first 3 controls as I tried to relearn orienterring, having not done it in several months. Here's the map:
Particularly irritating was control #2 - I had to give up and bear in the direction of control #3, which was next to a swamp. I found the swamp, found control #3, then doubled back to find control #2. Grr!
Anyway, loads of fun!
Friday, November 25, 2005
Just a couple o' hobos
Mechel and I drove out to Monsey Glen park this afternoon and hiked up onto the abandoned rails there. I've seen on a map that the tracks run South, then curve to the West and finally North and come back under Route 59 in Tallman, a couple miles West of the park.
I had to take some pictures, or course:
At one point, a small trestle was missing and the track just went out into thin air:
Farther along, the tracks became increasingly impassible, as we encountered more and more debris and brush on the tracks. Here's Mechel sitting on a tree in the riddle ot the tracks:
Towards the end, we saw a deer staring back at us from father down the tracks. By now, the tracks were completely overgrown, and getting through was tough:
We came out in Tallman, where Trish picked us up. Mechel is looking forward to exploring the portion North of Route 59 at Tallman, as the tracks head towards Sloatsburg.
Maybe someday.
I had to take some pictures, or course:
At one point, a small trestle was missing and the track just went out into thin air:
Farther along, the tracks became increasingly impassible, as we encountered more and more debris and brush on the tracks. Here's Mechel sitting on a tree in the riddle ot the tracks:
Towards the end, we saw a deer staring back at us from father down the tracks. By now, the tracks were completely overgrown, and getting through was tough:
We came out in Tallman, where Trish picked us up. Mechel is looking forward to exploring the portion North of Route 59 at Tallman, as the tracks head towards Sloatsburg.
Maybe someday.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
The Dead End of Jewish Culture
One December afternoon, my precious four-year-old niece Jodi walked into my mother's suburban New Jersey kitchen and asked, "Bubbie, are you Jewish?"
"Yes, I am," my mother answered proudly.
"So am I," Jodi confided, "but don't tell Santa Claus."
I laughed when my mother told me this story, and I chuckled every time I thought of it --for twenty-two years. Last week, Jodi got married, in a Catholic church, kneeling in front of a huge gilded cross. I stopped laughing.
American Jews have been occupied for four decades in a desperate attempt to stay the tide of assimilation and intermarriage (not to even speak of their more hideous confrere: conversion). I remember as a teenager in the early 1960s sitting through sermons where our rabbi pontificated on the various solutions to The Problem. Yet exactly what is the Jewish leadership trying to perpetuate? Jewish genes? Jewish culture? A fondness for kreplach and klezmer and Isaac Bashevis Singer?
If so, no wonder the Catholics are winning. They don't strive to inculcate in their children a love for Catholic culture. They don't try to whip up enthusiasm for the celebration of St. Patrick's Day nor spend millions to make sure that every Catholic child decorates an Easter egg. They are propagating a religion, complete with God and soul and afterlife. We are pushing a culture, complete with Sholem Aleichem and dreidels and lithographs of the Western Wall. But for a culture, no matter how engaging, no one is ready to sacrifice one's life -- nor the love of one's life. Against Christianity we have pitted not Judaism, but Judaica.
Read the article.
"Yes, I am," my mother answered proudly.
"So am I," Jodi confided, "but don't tell Santa Claus."
I laughed when my mother told me this story, and I chuckled every time I thought of it --for twenty-two years. Last week, Jodi got married, in a Catholic church, kneeling in front of a huge gilded cross. I stopped laughing.
American Jews have been occupied for four decades in a desperate attempt to stay the tide of assimilation and intermarriage (not to even speak of their more hideous confrere: conversion). I remember as a teenager in the early 1960s sitting through sermons where our rabbi pontificated on the various solutions to The Problem. Yet exactly what is the Jewish leadership trying to perpetuate? Jewish genes? Jewish culture? A fondness for kreplach and klezmer and Isaac Bashevis Singer?
If so, no wonder the Catholics are winning. They don't strive to inculcate in their children a love for Catholic culture. They don't try to whip up enthusiasm for the celebration of St. Patrick's Day nor spend millions to make sure that every Catholic child decorates an Easter egg. They are propagating a religion, complete with God and soul and afterlife. We are pushing a culture, complete with Sholem Aleichem and dreidels and lithographs of the Western Wall. But for a culture, no matter how engaging, no one is ready to sacrifice one's life -- nor the love of one's life. Against Christianity we have pitted not Judaism, but Judaica.
Read the article.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Sukkos 2005
Eventually there will be a page for our Sukkos vacation on the Adventures page. For now, you'll have to settle for a slideshow.
(If the slideshow page doesn't appear, try this instead. If the slideshow page appears, but the slideshow doesn't begin, you'll need to install RealPlayer to view it.)
(If the slideshow page doesn't appear, try this instead. If the slideshow page appears, but the slideshow doesn't begin, you'll need to install RealPlayer to view it.)
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Ride in to work
I was riding into a 20+ MPH headwind due to an incomming thunderstorm, so it didn't go so well. 17.9Ave, 39.7Max, 0:48:00 ride time.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Ride Home
34.6 Max, 16.9 Ave, 0:51:12 ride time. My previous speed record for the ride home was 15.7MPH.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Tuesday Club Ride
Despite the cancellation of this ride, Joe and I showed up 'round 6ish. I wanted to try out a route to get from Nyack to Spring Valley, so I suggested that we head North, then West via Old Mountain Road.
Note to self: If a road's name contains the word "mountain", it's probably steep in spots.
Joe had done a big ride on Sunday, so his legs weren't what he wished they were. I guess I wasn't sensitive to his needs (you learn these phrases after being married 9 years) when I took him up Old Mountain.
Sorry Joe!
Anyway, once that was over, it was relatively smooth sailing down Old Western Highway (if it's going to be called "Old Western", why can't it be "Ye Olde Western"? It would be so much more authentic) save for a hillock at mile 8 or so. Joe lost a waterbottle shortly after that, but we recovered it and continued on our way. We rode down through Tappan and on to the Oradell Reservoir before heading North via Piermont Road back to Nyack. We got back to Memorial park around 8pm.
Stats: 24.2 miles, 1:20ish ride time, 17.2MPH Avg, 33.3MPH Max.
Here's the map and profile. North is to the left:
Note to self: If a road's name contains the word "mountain", it's probably steep in spots.
Joe had done a big ride on Sunday, so his legs weren't what he wished they were. I guess I wasn't sensitive to his needs (you learn these phrases after being married 9 years) when I took him up Old Mountain.
Sorry Joe!
Anyway, once that was over, it was relatively smooth sailing down Old Western Highway (if it's going to be called "Old Western", why can't it be "Ye Olde Western"? It would be so much more authentic) save for a hillock at mile 8 or so. Joe lost a waterbottle shortly after that, but we recovered it and continued on our way. We rode down through Tappan and on to the Oradell Reservoir before heading North via Piermont Road back to Nyack. We got back to Memorial park around 8pm.
Stats: 24.2 miles, 1:20ish ride time, 17.2MPH Avg, 33.3MPH Max.
Here's the map and profile. North is to the left:
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Tuseday Club Ride
Joe, Matt, and I showed up for last night's ride. The ride description on the RBC site said that the ride leader wouldn't be on the ride, so we deputised each other as LITs (Leaders In Training) and off we went.
We headed South out of Nyack, and rode under the Thruway where a number of rescue boats and vehicles were standing by in support of the rescue operations for the terrible accident on the Bridge. We then rode on through Piermont onto Piermont Road. South of Rockleigh, we encoutered road grating work, and were forced to ride toward the center of the road while avoiding the now raised manhole covers. Drivers, not understanding why we were in the middle of the road, were getting quite upset at us, so we decided to head east to ride 9W back to Piermont. We rode up Homans Ave and ended up in Alpine, and spent quite a long time (and 4.3 miles of riding) trying to break out onto a road that would lead us to 9W. We were finally spit out onto Piermont road again, so we rode back to Nyack taking a detour out onto the Piermont Pier. It was just getting dark, and the moon was up - it was quite nice, and despite the unfortunate circumstances the emergency vehicles' lights sparkled merrily on the bridge in the distance.
Joe, Matt and I took turns leading and we set a great pace. Our average was 18.3MPH as we turned up Homans Ave, but by the time Alpine got through with us we were at 16.8.
Overall stats: 28.9 Max, 17.6 Ave, 1:18:00 rolling, 23.08 Miles.
Here's the route with elevation profile. North is to the left:
Update: The bridge accident is apparently national news.
We headed South out of Nyack, and rode under the Thruway where a number of rescue boats and vehicles were standing by in support of the rescue operations for the terrible accident on the Bridge. We then rode on through Piermont onto Piermont Road. South of Rockleigh, we encoutered road grating work, and were forced to ride toward the center of the road while avoiding the now raised manhole covers. Drivers, not understanding why we were in the middle of the road, were getting quite upset at us, so we decided to head east to ride 9W back to Piermont. We rode up Homans Ave and ended up in Alpine, and spent quite a long time (and 4.3 miles of riding) trying to break out onto a road that would lead us to 9W. We were finally spit out onto Piermont road again, so we rode back to Nyack taking a detour out onto the Piermont Pier. It was just getting dark, and the moon was up - it was quite nice, and despite the unfortunate circumstances the emergency vehicles' lights sparkled merrily on the bridge in the distance.
Joe, Matt and I took turns leading and we set a great pace. Our average was 18.3MPH as we turned up Homans Ave, but by the time Alpine got through with us we were at 16.8.
Overall stats: 28.9 Max, 17.6 Ave, 1:18:00 rolling, 23.08 Miles.
Here's the route with elevation profile. North is to the left:
Update: The bridge accident is apparently national news.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Sunday's Rocket Ride
I was running late, so I drove to Piermont and rode toward Nyack until I met the group. The pace was again crazy, maintaining 25+ MPH on the way down Piermont Road.
Sortly before Tenafly, I was in 5th position or so and the guys in front sprinted away. I hung on with them but, seeing that rest of the line had dropped off, I let them go, thinking I would take a quick break as the second group caught up with me. Unfortunately, I was so winded that when the second group came up at 25MPH ( I was going 19MPH since I had let the first group go) I didn't have enough energy to accelerate up to their speed.
I tried cutting through Tenafly to regain the group, but the road didn't go through, so I ended up seeing them go zooming by when I was about 50 feet from the intersection.
I then rode back through Demarest to Piermont.
Stats: 21.68 Miles, 31.8 Max, 18.5 Average.
My route is in orange. The hashed line is the Rocket Ride. North is to the Left:
Sortly before Tenafly, I was in 5th position or so and the guys in front sprinted away. I hung on with them but, seeing that rest of the line had dropped off, I let them go, thinking I would take a quick break as the second group caught up with me. Unfortunately, I was so winded that when the second group came up at 25MPH ( I was going 19MPH since I had let the first group go) I didn't have enough energy to accelerate up to their speed.
I tried cutting through Tenafly to regain the group, but the road didn't go through, so I ended up seeing them go zooming by when I was about 50 feet from the intersection.
I then rode back through Demarest to Piermont.
Stats: 21.68 Miles, 31.8 Max, 18.5 Average.
My route is in orange. The hashed line is the Rocket Ride. North is to the Left:
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Yet Another Tuesday Club Ride
I was running late after work, so I knew I wouldn't get to Nyack in time, so I drove from work to Sparkill and got the bike out of the car there. Just as I was hopping on the bike, the Tuesday club riders showed up.
Perfect timing!
I made the mistake of disclosing that I had attempted the Sunday Rocket Ride, so I was forced to lead the ride from Sparkill to the end. We rode South to Tenafly and then back to Nyack, where everyone else had started the ride. I then rode alone back to Sparkill to get the car.
North is to the left:
Perfect timing!
I made the mistake of disclosing that I had attempted the Sunday Rocket Ride, so I was forced to lead the ride from Sparkill to the end. We rode South to Tenafly and then back to Nyack, where everyone else had started the ride. I then rode alone back to Sparkill to get the car.
North is to the left:
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Who is to blame?
Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her [the Governor of Louisiana] a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
It seems pretty clear that Blanco was doing everything possible to avoid asking for the help that the President is now being blamed for not providing immediately after Katrina struck.
Since 1878 Posse Comitatus has prevented the the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from operating on US soil. An exception is made for National Guard troops under the control of state governors, and I believe the governors can request military support (such as National Guard troops from other states), but they must explicitly request them.
Does anyone want the President of the United States [Democrat or Republican] to decide to deploy active duty military, reserves, or National Guard from other states without the specific request and approval of the Governor of that state?
Read the Article.
Hey look, there are all the buses the Governor (or the Mayor, for that matter) didn't use to evacuate New Orleans:
Hey, more buses!
Pity, all that fuel leaking into the water. Not to mention the thousands that could have been saved.
Too bad the Governor didn't read the State Disaster Plan (page 13):
The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
But remember, it's Bush's fault.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
It seems pretty clear that Blanco was doing everything possible to avoid asking for the help that the President is now being blamed for not providing immediately after Katrina struck.
Since 1878 Posse Comitatus has prevented the the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines from operating on US soil. An exception is made for National Guard troops under the control of state governors, and I believe the governors can request military support (such as National Guard troops from other states), but they must explicitly request them.
Does anyone want the President of the United States [Democrat or Republican] to decide to deploy active duty military, reserves, or National Guard from other states without the specific request and approval of the Governor of that state?
Read the Article.
Hey look, there are all the buses the Governor (or the Mayor, for that matter) didn't use to evacuate New Orleans:
 |  |
Hey, more buses!
Pity, all that fuel leaking into the water. Not to mention the thousands that could have been saved.
Too bad the Governor didn't read the State Disaster Plan (page 13):
The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
But remember, it's Bush's fault.
First Time on the "Rocket Ride"
A fellow on last Tuesday's ride suggested I try the "Rocket Ride" on Sunday at 8am. It leaves from the Nyack bike shot, and covers roughly 48 miles in less than 3 hours. He made it sound like the fastest-paced ride in the area.
He was right.
About 10 of us left from Nyack, and by the time we went through Rockleigh there were about 40 of us. The average pace on the flats was about 25 MPH. All I could do was stay in the middle of the line (it was a double pace line, actually) and hope for the best. The guys on the ride (there was one woman) were very competitive, and changing positions in the line was somewhat difficult.
In the end, I got dropped around mile 18. There was a gentle hill, and the folks up front took off, and I failed to notice that I would need to increase my speed, so a gap opened up, ansd I was unable to catch them. I met another fellow from the ride a few miles up who was having allergy problems, so we rode back together. We turned east at New City to get to 9W, as apposed to the rest of the riders who continue North for another mile or two before cutting across to 9W.
Here's the route and profile. North is to the left:
Can't wait 'till next Sunday!
He was right.
About 10 of us left from Nyack, and by the time we went through Rockleigh there were about 40 of us. The average pace on the flats was about 25 MPH. All I could do was stay in the middle of the line (it was a double pace line, actually) and hope for the best. The guys on the ride (there was one woman) were very competitive, and changing positions in the line was somewhat difficult.
In the end, I got dropped around mile 18. There was a gentle hill, and the folks up front took off, and I failed to notice that I would need to increase my speed, so a gap opened up, ansd I was unable to catch them. I met another fellow from the ride a few miles up who was having allergy problems, so we rode back together. We turned east at New City to get to 9W, as apposed to the rest of the riders who continue North for another mile or two before cutting across to 9W.
Here's the route and profile. North is to the left:
Can't wait 'till next Sunday!
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Another Tuesday Club Ride
Just a short 20 this time out to Demarest and back. If you look at the scale on the profile, you'll see it's more or less a flat ride.
North is to the left:
North is to the left:
Friday, August 26, 2005
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Tuseday Club Ride
After going to three Rockland Bike club rides, this was the first one that actually happened. There were about 15 people there. We split into two groups, and I went with the faster group. We climbed up onto 9W, then came back down into Tenafly (clockwise on the map below). I managed to stay with the ride leader and his speedy friend except for a couple spots on the hills. Thankfully, they waited for the rest of the group at the top of each hill.
It was pretty dark ridiing back, so fromnow on I'll be using lights on these rides.
Here's the map and profile. North is to the left:
It was pretty dark ridiing back, so fromnow on I'll be using lights on these rides.
Here's the map and profile. North is to the left:
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Spiders!
Here's a spider I photographed last night. I took the first picture with the house's cream siding in the background, and the second such that there was nothing behind him:
Monday, July 18, 2005
Greenwood lake ride
I went for a ride with the Bicycle Touring Club of North Jersey on Sunday. It was hot and terribly humid. There were four of us: myself, a relatively new road biker named Mitch, the ride leader, and one other fellow. We left the Southern tip of Greenwood Lake around 8:50am. Three of us went ahead of the ride leader, and rode down Clinton road. The fellow who led us down Clinton Road then decided he had too much to do, so he left us (Mitch and I) waiting for the ride leader. We waited about 20 minutes, and then rode back up Clinton Road looking for him.
When we didn't find the ride leader, I suggested we ride North and circle around near Greenwood Lake. I didn't know the area, but I knew Greenwood lake was to the East, so I figured we would go North, then head East until we hit Route 17A, which goes across the Northern Edge of Greenwood lake.
In the end, we rode a little over 41 miles. I was pretty spent by the end, since I've only done four rides this season. Comming down the hill into waypoint #7 (see below), we hit 44 MPH. OUr overall average was 16.6MPH. Ride time (the amount of time during which the bike was moving) was 2 hours, 29 minutes.
Climbing the mountain right out of Bellvale was quite tough. I was in my 39x23 gear, and Mitch had 39x25, so he was able to spin faster than I could, so I had to either peddle faster than him or fall over. It was tough enough that I had to walk the bike in a couple spots. I've ordered a 12-27 cassette, so we'll see how that goes.
It was my first time trying ClifBars. Not bad....
Since I came close to running out of water last week, I lashed a Nalgene 48oz waterbottle into my bike cage. I think I've found a cage that will hold it without having to be strapped in. We'll see.
Here's the map (Northwest is up) and profile:
When we didn't find the ride leader, I suggested we ride North and circle around near Greenwood Lake. I didn't know the area, but I knew Greenwood lake was to the East, so I figured we would go North, then head East until we hit Route 17A, which goes across the Northern Edge of Greenwood lake.
In the end, we rode a little over 41 miles. I was pretty spent by the end, since I've only done four rides this season. Comming down the hill into waypoint #7 (see below), we hit 44 MPH. OUr overall average was 16.6MPH. Ride time (the amount of time during which the bike was moving) was 2 hours, 29 minutes.
Climbing the mountain right out of Bellvale was quite tough. I was in my 39x23 gear, and Mitch had 39x25, so he was able to spin faster than I could, so I had to either peddle faster than him or fall over. It was tough enough that I had to walk the bike in a couple spots. I've ordered a 12-27 cassette, so we'll see how that goes.
It was my first time trying ClifBars. Not bad....
Since I came close to running out of water last week, I lashed a Nalgene 48oz waterbottle into my bike cage. I think I've found a cage that will hold it without having to be strapped in. We'll see.
Here's the map (Northwest is up) and profile:
Monday, July 11, 2005
Sloatsburg Ride
On Sunday, I set out around 11am from Sloatsburg to ride up to Greenwood lake. I was hoping to attempt to complete the ride I failed to complete in July of 2004. The idea was to ride from Sloatsburg up the East shore of Greenwood Lake, then back to Sloatsburg.
When I got to the general store at the North end of Greenwood lake, there were a bunch of cyclists there. Turns out they were doing a 200K (120 mile) Brevet called the New York City 200K Brevet. I decided to ride with them for a while. There were about 8 of us. I ended up with four others in the lead group. One of the guys got really bad muscle cramps so we stopped for about 20 minutes until the support car showed up to take him away.
We parted ways at waypoint #5 (see below). I rode back to Sloatsburg, and they went on, eventually returning to New York City.
Here's the map (NW is up) and profile:
When I got to the general store at the North end of Greenwood lake, there were a bunch of cyclists there. Turns out they were doing a 200K (120 mile) Brevet called the New York City 200K Brevet. I decided to ride with them for a while. There were about 8 of us. I ended up with four others in the lead group. One of the guys got really bad muscle cramps so we stopped for about 20 minutes until the support car showed up to take him away.
We parted ways at waypoint #5 (see below). I rode back to Sloatsburg, and they went on, eventually returning to New York City.
Here's the map (NW is up) and profile:
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Fireworks in Pearl River
Mechel and I went to see the show in Pearl River Tonight:
Here's the slideshow.
Here's Mechel at the show:
Here's the slideshow.
Here's Mechel at the show:
Friday, June 24, 2005
New Lens for Digital Rebel
Mom and Dad gave me a new lens for my birthday (thanks!), and it came yesterday, so today I went out on the Piermont pier to take some pictures. It was about a year ago the last time I went out to Piermont with the Lumix FZ1 camera and the lens that Mom and Dad gave me for my last birthday.
Here's the lens - the Sigma 75-300 APO:
Here are the pictures:
Nice bokeh, right?
What's more, I can screw the Raynox teleconverter onto the end of the new lens and increase my magnification by 2.2x. The resulting focal length is equivalent to 1056mm (300mm x 1.6 crop factor x 2.2 teleconverter). The Raynox introduces some chromatic aberration, but that can be fixed easily enough in PhotoImpact using a plugin. Here's a sample:
Wow!
Here's the lens - the Sigma 75-300 APO:
Here are the pictures:
Nice bokeh, right?
What's more, I can screw the Raynox teleconverter onto the end of the new lens and increase my magnification by 2.2x. The resulting focal length is equivalent to 1056mm (300mm x 1.6 crop factor x 2.2 teleconverter). The Raynox introduces some chromatic aberration, but that can be fixed easily enough in PhotoImpact using a plugin. Here's a sample:
Wow!
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Rebel XT + ETX90
Here are a couple shots with the Canon Rebel XT coupled to the Meade ETX90RA telescope. Since the telescope acts as an f/14 lens, I had to shoot with 1600 ISO. The pictures come out fuzzy and muddy, but something can be rescued with enough PhotoImpact work.
Rabbit @ 100 feet:
Dragonfly @ 30 feet:
Rabbit @ 100 feet:
Dragonfly @ 30 feet:
Friday, June 10, 2005
Orienteering and First Light
HVO's weekly orienteering training was on Thursday, so after work I went up to Black Rock Mountain (a bit west of Little Long Pond in Harriman Park). We did sprint training, which means that the controls were about 150 to 400 feet apart. Thanks to my new watch, I'm able to time each leg individually. Here's how I did:
Next, we tried running the course the other direction. I did pretty poorly, and gave up after 35 minutes or so, since the end-of-exersize time had been reached.
Afterwards, I took some pictures with the new camera on the way home. Here (or here) are some pictures I took. Not exactly breathtaking, but not bad, I guess. The sun had already gone down, so there wasn't a lot to work with.
| To Control | Leg Time | Total Time |
| 1 | 1:35 | 1:35 |
| 2 | 1:40 | 3:15 |
| 3 | 1:06 | 4:21 |
| 4 | 1:18 | 5:39 |
| 5 | 1:14 | 6:53 |
| 6 | 0:38 | 7:31 |
| 7 | 3:16 | 10:47 |
| 8 | 2:03 | 12:50 |
| 9 | 1:07 | 13:57 |
| 10 | 1:26 | 15:22 |
| 11 | 2:56 | 18:15 |
| 12 | 1:26 | 19:41 |
| Finish | 0:53 | 20:34 |
Next, we tried running the course the other direction. I did pretty poorly, and gave up after 35 minutes or so, since the end-of-exersize time had been reached.
Afterwards, I took some pictures with the new camera on the way home. Here (or here) are some pictures I took. Not exactly breathtaking, but not bad, I guess. The sun had already gone down, so there wasn't a lot to work with.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
French Creek SP Camping Trip
For Memorial Day weekend, we went camping at French Creek State Park in Pennsylvania. Friends of ours from Monsey had been going camping with this group for some time, and invited us to come along.
This is the first time we've gone camping with the kids, so we purchased a new tent. It's similar to this one, except that the "screen room" has a floor, so it's really a two person area with a zipperable wall. The other two "rooms" are made by hanging these pieces of fabric via hooks from the ceiling. Other tents rely solely on the hanging walls, but we wanted something more private, and this tent was the only one that had a wall that used a zipper.
On Sunday morning, Mechel played on the hammock:
In the afternoon, we went to nearby Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. Here's a photo essay. (If the window doesn't open, try this instead.)
Monday was pack-up day, and we got home around 5pm. What fun! We'll definitely go on more camping trips in the future.
This is the first time we've gone camping with the kids, so we purchased a new tent. It's similar to this one, except that the "screen room" has a floor, so it's really a two person area with a zipperable wall. The other two "rooms" are made by hanging these pieces of fabric via hooks from the ceiling. Other tents rely solely on the hanging walls, but we wanted something more private, and this tent was the only one that had a wall that used a zipper.
On Sunday morning, Mechel played on the hammock:
In the afternoon, we went to nearby Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. Here's a photo essay. (If the window doesn't open, try this instead.)
Monday was pack-up day, and we got home around 5pm. What fun! We'll definitely go on more camping trips in the future.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
What? $19,000 per student per year too much?
East Ramapo's Hyde ousted; budget, bond fail
THE JOURNAL NEWS
The longest-serving school board member in Rockland lost her seat on the East Ramapo Board of Education last night in a vote that also saw the defeat of the budget and a bond issue for building repairs.
Georgine Hyde, who has been on the East Ramapo school board since 1969, garnered the least number of votes in what was unofficially called the largest turnout in the history of the district.
Both Hyde and Danielle Bright appeared stunned at the news they had lost their seats. Bright has been a board member for six years.
Victorious challengers Dr. David Resnick and Steven Rosenstock said they were pleased with the turnout and would make formal statements today. They were endorsed by the Southeast Ramapo Taxpayers Association, a group that supports candidates who have ties to private schools.
No decision has been made about resubmitting a budget to voters following the $172.7 million plan's defeat.
"Quite obviously, I'm very disappointed with the outcome, especially for our children," said Superintendent Jason Friedman.
You know that, when it would be cheaper to send all the kids in the district to a state college, the budget is a bit too large.
Call me crazy.
Here's a district map. I've added red shading to the areas with families with "ties to private schools":
THE JOURNAL NEWS
The longest-serving school board member in Rockland lost her seat on the East Ramapo Board of Education last night in a vote that also saw the defeat of the budget and a bond issue for building repairs.
Georgine Hyde, who has been on the East Ramapo school board since 1969, garnered the least number of votes in what was unofficially called the largest turnout in the history of the district.
Both Hyde and Danielle Bright appeared stunned at the news they had lost their seats. Bright has been a board member for six years.
Victorious challengers Dr. David Resnick and Steven Rosenstock said they were pleased with the turnout and would make formal statements today. They were endorsed by the Southeast Ramapo Taxpayers Association, a group that supports candidates who have ties to private schools.
No decision has been made about resubmitting a budget to voters following the $172.7 million plan's defeat.
"Quite obviously, I'm very disappointed with the outcome, especially for our children," said Superintendent Jason Friedman.
You know that, when it would be cheaper to send all the kids in the district to a state college, the budget is a bit too large.
Call me crazy.
Here's a district map. I've added red shading to the areas with families with "ties to private schools":
Monday, May 16, 2005
RIP, "Captain" Ed Immler
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel :
Died unexpectedly May 8, 2005 while bicycle riding in his beloved lake district at age 56. Dear brother of Kathryn "Kai" Parry Immler. Also loved by his extended family, Bunny Raasch-Hooten and William Raasch and their children and many friends.
He attended Lawrence University then served in the Marines during the Vietnam War and retired from the Army. He returned to Lawrence graduating in 1995 with a degree in chemistry, then taught and worked at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy for Homeland Security.
He won several awards for his articles. He was a member of Freemanson's Lodge F&AM #363, DeMolay, Mensa and several Historical Societies. He served on several REACT teams and did extensive volunteer work for the American Red Cross, German Boy Scouts, March of Dimes, Lawrence University and others.
Ed, also known as "Dutch" was a patriot, a banjo player, a kind and generous friend and a life-long lover of learning, happiest when he was outdoors. His was a life of service to his country, community, family and friends.
From the Lawrence University Press Release:
With sadness, we report the unexpected passing of your former Lawrence University classmate, Edward "Ed" Immler, on Sunday, May 8, 2005.
Ed first came to Lawrence in the late 1960s, then left to serve with the Marines during the Vietnam War. Ed returned to Lawrence in the early 1990s, and was often seen on campus carrying his Army-issue rucksack, drinking his coffee, and even playing his banjo a couple of times at open mic. He lived off campus but was adopted by Plantz for the annual Trivia Contest. He graduated with a chemistry major in 1995.
After graduation, Ed continued to be a loyal Lawrentian, generously volunteering his time in a number of different efforts. Most recently, Ed served on the Class of 1995's 10th Reunion Gift Committee. Prior, Ed was an admissions volunteer and a member of the Viking Gift Committee. Ed was also a generous donor to Lawrence.
Ed also worked for a time at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy, where he's mentioned on the homepage.
Ed was presumably the author of this article for FrontPageMag.com.
Ed was a great guy. Even though he was 25 years older than the other members of the Class of '95, he seemed to fit right in. My two strongest memories of Ed are playing the Trivia Contest with him in Plantz Hall, and the cheering and applause that erupted when he received his diploma.
So long, Ed. You'll be missed.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Sunday Yard Work
Today I trimmed the mass o' trees in the backyard such that the trunks are visible. Before, the trunks were surrounded by a ten-foot radius of vegetative mess. Now, it looks like this:
Now we can plant that area along with the rest of the yard. Maybe some woodchips around the base.....
Now we can plant that area along with the rest of the yard. Maybe some woodchips around the base.....
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Hiking in Harriman
Today we went for a hike up in Harriman. We decided to do this hike, which includes waterfalls and a view of the New York City skyline.
Baila was playing cute in the Kelty pack:
We kept hiking and reached the creek after 0.4 miles or so:
We encountered a set of small waterfalls a bit father up the trail. I took some slow-shutter pictures while everyone else continued on:
As I finished up taking pictures, it started raining a little and the sky got dark. I met the group coming back down the trail. We decided to go home due to the weather.
On the way down, I saw this little plant growing out of a tree stump:
Overall, we hiked 1 to 1.5 miles. Mechel walked the whole way!
Baila was playing cute in the Kelty pack:
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We kept hiking and reached the creek after 0.4 miles or so:
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We encountered a set of small waterfalls a bit father up the trail. I took some slow-shutter pictures while everyone else continued on:
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As I finished up taking pictures, it started raining a little and the sky got dark. I met the group coming back down the trail. We decided to go home due to the weather.
On the way down, I saw this little plant growing out of a tree stump:
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Overall, we hiked 1 to 1.5 miles. Mechel walked the whole way!
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Van Saun Park and Zoo
Since Mom and Dad are visiting for Passover, we decided to go to Van Saun Park. Trish and I took Mechel there back in September '03 and August '04.
There weren't many people there when we got there, probably because it looked like rain was eminent. We started out by riding the train around the Zoo. Mechel really enjoyed the ride, and afterwards he watched the train go by as we entered the Zoo.
The "Zoo" is quite small, but was pretty nice. I'm not sure how the rest of our party felt about it, because I went into picture-taking mode pretty quickly (two of the pictures can be clicked to get a larger view):
After that, it was on to the carousel:
We then walked over to the Pony Ride, and I took some group shots:
Finally, we went to the playground:
All in all, quite the day!
There weren't many people there when we got there, probably because it looked like rain was eminent. We started out by riding the train around the Zoo. Mechel really enjoyed the ride, and afterwards he watched the train go by as we entered the Zoo.
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The "Zoo" is quite small, but was pretty nice. I'm not sure how the rest of our party felt about it, because I went into picture-taking mode pretty quickly (two of the pictures can be clicked to get a larger view):
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After that, it was on to the carousel:
We then walked over to the Pony Ride, and I took some group shots:
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Finally, we went to the playground:
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All in all, quite the day!
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
The maiden voyage
We took the boat out on the water for the first time today. Since I haven't build a mast and sail for it yet, we stopped in Haverstraw and bought a pair of oars.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the boat on the water. The first run was with Mechel and Dad and I. We went from the kayak launch to the sunken barge. North is upper right in this arial photo:
After we came back, I took Trish out briefly. The tide was going out, and the wind was blowing in the same direction, so I had to keep paddling just to stay in the same place.
Here are some shots I took after we finished boating:
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the boat on the water. The first run was with Mechel and Dad and I. We went from the kayak launch to the sunken barge. North is upper right in this arial photo:
After we came back, I took Trish out briefly. The tide was going out, and the wind was blowing in the same direction, so I had to keep paddling just to stay in the same place.
Here are some shots I took after we finished boating:
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Thursday, April 21, 2005
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Sunday Snow Fun
This morning, I went to an orienteering event near Lake Sebago in Harriman Park. I tried out an Orange course, which is the intermediate course. Here's the course map. The controls are circled in red. I've highlighed the route I took in yellow:
The straight distance from marker to marker was about 2 miles, so I probably did about 3 miles. I finished in 82 minutes.
The only wrinkle was that, at control #3, I realized that I had lost my control card, so I went back to control #2 to look for it. I was unable to find it, so I went back to control #3 and punched my map instead. That was a mistake - I should have punched my map at #3, gone back to find the card, and then I could have gone right to control #4.
It was great fun, and I'm looking forward to trying an advanced course next time.
At control #7, I was photographed by a photographer for the Poughkeepsie Journal's Thursday Sports section. If only my PE teachers could see me now...
Update: The photographer, Nancy Haggarty, send me some of the pictures she took:
After that, I decided I wanted to try out the old sailboat we were given last week from a guy named Ray who wanted to get rid of it. So I took Mechel for a boat ride.
In the front yard.
Note to self: even though it's made of fiberglass, an 11 foot long sailboat is REALLY hard to push through wet, sticky snow. Without the snowshoes it would have been impossible to push the boat.
Then I cleaned the garage. Just a typical low-key Sunday at the Wymore home.
The straight distance from marker to marker was about 2 miles, so I probably did about 3 miles. I finished in 82 minutes.
The only wrinkle was that, at control #3, I realized that I had lost my control card, so I went back to control #2 to look for it. I was unable to find it, so I went back to control #3 and punched my map instead. That was a mistake - I should have punched my map at #3, gone back to find the card, and then I could have gone right to control #4.
It was great fun, and I'm looking forward to trying an advanced course next time.
At control #7, I was photographed by a photographer for the Poughkeepsie Journal's Thursday Sports section. If only my PE teachers could see me now...
Update: The photographer, Nancy Haggarty, send me some of the pictures she took:
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After that, I decided I wanted to try out the old sailboat we were given last week from a guy named Ray who wanted to get rid of it. So I took Mechel for a boat ride.
In the front yard.
Note to self: even though it's made of fiberglass, an 11 foot long sailboat is REALLY hard to push through wet, sticky snow. Without the snowshoes it would have been impossible to push the boat.
My snowshoe appears to be well balanced, as it's perfectly level when I take a step:
Then I cleaned the garage. Just a typical low-key Sunday at the Wymore home.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Family orienteering hike
Last week, a co-worker was telling me about orienteering. Turns out that there's a Hudson Valley club. There's an event next week at Lake Sebago in Harriman Park. Anyway, he lent me an orienteering map from the 1979 Orienteering World Cup. The course used for that tournament has been made permanent, meaning that the control markers are still maintained. Here's the chunk of the map we used (reprinted rather small so as not to run afoul of copyright violations):
I rented a pair of snowshoes for Trish and off we went. In Harriman, the snow was about 18" deep. We started out by heading SE from Tiorati Circle, then hiking up the road through the picnic area. We then hiked North into the reentrant to find Control 10:
From there, I took a bearing on the map aiming for the bare hilltop SE of Control 10. After getting there, I took a bearing NE to Control 11. We found an old sign on a tree, and could tell it was an old control sign (the red portion was just visible in the lower left corner):
Update: I'm now somewhat convinced that this is not Control 11. I had forgotten the clue sheet at home, and it says that C11 is at the foot of the cliff, and we were still on top of the cliff.
From there, we could see the hill that Control 17 was on, so we hiked over there. Some folks had blazed a trail to the top already, so we followed that path to the top, where we spotted control 17:
Going a little farther East, we hit a marked trail that we took North to Control 18. By then, Mechel was becoming a little unstable, so we took a picture of it in the distance:
Heading back down the trail, we approached Control 16. I went to look for it while Trish waited at the trail junction. I couldn't find Control 16.
Update: Using GPSU, I checked the GPS logs (I didn't use the GPS while orienteering, or course) and determined that I had overshot the control area. Looking for two adjacent cliff-like rocks, I ended up searching around the pair to the SE of the control area. Note that both pairs of cliffs have a reentrant to their East. I was only 80 meters off, but it was enough to miss the control:
After that, we got to the road:
...And I took a little detour to find Control 12:
After finding the Control, I turned around to discover a partially devoured deer carcass in front of a small cave. Bobcat? Wolf? I didn't hang around to find out.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, and convinced me that I can actually do it. I'm looking forward to next Sunday!
I rented a pair of snowshoes for Trish and off we went. In Harriman, the snow was about 18" deep. We started out by heading SE from Tiorati Circle, then hiking up the road through the picnic area. We then hiked North into the reentrant to find Control 10:
From there, I took a bearing on the map aiming for the bare hilltop SE of Control 10. After getting there, I took a bearing NE to Control 11. We found an old sign on a tree, and could tell it was an old control sign (the red portion was just visible in the lower left corner):
Update: I'm now somewhat convinced that this is not Control 11. I had forgotten the clue sheet at home, and it says that C11 is at the foot of the cliff, and we were still on top of the cliff.
From there, we could see the hill that Control 17 was on, so we hiked over there. Some folks had blazed a trail to the top already, so we followed that path to the top, where we spotted control 17:
Going a little farther East, we hit a marked trail that we took North to Control 18. By then, Mechel was becoming a little unstable, so we took a picture of it in the distance:
Heading back down the trail, we approached Control 16. I went to look for it while Trish waited at the trail junction. I couldn't find Control 16.
Update: Using GPSU, I checked the GPS logs (I didn't use the GPS while orienteering, or course) and determined that I had overshot the control area. Looking for two adjacent cliff-like rocks, I ended up searching around the pair to the SE of the control area. Note that both pairs of cliffs have a reentrant to their East. I was only 80 meters off, but it was enough to miss the control:
After that, we got to the road:
...And I took a little detour to find Control 12:
After finding the Control, I turned around to discover a partially devoured deer carcass in front of a small cave. Bobcat? Wolf? I didn't hang around to find out.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, and convinced me that I can actually do it. I'm looking forward to next Sunday!
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Voices for Israel - the video
Surely you've heard of Voices for Israel:
This album includes the song "Chazak Ameinu", sung by dozens of the biggest names in Jewish music, including my favorite, Yehuda! (1 | 2 | 3).
The album also features the song "Shir Lismoach" (English Lyrics), written by 15 year-old victim of terror Malki Roth.
Now there's a music video for the title song, Chazak Ameinu (Windows Media | RealAudio). Enjoy!
This album includes the song "Chazak Ameinu", sung by dozens of the biggest names in Jewish music, including my favorite, Yehuda! (1 | 2 | 3).
The album also features the song "Shir Lismoach" (English Lyrics), written by 15 year-old victim of terror Malki Roth.
Now there's a music video for the title song, Chazak Ameinu (Windows Media | RealAudio). Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Presidential salutations
"...May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."
-George Washington, letter to Moses Seixas, Warden of Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island
Today is the anneversary of George Washington's birth. Read the entire letter.
-George Washington, letter to Moses Seixas, Warden of Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island
Today is the anneversary of George Washington's birth. Read the entire letter.
Monday, February 21, 2005
More snowshoeing
Jason and I went snowshoeing today. The cloud ceiling was at about 1000 feet, and the weather was bad enough that the GPS didn't work.
I think we hiked 4 to 5 miles. From the Tuxedo train station, we hiked up the Ramapo-Dunderburg trail to Black Ash pond. The west end of the pond is built up by a natural rock wall, and from the other side it creates a small waterfall:
From there, we took the Blue Disc trail to the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trail. Near that junction is "Claudius Smith Den", one of the mountain hideouts of Claudius Smith, a revolutionary-war-era criminal. Jason is in the lower left corner of the picture:
From there, we took the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trail back to the Ramapo Dunderberg trail, then hiked north along a gas pipeline easment to the Triangle trail, which met back up with the Ramapo Dunderberg trail.
I think we hiked 4 to 5 miles. From the Tuxedo train station, we hiked up the Ramapo-Dunderburg trail to Black Ash pond. The west end of the pond is built up by a natural rock wall, and from the other side it creates a small waterfall:
From there, we took the Blue Disc trail to the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trail. Near that junction is "Claudius Smith Den", one of the mountain hideouts of Claudius Smith, a revolutionary-war-era criminal. Jason is in the lower left corner of the picture:
From there, we took the Tuxedo-Mt. Ivy trail back to the Ramapo Dunderberg trail, then hiked north along a gas pipeline easment to the Triangle trail, which met back up with the Ramapo Dunderberg trail.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Wedding at 770
Tonight, Trish and I went to the wedding of Moti Wilhelm, the eldest son of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Wilhelm, the Chabad Shluchim in Portland, Oregon. We were a little slow leaving the house, so we got to Crown Heights right before the wedding started. Unfortunately, we were a little under-dressed, as this wedding was held outdoors.
Did I mention it's February? It was in the low 30s. Thankfully, we all seemed to have enough cold weather gear to stay warm.
Here's the Chuppah from a couple angles:
Moti and his wife-to-be. Chabad women use a really thick veil:
The chuppah ended around 6:30. Since the kids usually go to bed at 7:30, we decided to head home. Although Trish didn't get to say hello to the Rebbetzin, I did see the Rabbi, and Trish saw two of her former coworkers from the Chabad school.
Did I mention it's February? It was in the low 30s. Thankfully, we all seemed to have enough cold weather gear to stay warm.
Here's the Chuppah from a couple angles:
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Moti and his wife-to-be. Chabad women use a really thick veil:
The chuppah ended around 6:30. Since the kids usually go to bed at 7:30, we decided to head home. Although Trish didn't get to say hello to the Rebbetzin, I did see the Rabbi, and Trish saw two of her former coworkers from the Chabad school.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Hike to Mostly Perpendicular
Went on a hike this afternoon. It was a 4.6 miles, and I was out from 3:15 to 5:30ish. Here's the route and profile. I started at the bottom and proceeded clockwise:
The hike started at the end of Johnsontown Road in Sloatsburg. At about 8/10s of a mile, the climb up onto Almost Perpendicular, a cliff, began. I took a brief detour to try and find Dater's Mine, but I wanted to be sure I got back before dark so I stopped looking after a couple minutes. Before the climb, I climbed up onto a little ridge to take in the view:
From there, I could see the face of Almost Perpendicular:
I went back down to the trail which climbed up the back of Almost Perpendicular. From there, I could see the Harriman Visitor Center, almost a mile away:
After a brief respite, the trail climbed up through a draw in a small cliff face. When I popped up onto the top of the cliff, there was a deer standing about 30 feet away. We were both quite surprised:
I continued on as the sun began to set:
As I approached these ice walls, I was walking on a leaf covered flat area. Suddenly, I stepped through into water. A layer of ice had formed over a creek, and leaves had covered the ice. Quite the surprise.....
A bit farther on, I passed "Elbow Brush", a narrow crevasse through a pile of rock:
After about 2 miles, the "Blue Disk" trail met the "Tuxedo/Mt. Ivy Trail". I followed that for about a mile, then took the "White Bar" trail for 1.6 miles back to the car.
All in all, it was a nice little hike!
The hike started at the end of Johnsontown Road in Sloatsburg. At about 8/10s of a mile, the climb up onto Almost Perpendicular, a cliff, began. I took a brief detour to try and find Dater's Mine, but I wanted to be sure I got back before dark so I stopped looking after a couple minutes. Before the climb, I climbed up onto a little ridge to take in the view:
From there, I could see the face of Almost Perpendicular:
I went back down to the trail which climbed up the back of Almost Perpendicular. From there, I could see the Harriman Visitor Center, almost a mile away:
After a brief respite, the trail climbed up through a draw in a small cliff face. When I popped up onto the top of the cliff, there was a deer standing about 30 feet away. We were both quite surprised:
I continued on as the sun began to set:
As I approached these ice walls, I was walking on a leaf covered flat area. Suddenly, I stepped through into water. A layer of ice had formed over a creek, and leaves had covered the ice. Quite the surprise.....
A bit farther on, I passed "Elbow Brush", a narrow crevasse through a pile of rock:
After about 2 miles, the "Blue Disk" trail met the "Tuxedo/Mt. Ivy Trail". I followed that for about a mile, then took the "White Bar" trail for 1.6 miles back to the car.
All in all, it was a nice little hike!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Unchanging Orthodoxy, Constantly Evolving
The analogy that I want to use is a little different. In the middle of a chess game, the board looks quite different than it looked at the beginning. There are any number of legitimate mid-game configurations of the board. There are also many illegitimate moves. For example, up-ending the board in frustration and tossing the pieces in the air is not a legitimate move. Letting your kid play through to the end even though he lost his king right at the beginning is also not kosher.
Orthodoxy does look different today than it did a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago. The board has changed a lot. But we have always played by the rules.
A chess expert can look at a board and tell whether the current configuration was arrived at legitimately. He might say, “Whatever you guys have been playing, it isn’t chess. You can’t keep playing without the King!”
A Reform chess player may respond, “Men made up these rules and men can change them. The King is only a human construct anyway. I don’t need Him.”
A feminist chess player might add, “Men made up these rules, and women can change them. The old ones are too patriarchal. Nowadays we know that a Queen can do anything a King can do.”
The chess grandmaster tells them both that if they want to tamper with the rules of the game, they can play however they like, but they can’t call it chess. They both turn on him in fury and say, “We don’t see you keeping all the white pieces on your side of the board! Your board has changed since the start of the game! You make all these changes and then you criticize us!?”
Read the article.
Orthodoxy does look different today than it did a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago. The board has changed a lot. But we have always played by the rules.
A chess expert can look at a board and tell whether the current configuration was arrived at legitimately. He might say, “Whatever you guys have been playing, it isn’t chess. You can’t keep playing without the King!”
A Reform chess player may respond, “Men made up these rules and men can change them. The King is only a human construct anyway. I don’t need Him.”
A feminist chess player might add, “Men made up these rules, and women can change them. The old ones are too patriarchal. Nowadays we know that a Queen can do anything a King can do.”
The chess grandmaster tells them both that if they want to tamper with the rules of the game, they can play however they like, but they can’t call it chess. They both turn on him in fury and say, “We don’t see you keeping all the white pieces on your side of the board! Your board has changed since the start of the game! You make all these changes and then you criticize us!?”
Read the article.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Bulsontown to the Timp hike
This morning I went snowshoeing with Rob and Jason. Here's the map and elevation profile:
Reading from left to right, the hike up is the first section, the hike up, onto, and off the Timp is the second section, and the hike down is the last two sections.
The hike we attempted was from Bulsontown (which seems to be a collection of ten houses) to "The Timp" and back. We started hiking at around 9:30am.
We started up Beechy Bottom "Road", looking for the unmarked Woods "Road":
We couldn't find it, so we hiked cross-country back to Beechy Bottom "Road" (waypoints 2 and 3) (looking at the map above, we started in the lower left section of the map. Our outbound leg is the leftward track on the map.)
Up and up we went. We passed several unmarked trails which appeared on the map, and crossed a couple streams:
For most of the way, we were walking over prints made by other snowshoers. It took us about 2 hours to cover the 2.1 miles to the end of the "Red Cross" trail, which got us to Timp Pass. The last 1/3 of a mile was really steep:
Along the way we passed some nice ice formations:
At last, we made it to Timp Pass:
By now it was 11:45, and Rob really needed to get off the mountain, so we turned on the FRS radios, and Rob started down while Jason and I attempted to summit the Timp. Doesn't look like much in this picture, but it was sizeable. We decided to go counter-clockwise (see map) by taking the Ramapo Dunderberg trail to the Timp-Torne trail to Timp Pass "Road" and back to the Red Cross trail at the Timp Pass. While hiking on the R-D trail, we were right under the timp. The trail had not been used since last week's snowstorm, so we had to rely on the blazes to stay on course.
The ascent of the Timp was extremely steep - Topo USA reports a grade of 40% in places. We were worried that the descent would be as steep. Along the way we passed more ice formations:
At last we reached the top. Looking south, we could see the Hudson river. On a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be seen:
Here's Jason at the summit:
As we began our descent, the Bear Mountain bridge was visible to the north:
More ice along the descent:
As the completed our descent of the Timp, Rob radioed us from down the trail that he had gone as far as he could without a map. It was 1pm, an hour past when Rob wanted to be off the mountain. I asked Jason to turn on his radio, and ran down the mountain (the third section on the profile above) until I caught up with Rob. We walked out to the trailhead, and Rob went down to his car while I went back to meet up with Jason. We ran in to each other about 2/10 of a mile from the trailhead. It was around 2pm when we got to our cars.
The trip was a success, I think, except for the whole "split up the party just asking for a mountaineering disaster" thing. The crampons on my Redfeather snowshoes each lost one tooth on this, their first real hike. You get what you pay for, I guess. I think I'll buy a pair of Tubbs - Jason and Rob rented them from EMS, and they held up just fine.
Reading from left to right, the hike up is the first section, the hike up, onto, and off the Timp is the second section, and the hike down is the last two sections.
The hike we attempted was from Bulsontown (which seems to be a collection of ten houses) to "The Timp" and back. We started hiking at around 9:30am.
We started up Beechy Bottom "Road", looking for the unmarked Woods "Road":
We couldn't find it, so we hiked cross-country back to Beechy Bottom "Road" (waypoints 2 and 3) (looking at the map above, we started in the lower left section of the map. Our outbound leg is the leftward track on the map.)
Up and up we went. We passed several unmarked trails which appeared on the map, and crossed a couple streams:
For most of the way, we were walking over prints made by other snowshoers. It took us about 2 hours to cover the 2.1 miles to the end of the "Red Cross" trail, which got us to Timp Pass. The last 1/3 of a mile was really steep:
Along the way we passed some nice ice formations:
At last, we made it to Timp Pass:
By now it was 11:45, and Rob really needed to get off the mountain, so we turned on the FRS radios, and Rob started down while Jason and I attempted to summit the Timp. Doesn't look like much in this picture, but it was sizeable. We decided to go counter-clockwise (see map) by taking the Ramapo Dunderberg trail to the Timp-Torne trail to Timp Pass "Road" and back to the Red Cross trail at the Timp Pass. While hiking on the R-D trail, we were right under the timp. The trail had not been used since last week's snowstorm, so we had to rely on the blazes to stay on course.
The ascent of the Timp was extremely steep - Topo USA reports a grade of 40% in places. We were worried that the descent would be as steep. Along the way we passed more ice formations:
At last we reached the top. Looking south, we could see the Hudson river. On a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be seen:
Here's Jason at the summit:
As we began our descent, the Bear Mountain bridge was visible to the north:
More ice along the descent:
As the completed our descent of the Timp, Rob radioed us from down the trail that he had gone as far as he could without a map. It was 1pm, an hour past when Rob wanted to be off the mountain. I asked Jason to turn on his radio, and ran down the mountain (the third section on the profile above) until I caught up with Rob. We walked out to the trailhead, and Rob went down to his car while I went back to meet up with Jason. We ran in to each other about 2/10 of a mile from the trailhead. It was around 2pm when we got to our cars.
The trip was a success, I think, except for the whole "split up the party just asking for a mountaineering disaster" thing. The crampons on my Redfeather snowshoes each lost one tooth on this, their first real hike. You get what you pay for, I guess. I think I'll buy a pair of Tubbs - Jason and Rob rented them from EMS, and they held up just fine.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Like a bird feeding it's young....
I've coughed up an adventure page for you. Not exactly fresh, but it still has a certain....
....flavor?
Not the best metaphor, I guess. Oh well, enjoy it anyway.
....flavor?
Not the best metaphor, I guess. Oh well, enjoy it anyway.
A new sport for Ben
After the Sunday snowshoeing adventure, I bought a pair of real snowshoes. And my boots don't fit (turns out that, as you get older, your arch flattens out, making your feet effectively longer.)
At least, that's what the 17-year-old boot guy told me. "Not that you're old," he said.
Thanks kid, I'm only twenty-
Never mind.
Anyway, I bought some new boots. On sale for $105, they were. I went from a Vasque 9.5 narrow to a Montrail 10.5 regular. I will miss my old boots, though. We've been together since '92. Back when they were made in Italy.
Tonight I bought some new gloves for snowshoeing. Ski gloves are great for sitting on the lift all day long, but when you're hiking along, they're a little too warm. My long fingered cycling gloves are great, but they're fleece, so when they get wet, they're wet.
I'm hoping for a lengthy snowshoeing trip on Sunday.
As a hold-me-over, I went snowshoeing over lunch a couple days this week. The Joseph B Clarke Rail-Trail is less than a mile from my work, so on Tuesday I started at the southern terminus on Oak Tree Road and went North to the Village of Sparkill. It was about 2 miles round trip:
On Wednesday, I drove to Sparkill and continued North to Piermont. Again, about 2 miles round trip:
I used my old boots, since I was still breaking in the new boots, but since the old boots are too small, I can only wear a single layer of socks, so I got a "hot spot" on my right heel. Hopefully by Sunday it will be better.
At least, that's what the 17-year-old boot guy told me. "Not that you're old," he said.
Thanks kid, I'm only twenty-
Never mind.
Anyway, I bought some new boots. On sale for $105, they were. I went from a Vasque 9.5 narrow to a Montrail 10.5 regular. I will miss my old boots, though. We've been together since '92. Back when they were made in Italy.
Tonight I bought some new gloves for snowshoeing. Ski gloves are great for sitting on the lift all day long, but when you're hiking along, they're a little too warm. My long fingered cycling gloves are great, but they're fleece, so when they get wet, they're wet.
I'm hoping for a lengthy snowshoeing trip on Sunday.
As a hold-me-over, I went snowshoeing over lunch a couple days this week. The Joseph B Clarke Rail-Trail is less than a mile from my work, so on Tuesday I started at the southern terminus on Oak Tree Road and went North to the Village of Sparkill. It was about 2 miles round trip:
On Wednesday, I drove to Sparkill and continued North to Piermont. Again, about 2 miles round trip:
I used my old boots, since I was still breaking in the new boots, but since the old boots are too small, I can only wear a single layer of socks, so I got a "hot spot" on my right heel. Hopefully by Sunday it will be better.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Sunday Stuff
We had quite a storm this weekend - by the time it was over we had 8-10 inches of snow.
I decided to go snowshoeing, but there weren't any snoeshoes left to rent at EMS, so Trish picked up a $20 pair of plastic-tennis-racket snoeshoes for me. They fell off a half dozen or so times during my hike.
I started at Kakiat County Park. The route was about 1.7 miles and took about 90 minutes. Here's the map:
Along the way I stumbled onto this old car:
Here's the old mill (on the Old Mill Trail):
Right before returning to the trailhead, I took some pictures where the trail crosses the Mahwah River:
I decided to go snowshoeing, but there weren't any snoeshoes left to rent at EMS, so Trish picked up a $20 pair of plastic-tennis-racket snoeshoes for me. They fell off a half dozen or so times during my hike.
I started at Kakiat County Park. The route was about 1.7 miles and took about 90 minutes. Here's the map:
Along the way I stumbled onto this old car:
Here's the old mill (on the Old Mill Trail):
Right before returning to the trailhead, I took some pictures where the trail crosses the Mahwah River:
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Collateral damage?
From this article at the Jerusalem Post:
...The sources also spoke of an assessment in the IDF that Arab terrorist organizations are stepping up their efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs.
They noted that there is now evidence of increased debate as to whether Islamic law could allow for the deaths of Muslims as part of the price when tens of millions of heathens are killed — a debate whose very nature, the sources said, implies that thought is being given to the notion of using weapons of mass destruction.
Can the answer be "no"? Please?
...The sources also spoke of an assessment in the IDF that Arab terrorist organizations are stepping up their efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear bombs.
They noted that there is now evidence of increased debate as to whether Islamic law could allow for the deaths of Muslims as part of the price when tens of millions of heathens are killed — a debate whose very nature, the sources said, implies that thought is being given to the notion of using weapons of mass destruction.
Can the answer be "no"? Please?
Monday, January 03, 2005
The new pan and tilt camera
A few weeks ago I bought a DLink DCS-900W camera for keeping an eye on the kids while they were playing. A couple weeks ago, X10.com had a great deal on their Ninja Pan and Tilt camera mounts:
The Ninja pans 210 degrees left-to-right and 130 degrees top-to-bottom. It is controlled by the wireless remote shown in the picture above.
Of course, since the DCS-900W has a web server in it, and it can be viewed from anywhere, I thought it would be nice to be able to control the pan and tilt over the Internet as well. The X10 software solution requires keeping a PC running all the time, and they control how the video is shared on the web, and it only works with their video input widget. I wanted a more general solution, a way to control the Ninja via my Crestron control system.
My first thought was to simulate button presses on the remote using the relays on the control system. Looking at the schematic from this document, I saw that the buttons are arranged in rows and columns. As the document states:
The main keypad consists of a matrix of rubber buttons with a conductive rubber section on the bottom. Pressing a button causes contacts that have been printed on the circuit board to short. This combination of the conductive rubber buttons and the circuit board effectively form a pushbutton switch matrix.
The matrix is formed by 3 columns with pushbuttons connecting them to one of 6 rows. The columns are connected to the CPU at pins RA0, RA1, and RA2. The rows are connected to RB0, RB1, RB2, RB3, RB5 and RB6.
When the CPU is scanning the keypad matrix, it sets all but one of the aforementioned RB lines high (logic '1') in a bit chasing pattern. That is, first RB0 goes low, then RB0 goes high and then RB1 goes low, etc. This will sequentially force one of the 6 rows low while the others remain high. If a button is pressed on the row that is currently low, it will also force the corresponding column low as well. Since the CPU knows which row was being held low, it can easily determine which button was pressed by comparing to the column that is also low.
So, I found the contacts on the board that were for the rows and columns that contained the up, down, left, and right buttons. To round out the matrix, the up and down buttons actually have two contacts, but I only had to short one of them to get the camera to move, so I was able to get away with four wires - two for the two rows, and two for the two columns. I took me a while to realize this, though, so initially I soldered on 6 wires:
I got everything wired up, but the camera would only go two of the four directions. After double checking my wiring, I took the circuit to work, because I thought there was something fishy going on with the Pro2's relays. It turns out that there's a movistor across the output pins of the relays to protect them from high loads. Unfortunately, the movistors have enough of a capacitive effect that, when a relay on row 1 column 1 was closed, the signal would flow from the now active leg of the relay for row 1 column 2 (the row 1 wire) through the movistor to the other leg (the column 2 wire) and the remote would think that row 1, column 2's button was pressed.
Grrr.
Then I figured I would drive my own relays using the versiports on the Pro2 (see pages 29-32 of this manual for information on versiports). Speaking with the guys in hardware, it sounded like the versiports didn't provide enough current to trip the relays. One of the guys suggested I use a couple of 4501 multiplexing switch ICs to simulate button presses. I soldered up a circuit board with two 4501s, one for each column:
At first it wasn't working at all, until someone explained to me that with CMOS ICs, unused pins should be tied to ground (see page 10 of the datasheet). Once I did that, it worked well. The only thing I didn't realize is that the ICs only promise to act as switches when they are properly powered. Since I am powering my circuit using one of the versiports (kept always on), when I unplug my contraption from the control system, my board loses power and current is allowed to flow from a column to a row through the now un-powered circuit, and the camera begins to move. I could have solved this by powering the remote from the same source as the remote.
Once I realized that was the problem, I put my circuitry into an enclosure. The board I bought for my circuit was cut to be the width of one of the widthwise circuit board slots in the case:
I added a switch to turn off power to the remote so it wouldn't cause the camera to move when the circuit was unplugged from the control system. I used an RJ45 jack on the enclosure since I have several very long ethernet cables (the remote only have a range of 30 feet or so, so if I want to put the camera far away from the control system I've got to get my remote close enough for the Ninja to pick up the RF signals from the remote.
In a word, it works very well! I made a web page that shows both the Camera ActiveX control for showing the video, and the Crestron ActiveX control for interfacing with the control system.
The Ninja pans 210 degrees left-to-right and 130 degrees top-to-bottom. It is controlled by the wireless remote shown in the picture above.
Of course, since the DCS-900W has a web server in it, and it can be viewed from anywhere, I thought it would be nice to be able to control the pan and tilt over the Internet as well. The X10 software solution requires keeping a PC running all the time, and they control how the video is shared on the web, and it only works with their video input widget. I wanted a more general solution, a way to control the Ninja via my Crestron control system.
My first thought was to simulate button presses on the remote using the relays on the control system. Looking at the schematic from this document, I saw that the buttons are arranged in rows and columns. As the document states:
The main keypad consists of a matrix of rubber buttons with a conductive rubber section on the bottom. Pressing a button causes contacts that have been printed on the circuit board to short. This combination of the conductive rubber buttons and the circuit board effectively form a pushbutton switch matrix.
The matrix is formed by 3 columns with pushbuttons connecting them to one of 6 rows. The columns are connected to the CPU at pins RA0, RA1, and RA2. The rows are connected to RB0, RB1, RB2, RB3, RB5 and RB6.
When the CPU is scanning the keypad matrix, it sets all but one of the aforementioned RB lines high (logic '1') in a bit chasing pattern. That is, first RB0 goes low, then RB0 goes high and then RB1 goes low, etc. This will sequentially force one of the 6 rows low while the others remain high. If a button is pressed on the row that is currently low, it will also force the corresponding column low as well. Since the CPU knows which row was being held low, it can easily determine which button was pressed by comparing to the column that is also low.
So, I found the contacts on the board that were for the rows and columns that contained the up, down, left, and right buttons. To round out the matrix, the up and down buttons actually have two contacts, but I only had to short one of them to get the camera to move, so I was able to get away with four wires - two for the two rows, and two for the two columns. I took me a while to realize this, though, so initially I soldered on 6 wires:
I got everything wired up, but the camera would only go two of the four directions. After double checking my wiring, I took the circuit to work, because I thought there was something fishy going on with the Pro2's relays. It turns out that there's a movistor across the output pins of the relays to protect them from high loads. Unfortunately, the movistors have enough of a capacitive effect that, when a relay on row 1 column 1 was closed, the signal would flow from the now active leg of the relay for row 1 column 2 (the row 1 wire) through the movistor to the other leg (the column 2 wire) and the remote would think that row 1, column 2's button was pressed.
Grrr.
Then I figured I would drive my own relays using the versiports on the Pro2 (see pages 29-32 of this manual for information on versiports). Speaking with the guys in hardware, it sounded like the versiports didn't provide enough current to trip the relays. One of the guys suggested I use a couple of 4501 multiplexing switch ICs to simulate button presses. I soldered up a circuit board with two 4501s, one for each column:
At first it wasn't working at all, until someone explained to me that with CMOS ICs, unused pins should be tied to ground (see page 10 of the datasheet). Once I did that, it worked well. The only thing I didn't realize is that the ICs only promise to act as switches when they are properly powered. Since I am powering my circuit using one of the versiports (kept always on), when I unplug my contraption from the control system, my board loses power and current is allowed to flow from a column to a row through the now un-powered circuit, and the camera begins to move. I could have solved this by powering the remote from the same source as the remote.
Once I realized that was the problem, I put my circuitry into an enclosure. The board I bought for my circuit was cut to be the width of one of the widthwise circuit board slots in the case:
I added a switch to turn off power to the remote so it wouldn't cause the camera to move when the circuit was unplugged from the control system. I used an RJ45 jack on the enclosure since I have several very long ethernet cables (the remote only have a range of 30 feet or so, so if I want to put the camera far away from the control system I've got to get my remote close enough for the Ninja to pick up the RF signals from the remote.
In a word, it works very well! I made a web page that shows both the Camera ActiveX control for showing the video, and the Crestron ActiveX control for interfacing with the control system.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Sunday Stuff
Lots of little stuff this weekend (I was off on Friday).
Last week, our friends the Bahns, from Minneapolis, stayed with us for Shabbos. The Bahns had us over almost every Shabbos when we lived in St. Louis Park during my second year of Graduate School:
When they walked up our driveway, they saw a kid (dare I say "punk"?) checking all the mailboxes, probably for holiday cards (he obviously wasn't very bright - he's checking mailboxes in the world's largest suburban Jewish community (I guess a school budget of $18000+ per student per year just isn't enough)).
Anyway.
So I decided to install a locking mailbox. Trish wanted to be able to get the mail when she goes down the driveway without having to get out of the van, but the ground is frozen, so I couldn't move the mailbox post. Only one solution therefore remained:
Trish seemed less than thrilled. Sure, it's ugly, but it's so cool! :)
The water flow in our fish tank had slowed to a trickle, so I rebuilt the pump system of my Eclipse 3 Hood. The plants growing around the intake had grown roots into the intake and began trapping particles. When I took it apart, the intake was completely full of mud. Wow!
Last week, our friends the Bahns, from Minneapolis, stayed with us for Shabbos. The Bahns had us over almost every Shabbos when we lived in St. Louis Park during my second year of Graduate School:
When they walked up our driveway, they saw a kid (dare I say "punk"?) checking all the mailboxes, probably for holiday cards (he obviously wasn't very bright - he's checking mailboxes in the world's largest suburban Jewish community (I guess a school budget of $18000+ per student per year just isn't enough)).
Anyway.
So I decided to install a locking mailbox. Trish wanted to be able to get the mail when she goes down the driveway without having to get out of the van, but the ground is frozen, so I couldn't move the mailbox post. Only one solution therefore remained:
Trish seemed less than thrilled. Sure, it's ugly, but it's so cool! :)
The water flow in our fish tank had slowed to a trickle, so I rebuilt the pump system of my Eclipse 3 Hood. The plants growing around the intake had grown roots into the intake and began trapping particles. When I took it apart, the intake was completely full of mud. Wow!
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Chanuka at the White House
President Bush presides over the lighting of the White House menorah with the children of Army Chaplain Shmuel Felzenberg, now on duty in Iraq. Watch Chanuka at the White House.
Press Release.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Weekend stuff
This past weekend (I had Friday off) I installed one of those dual-head floodlights on the back of our garage. Last week, as we were leaving to go out to dinner, Tricia spotted some people in our backyard, but it was too dark to make anything out, so we decided to add some lighting.
I got to use the snowblower for the first time this year. We only got about an inch of snow, but if I didn't clean it up it would have turned icy. This is the first time I've used the snowblower on the new driveway; It's much easier!
I got to use the snowblower for the first time this year. We only got about an inch of snow, but if I didn't clean it up it would have turned icy. This is the first time I've used the snowblower on the new driveway; It's much easier!
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Sunday Stuff
I went for the now-usual bike ride today, staying on Call Hallow road instead of going up onto Cheesecote mountain:
I did get home until well after dark, since I took along my camera - a photography website I frequent has "weekly assignments", and this week is "solitude". Here's my submission:
Here are some other pictures I took:
I did get home until well after dark, since I took along my camera - a photography website I frequent has "weekly assignments", and this week is "solitude". Here's my submission:
Here are some other pictures I took:
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Thursday, December 02, 2004
More PhotoImpact Fun
Here's a picture I took back in July on our Iona Island hike. Press F11 to put IE in full screen mode.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Fun with PhotoImpact
Inspired by spending too much time at FredMiranda.com, I decided to do a little PhotoImpact work on one of my Kutchers photos:
(Press F11 to toggle Internet Explorer into full screen mode if the image doesn't fit on the screen)
(Press F11 to toggle Internet Explorer into full screen mode if the image doesn't fit on the screen)
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Sunday Stuff
I had a 4 day weekend, so I go quite a bit done around the house, including restoring electricity to the Garage. We had friends over for our annual Thanksgiving-on-Shabbos meal, which was very nice.
Today we had some pretty nasty weather, but last Sunday was nice and I took another ride to Stony Point. I took a slightly different route in order to avoid the steep downhill on Thiels-Mount Ivy Road. On the way back, I took Halley Drive onto Cheesecote Mountain (It's the hump on the profile after Call Hollow Road):
Even though my cyclecomputer, which was in the pocket of my biking pants, went through the wash twice, it's still working, although the display is pretty dim (hopefully it's just the battery). 23.4 miles, 1:56 ride time, 13.28 MPH average, 38.6 MPH max.
Today we had some pretty nasty weather, but last Sunday was nice and I took another ride to Stony Point. I took a slightly different route in order to avoid the steep downhill on Thiels-Mount Ivy Road. On the way back, I took Halley Drive onto Cheesecote Mountain (It's the hump on the profile after Call Hollow Road):
Even though my cyclecomputer, which was in the pocket of my biking pants, went through the wash twice, it's still working, although the display is pretty dim (hopefully it's just the battery). 23.4 miles, 1:56 ride time, 13.28 MPH average, 38.6 MPH max.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Sunday (11/7/04) stuff
Two Sundays ago I went on an afternoon ride to the Stony Point Battlefield. Weather was just on the chilly side of perfect. The ride took a bit longer than planned, and I ended up riding the last 5 miles in the dark with only front and rear LED strobes.
The descent on Thiells Mount Ivy Road was pretty amazing - I hit 43.8 MPH. Sadly, when I got to Stony Point Battlefield, it was closed for the season. Riding through the Stony Point Marina at sunset was really nice - the sun's rays were shining through the rushes as I rode past the wetlands. I had to detour on the way back, as the bridge over Cedar Pond Brook on Old 210 was gone, so I rode south and took Reservoir Road across.
TopoUSA shows 26.7 miles, but the cycle computer shows 24.75. Hmm.... The ride took 2:17, of which I was moving for 1 hour, 52 minutes. 13.22 MPH average according to the cycle computer, but if I use TopoUSA's distance I get 14.22 MPH.
The descent on Thiells Mount Ivy Road was pretty amazing - I hit 43.8 MPH. Sadly, when I got to Stony Point Battlefield, it was closed for the season. Riding through the Stony Point Marina at sunset was really nice - the sun's rays were shining through the rushes as I rode past the wetlands. I had to detour on the way back, as the bridge over Cedar Pond Brook on Old 210 was gone, so I rode south and took Reservoir Road across.
TopoUSA shows 26.7 miles, but the cycle computer shows 24.75. Hmm.... The ride took 2:17, of which I was moving for 1 hour, 52 minutes. 13.22 MPH average according to the cycle computer, but if I use TopoUSA's distance I get 14.22 MPH.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Some things just don't mix
What happens when you put together a Redneck, some firearms, and a broadband Internet connection?
A website that lets you fire a gun mounted on a motorized platform at passing animals from the comfort of your home, of course.
The idea came last year while viewing another Web site on which cameras posted in the wild are used to snap photos of animals.
"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head," he said.
Here's the rest of the story.
A website that lets you fire a gun mounted on a motorized platform at passing animals from the comfort of your home, of course.
The idea came last year while viewing another Web site on which cameras posted in the wild are used to snap photos of animals.
"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head," he said.
Here's the rest of the story.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
So sick....
Trish and Mechel got very sick over the weekend, with both vomiting and diarrhea. I seemed to have picked it up as well. It started around 2pm, and got worse and worse. Right now I'm in bed trying not to move too much. I'm typing this on a Windows CE tablet using remote desktop to control my PC (and in this case typing into Bloggar). If only the on screen keyboard were 25% bigger....
Since remote desktop routes the audio to the remote desktop client, I'm also listening to music via RealPlayer.
Neat!
Since remote desktop routes the audio to the remote desktop client, I'm also listening to music via RealPlayer.
Neat!
Saturday, November 06, 2004
So I was wondering....
...Looking at the various states on CNN.com, and how even states like Oregon that went to Kerry only had a few "blue" counties, I wondered what the "red/blue" map would look like if it were done by county, not by state.
Well look what I found:
Even my county of Rockland, NY, less than 20 miles from Manhattan, went to Bush.
Update: Counties won by President Bush currently comprise 3.28 million square miles of land. Kerry's counties constitute 741,000 square miles. In other words, measuring by land, President Bush carried 82% of the country, while John Kerry took 18%. (Hat Tip: Evan Maloney)
Well look what I found:
Even my county of Rockland, NY, less than 20 miles from Manhattan, went to Bush.
Update: Counties won by President Bush currently comprise 3.28 million square miles of land. Kerry's counties constitute 741,000 square miles. In other words, measuring by land, President Bush carried 82% of the country, while John Kerry took 18%. (Hat Tip: Evan Maloney)
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Heavenly Ovens
Here's a great article from Wired called The Geek Guide to Kosher Machines - Meet the hacker who makes your home appliances right with God
Monday, November 01, 2004
Sunday Stuff
In the morning I used the lawn mower to suck up all the leaves that had fallen on our lawn. In the afternoon we all went to Rockland Lake. Trish used her rollerblades, I used my roller skates, and the kids rode in the Burley (we have the Walk 'n' Roller kit). After circling the lake, we let Mechel use his Fisher Price roller skates. I left the camera in the van, so you'll have to settle for pictures at New Yorkled.
Retirement will be a busy time
...if I do even half the projects I'd like to. This has got to be close to the top of the list. Even higher that the Garden Monorail.
I wonder if the cheesy CHiPs-esqe music is included...
I wonder if the cheesy CHiPs-esqe music is included...
Sunday, October 31, 2004
The Leaves are Falling...
Autumn seems to last forever here, but I wanted to get some pictures before it disappeared:
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A dew-covered morning
This morning I took some pictures of the cattail-like tips of some grasses growing in our yard:
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Everything but the moat
Last Sunday, I built this fort that we got from a famliy through Freecycle. It took a few hours to assemble, but at least we put it together during the day (when I took it apart at the "donor family"'s house, it was at night after work). We added some additional railings, a steering wheel, and hooks for an infant swing.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Campaign 2004: High Stakes
A great article from Paul Johnson. Here are some highlights:
The great issue in the 2004 election—it seems to me as an Englishman—is, How seriously does the United States take its role as a world leader, and how far will it make sacrifices, and risk unpopularity, to discharge this duty with success and honor? In short, this is an election of the greatest significance, for Americans and all the rest of us. It will redefine what kind of a country the United States is, and how far the rest of the world can rely upon her to preserve the general safety and protect our civilization.
I don’t recall any occasion, certainly not since the age of FDR, when so much partisan election material has been produced by intellectuals of the Left, not only in the United States but in Europe, especially in Britain, France, and Germany. These intellectuals—many of them with long and lugubrious records of supporting lost left-wing causes, from the Soviet empire to Castro’s aggressive adventures in Africa, and who have in their time backed Mengistu in Ethiopia, Qaddafi in Libya, Pol Pot in Cambodia, and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua—seem to have a personal hatred of Bush that defies rational analysis. Anti-Americanism has seldom been stronger in Continental Europe, and Bush seems to personify in his simple, uncomplicated self all the things these people most hate about America—precisely because he is so American. Anti-Americanism, like anti-Semitism, is not, of course, a rational reflex. It is, rather, a mental disease, and the Continentals are currently suffering from a virulent spasm of the infection, as always happens when America exerts strong and unbending leadership.
All the elements of anarchy and unrest in the Middle East and Muslim Asia and Africa are clamoring and praying for a Kerry victory. The mullahs and the imams, the gunmen and their arms suppliers and paymasters, all those who stand to profit—politically, financially, and emotionally—from the total breakdown of order, the eclipse of democracy, and the defeat of the rule of law, want to see Bush replaced. His defeat on November 2 will be greeted, in Arab capitals, by shouts of triumph from fundamentalist mobs of exactly the kind that greeted the news that the Twin Towers had collapsed and their occupants been exterminated.
I cannot recall any election when the enemies of America all over the world have been so unanimous in hoping for the victory of one candidate. That is the overwhelming reason that John Kerry must be defeated, heavily and comprehensively.
The great issue in the 2004 election—it seems to me as an Englishman—is, How seriously does the United States take its role as a world leader, and how far will it make sacrifices, and risk unpopularity, to discharge this duty with success and honor? In short, this is an election of the greatest significance, for Americans and all the rest of us. It will redefine what kind of a country the United States is, and how far the rest of the world can rely upon her to preserve the general safety and protect our civilization.
I don’t recall any occasion, certainly not since the age of FDR, when so much partisan election material has been produced by intellectuals of the Left, not only in the United States but in Europe, especially in Britain, France, and Germany. These intellectuals—many of them with long and lugubrious records of supporting lost left-wing causes, from the Soviet empire to Castro’s aggressive adventures in Africa, and who have in their time backed Mengistu in Ethiopia, Qaddafi in Libya, Pol Pot in Cambodia, and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua—seem to have a personal hatred of Bush that defies rational analysis. Anti-Americanism has seldom been stronger in Continental Europe, and Bush seems to personify in his simple, uncomplicated self all the things these people most hate about America—precisely because he is so American. Anti-Americanism, like anti-Semitism, is not, of course, a rational reflex. It is, rather, a mental disease, and the Continentals are currently suffering from a virulent spasm of the infection, as always happens when America exerts strong and unbending leadership.
All the elements of anarchy and unrest in the Middle East and Muslim Asia and Africa are clamoring and praying for a Kerry victory. The mullahs and the imams, the gunmen and their arms suppliers and paymasters, all those who stand to profit—politically, financially, and emotionally—from the total breakdown of order, the eclipse of democracy, and the defeat of the rule of law, want to see Bush replaced. His defeat on November 2 will be greeted, in Arab capitals, by shouts of triumph from fundamentalist mobs of exactly the kind that greeted the news that the Twin Towers had collapsed and their occupants been exterminated.
I cannot recall any election when the enemies of America all over the world have been so unanimous in hoping for the victory of one candidate. That is the overwhelming reason that John Kerry must be defeated, heavily and comprehensively.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Monday, October 25, 2004
Friday, October 22, 2004
For the love of the French
Charles Krauthammer explains how Arafat-endorsed John Kerry plans to woo the French and the rest of "Old Europe" into liking us again.
Its simple, really.
Just turn our backs on Israel.
Think about it: What do the Europeans and the Arab states endlessly rail about in the Middle East? What (outside Iraq) is the area of most friction with U.S. policy? What single issue most isolates America from the overwhelming majority of countries at the United Nations?
The answer is obvious: Israel.
In what currency, therefore, would we pay the rest of the world in exchange for their support in places like Iraq? The answer is obvious: giving in to them on Israel.
Read the article.
Perhaps that's why America’s largest Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Press, has endorsed George Bush for President. Here are some highlights:
The choice Americans must make on November 2 should be an easy one. One can prattle about the significance of this or that difference between President Bush and Senator Kerry on the environment, Social Security, jobs, taxes and a whole slew of other domestic issues. But that avenue ineluctably ends up as a clash of partisan talking points about inherently insoluble problems. When it comes, however, to the war on terror — the overarching issue of our time — the choice of Mr. Bush over Mr. Kerry is a clear one from everything available in the public record. And for those with a special interest in Israel, the choice is even clearer.
Senator Kerry has spoken of former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker — both blatantly anti-Israel — as his choice for emissaries to the Middle East. He has also retained as advisers many of Bill Clinton’s discredited Oslo architects and others who have urged moral equivalence between the murder of Israeli women and children and Israel’s reaction to terror.
To our mind, based on their own statements, the imperative of responding to the worldwide terrorist threat, and the particular targeting of Israel, the choice this year is George W. Bush over John F. Kerry.
And this is not even to address Mr. Kerry’s shameful creating, out of whole cloth, politically motivated scares over a reinstatement of the military draft and a reduction in Social Security benefits. Mr. Kerry’s assertions are totally without foundation, and they put his credibility further into question. He should be ashamed of himself.
All things considered, we all will be better off with George W. Bush as president for the next four years.
Personally, I think Protest Warrior has the right idea.
Update: "He [Kerry] would reach out to the moderate Arab states. He'd put more pressure on Israel." -Richard Holbrooke, foreign policy spokesman for the Kerry Campaign.
Read the article.
Its simple, really.
Just turn our backs on Israel.
Think about it: What do the Europeans and the Arab states endlessly rail about in the Middle East? What (outside Iraq) is the area of most friction with U.S. policy? What single issue most isolates America from the overwhelming majority of countries at the United Nations?
The answer is obvious: Israel.
In what currency, therefore, would we pay the rest of the world in exchange for their support in places like Iraq? The answer is obvious: giving in to them on Israel.
Read the article.
Perhaps that's why America’s largest Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Press, has endorsed George Bush for President. Here are some highlights:
The choice Americans must make on November 2 should be an easy one. One can prattle about the significance of this or that difference between President Bush and Senator Kerry on the environment, Social Security, jobs, taxes and a whole slew of other domestic issues. But that avenue ineluctably ends up as a clash of partisan talking points about inherently insoluble problems. When it comes, however, to the war on terror — the overarching issue of our time — the choice of Mr. Bush over Mr. Kerry is a clear one from everything available in the public record. And for those with a special interest in Israel, the choice is even clearer.
Senator Kerry has spoken of former president Jimmy Carter and former secretary of state James Baker — both blatantly anti-Israel — as his choice for emissaries to the Middle East. He has also retained as advisers many of Bill Clinton’s discredited Oslo architects and others who have urged moral equivalence between the murder of Israeli women and children and Israel’s reaction to terror.
To our mind, based on their own statements, the imperative of responding to the worldwide terrorist threat, and the particular targeting of Israel, the choice this year is George W. Bush over John F. Kerry.
And this is not even to address Mr. Kerry’s shameful creating, out of whole cloth, politically motivated scares over a reinstatement of the military draft and a reduction in Social Security benefits. Mr. Kerry’s assertions are totally without foundation, and they put his credibility further into question. He should be ashamed of himself.
All things considered, we all will be better off with George W. Bush as president for the next four years.
Personally, I think Protest Warrior has the right idea.
Update: "He [Kerry] would reach out to the moderate Arab states. He'd put more pressure on Israel." -Richard Holbrooke, foreign policy spokesman for the Kerry Campaign.
Read the article.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Monday, October 18, 2004
Need I say more?
Are American Jews still caught up in their vote-for-democrats-no-matter-what reflex?
Yasser Arafat certainly hopes so. After all, Kerry is much more pro-Palestinian than Bush. Yasser Arafat endorses Kerry.
Yasser Arafat certainly hopes so. After all, Kerry is much more pro-Palestinian than Bush. Yasser Arafat endorses Kerry.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Back from Kutshers
We spent Chol Hamoed Sukkos up at Kutshers. You can read all about our trip on the Journeys and Adventures page.
Friday, September 24, 2004
Monday, September 20, 2004
Nine Innings from Ground Zero
A clip from the recently aired HBO documentary Nine Innings from Ground Zero that tells the story of the 2001 World Series in New York. Watch.
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Sunday Stuff
Last Sunday I cleaned up the garage, and put everything in it's place. Trish pulled a 4x8 piece of pegboard out of one of the sheds, and I mounted it in the garage and hung all my tools on it. We set up our new drill press and compound miter saw.
Today I finished putting everything away. I also installed 4 shop lights. Now I'm running 8 40-watt T12 bulbs. It's really nice.
Today I finished putting everything away. I also installed 4 shop lights. Now I'm running 8 40-watt T12 bulbs. It's really nice.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Voting Republican and eating on Yom Kippur
I used to think that voting Republican was as bad as eating on Yom Kippur. But at least with eating on Yom Kippur, it would be between me and God, but voting Republican would harm all of society.
Voting Democrat has always been something a Jew just does. But not anymore.
Read the Article.
Voting Democrat has always been something a Jew just does. But not anymore.
Read the Article.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Iraq and Ms. Genovese
This from David Gelernter:
The Iraq war started as a fight to knock out a regime that invaded its neighbors, murdered its domestic enemies with poison gas, subsidized terrorism, and flouted the international community. Obviously such a regime was dangerous to American interests. But as the war continued and we confronted Saddam's gruesome tyranny face to face, the moral issue grew more important, as emancipation did in the Civil War. For years the Iraqi people had been screaming, in effect: "Oh, my God. Please help me! Please help me! I'm dying!" How could America have answered, "We don't want to get involved"? We are the biggest kid on the playground. If we won't help, who will?
I have just quoted the death-cries of Kitty Genovese, who died on the streets of New York 40 years ago. And I have quoted the response of an onlooker who didn't feel like helping. Her case still resonates in America's conscience, and tells us more than we want to know about the president's enemies.
The New York Times ran the story in March 1964.
For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.
Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.
The left wanted America to watch Saddam stab Iraq to death and do nothing. That is the left's concept of moral responsibility in the post-Cold War world.
Miss Genovese screamed: "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!"
The Iraqi people were dying. The left had no pity. The Bush-haters were opposed to American "arrogance." The New York Times shrugged.
It was 3:50 by the time the police received their first call, from a man who was a neighbor of Miss Genovese. In two minutes they were at the scene. . . .
The man explained that he had called the police after much deliberation. He had phoned a friend in Nassau County for advice. . . .
"I didn't want to get involved," he sheepishly told the police.
Let's not get involved, said the Bush-haters. It's none of our business. Let the U.N. do it.
One couple, now willing to talk about that night, said they heard the first screams. The husband looked thoughtfully at the bookstore where the killer first grabbed Miss Genovese.
"We went to the window to see what was happening," he said, "but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street." The wife, still apprehensive, added: "I put out the light and we were able to see better."
Asked why they hadn't called the police, she shrugged and replied, "I don't know."
We have paid a steep price in Iraq, a thousand dead; but if you choose duty, you must choose to pay. Speaking for America, the president has said: We choose duty. What do we get in return? Nothing. Except the privilege of looking at ourselves in the mirror, and facing history and our children.
Read the Article.
*****
The Iraq war started as a fight to knock out a regime that invaded its neighbors, murdered its domestic enemies with poison gas, subsidized terrorism, and flouted the international community. Obviously such a regime was dangerous to American interests. But as the war continued and we confronted Saddam's gruesome tyranny face to face, the moral issue grew more important, as emancipation did in the Civil War. For years the Iraqi people had been screaming, in effect: "Oh, my God. Please help me! Please help me! I'm dying!" How could America have answered, "We don't want to get involved"? We are the biggest kid on the playground. If we won't help, who will?
I have just quoted the death-cries of Kitty Genovese, who died on the streets of New York 40 years ago. And I have quoted the response of an onlooker who didn't feel like helping. Her case still resonates in America's conscience, and tells us more than we want to know about the president's enemies.
The New York Times ran the story in March 1964.
For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.
Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.
The left wanted America to watch Saddam stab Iraq to death and do nothing. That is the left's concept of moral responsibility in the post-Cold War world.
Miss Genovese screamed: "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!"
The Iraqi people were dying. The left had no pity. The Bush-haters were opposed to American "arrogance." The New York Times shrugged.
It was 3:50 by the time the police received their first call, from a man who was a neighbor of Miss Genovese. In two minutes they were at the scene. . . .
The man explained that he had called the police after much deliberation. He had phoned a friend in Nassau County for advice. . . .
"I didn't want to get involved," he sheepishly told the police.
Let's not get involved, said the Bush-haters. It's none of our business. Let the U.N. do it.
One couple, now willing to talk about that night, said they heard the first screams. The husband looked thoughtfully at the bookstore where the killer first grabbed Miss Genovese.
"We went to the window to see what was happening," he said, "but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street." The wife, still apprehensive, added: "I put out the light and we were able to see better."
Asked why they hadn't called the police, she shrugged and replied, "I don't know."
We have paid a steep price in Iraq, a thousand dead; but if you choose duty, you must choose to pay. Speaking for America, the president has said: We choose duty. What do we get in return? Nothing. Except the privilege of looking at ourselves in the mirror, and facing history and our children.
*****
Read the Article.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Today's Ride
The ride in today was nice. Great weather, but no so great roads - repaving was in process, so the roads had the combed grooves in them, which slowed me down. 17.8MPH average in the end.
For the ride home, Doug showed me a route to Nyack. There were several major hills. By the time I got home, I was pretty sore. Looking at the route, its not surprising: even though the ride home was only 8.9 miles longer, the number of vertical climbing feet was more than twice that of the usual ride (2200 feet vs. 1100 feet), as much climbing as the 40 mile ride I did a few weeks ago.
Here's today's map and terrain:
In the end, 12.47 MPH Average, 39.8 MPH Max, 23.6 Miles.
For the ride home, Doug showed me a route to Nyack. There were several major hills. By the time I got home, I was pretty sore. Looking at the route, its not surprising: even though the ride home was only 8.9 miles longer, the number of vertical climbing feet was more than twice that of the usual ride (2200 feet vs. 1100 feet), as much climbing as the 40 mile ride I did a few weeks ago.
Here's today's map and terrain:
In the end, 12.47 MPH Average, 39.8 MPH Max, 23.6 Miles.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
The traveling Zalesman
In March, I mentioned Senator Zell Miller's (D-Georgia) comments at the Democrats for Bush campaign. He had quite a bit to say at the Republican National Convention today.
Strange, I didn't see any Republican Senators speaking at the Democratic National Convention.....
Update: Here's the video. Wow.
Strange, I didn't see any Republican Senators speaking at the Democratic National Convention.....
Update: Here's the video. Wow.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Spider!
Here's a picture of an Argiope near our front door. Mechel came running in this morning from a flower picking expediation and said that there was a "huge igantic arantula" outside. Sure enough!
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Sunday Stuff
Portland Refuge Baruch stayed with us from Thursday through today on his way from Jerusalem to Las Vegas. Baruch has what is quite possibly the world's longest commute to work.
Today I cleared Gutters, etc. I took Mechel on a ride in the late afternoon. The bike weighs about 100 pounds (40lb Linear + 40lb Mechel + 20lb Trailer) when he's in tow, so it makes for great hill climbing training. We rode around the pond at Willow Tree Park (a.k.a. the "Goose Park") and took a ride on the swings at Eugene Levy Park (a.k.a. the "Digger Park"). 13.23 Miles, 12.07MPH Average. Here's the map and cross-section:
Today I cleared Gutters, etc. I took Mechel on a ride in the late afternoon. The bike weighs about 100 pounds (40lb Linear + 40lb Mechel + 20lb Trailer) when he's in tow, so it makes for great hill climbing training. We rode around the pond at Willow Tree Park (a.k.a. the "Goose Park") and took a ride on the swings at Eugene Levy Park (a.k.a. the "Digger Park"). 13.23 Miles, 12.07MPH Average. Here's the map and cross-section:
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Rockland Bike Club Ride
Today I drove over to Rockland lake for what I thought would be a 55 mile ride north to Cold Spring and back. Due to weather, the ride leader decided to head south instead. We left the parking lot at around 11am. I was riding the Linear Recumbent.
Had I known that two people on the ride were training for the Ironman, I might have had some insight into what was in store for me.
Things started going wrong almost immediately. I remounted my fairing last week to give it a more "aero" shape, but I guess zip ties aren't quite good enough, so when I got above 30 miles per hour the fairing would slip down and my feel would hit it. In the process of trying to fix it I broke the zip ties about 3 miles into the ride, so I rolled up the fairing, taped it to my bike bag and dropped it off at the Piermont bike shop (I'll pick it up tomorrow).
At mile 10 or so my chain broke while climbing the 10%+ grade hill on 9W. It took a couple minutes to get the chain fixed, but by then the 5 people on the ride were long gone. A fellow on a pretty fancy bike passed me about 12 miles into the ride, and I sped up and manage to draft him (we were going about 23 miles an hour) until I caught up with the group.
We rolled into Tenafly and stopped at the bike shop so the other guys on the ride to say hello to the people working there. We then stopped at a bagel store where the guys got stuff to eat and complained about "all those Orthodox Jews" in Spring Valley.
Guess they didn't notice the peyos. Heh heh.
Folks peeled off one by one until it was just the ride leader and I as we made our way back through Piermont. We rode on a dirt path along the river in Nyack Beach State Park. The map below doesn't show it because it won't do routing off the roads. Anyway, riding up this path I could feel my quads seizing up. I got off to walk the bike up the hill and found that I couldn't walk all that well. Most of my leg muscles were starting to spasm. I had to walk for a while before they recovered. This happened again as we rode into Rockland Lake park. I had to hop off the bike and stumble about for a couple minutes. Three charlie horses at once is three too many.
All in all it was about 40 miles. I had a really hard time keeping up the hills, since my bike weighs 10 pounds more than theirs did (mine was the only bike on the ride that cost less than $1500, I think) (or maybe it's that they're in much better shape), but on flats I was able to keep up just fine. Here's the map (East is up) and terrain cross section:
There should be a ride report posted soon.
Update: here's the ride report.
Had I known that two people on the ride were training for the Ironman, I might have had some insight into what was in store for me.
Things started going wrong almost immediately. I remounted my fairing last week to give it a more "aero" shape, but I guess zip ties aren't quite good enough, so when I got above 30 miles per hour the fairing would slip down and my feel would hit it. In the process of trying to fix it I broke the zip ties about 3 miles into the ride, so I rolled up the fairing, taped it to my bike bag and dropped it off at the Piermont bike shop (I'll pick it up tomorrow).
At mile 10 or so my chain broke while climbing the 10%+ grade hill on 9W. It took a couple minutes to get the chain fixed, but by then the 5 people on the ride were long gone. A fellow on a pretty fancy bike passed me about 12 miles into the ride, and I sped up and manage to draft him (we were going about 23 miles an hour) until I caught up with the group.
We rolled into Tenafly and stopped at the bike shop so the other guys on the ride to say hello to the people working there. We then stopped at a bagel store where the guys got stuff to eat and complained about "all those Orthodox Jews" in Spring Valley.
Guess they didn't notice the peyos. Heh heh.
Folks peeled off one by one until it was just the ride leader and I as we made our way back through Piermont. We rode on a dirt path along the river in Nyack Beach State Park. The map below doesn't show it because it won't do routing off the roads. Anyway, riding up this path I could feel my quads seizing up. I got off to walk the bike up the hill and found that I couldn't walk all that well. Most of my leg muscles were starting to spasm. I had to walk for a while before they recovered. This happened again as we rode into Rockland Lake park. I had to hop off the bike and stumble about for a couple minutes. Three charlie horses at once is three too many.
All in all it was about 40 miles. I had a really hard time keeping up the hills, since my bike weighs 10 pounds more than theirs did (mine was the only bike on the ride that cost less than $1500, I think) (or maybe it's that they're in much better shape), but on flats I was able to keep up just fine. Here's the map (East is up) and terrain cross section:
There should be a ride report posted soon.
Update: here's the ride report.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Behold, the tailbox!
In an effort to get ever higher speeds out of my bike, I modified the position of the fairing last week. Tonight, I built a cardboard mockup of a tailbox for the Linear. Instead of leaving a low pressure area behind the bike as the flat seat back is pushed through the air, the tailbox allows the air to flow past the bike in a much smoother fashion. It typically adds 1-2 miles per hour to the average riding speed.
Here are some other folks who have done this: link | link
Ultimately, the cardboard prototype will be replaced with Coroplast, the corrugated plastic used in making lawn signs.
Here are some other folks who have done this: link | link
Ultimately, the cardboard prototype will be replaced with Coroplast, the corrugated plastic used in making lawn signs.
Friday, August 06, 2004
After work ride
Doug and I set out on Rolling Thunder after work for a little riding. We ended up riding down to the GW Bridge and back. Here's a map (East is up):
Here's the elevation profile. Big climbs from Sparkill on 9W and at the end of Hudson Terrace. Amazing descents from 9W onto Hudson Terrace and on CR505 down into Englewood:
The cyclecomputer was acting up, so we don't have a good reading (it kept saying 0MPH when we were rolling along). Based on how long we were out, I think our average was a bit over 15MPH. Our maximum speed (during the descent into Englewood) was over 45MPH!
Here's the elevation profile. Big climbs from Sparkill on 9W and at the end of Hudson Terrace. Amazing descents from 9W onto Hudson Terrace and on CR505 down into Englewood:
The cyclecomputer was acting up, so we don't have a good reading (it kept saying 0MPH when we were rolling along). Based on how long we were out, I think our average was a bit over 15MPH. Our maximum speed (during the descent into Englewood) was over 45MPH!
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Under the sea....
I did a fairly major rework of the aquarium last Thursday. I tried my hand at terracing in the back right corner, and moved all my Bacopa and Ludwigia over there. I added a Red Crypt and a Pygmy Chain Sword as foreground plants, and a piece of Sawhala wood in the center rear. What do you think? Click on the image below to see a larger version:
I used Picasa and Hello to generate the image and link to the larger image. Picasa is much nicer than the Casio photo loader we've been using up until now, and Hello makes publishing images a breeze. I then came back and cleaned up a bit with wBloggar. So many tools!
I used Picasa and Hello to generate the image and link to the larger image. Picasa is much nicer than the Casio photo loader we've been using up until now, and Hello makes publishing images a breeze. I then came back and cleaned up a bit with wBloggar. So many tools!
Friday, July 30, 2004
The meaninglessness of privilege
Let's not flatter ourselves: If we do not find it within ourselves to identify the terrorism inspired by radical Islam as an unequivocal evil—and to pronounce ourselves morally superior to it—then we have lost the ability to identify any evil at all, and our democracy is not only diminished, it dissolves into the meaninglessness of privilege.
Read the Article.
Read the Article.
Sunday, July 25, 2004
It's a small, small world
On Friday, my Macro ring arrived - its an adapter that allows a 35mm lens to be screwed backwards onto the existing camera lens. The reversed lens acts as a very high power diopter filter for macro photography.
Never mind.
Anyway, here are some pictures. For the butterfly pictures, I screwed together my 1967 Pentax's 135mm lens and 3x teleconverter and mounted them reversed onto the FZ1. For the fly pictures I used the 135mm lens by itself (since the lenses are reversed, shorter focal lengths yield higher magnification). The fly is less than half the size of a typical house fly.
I should mention that on Sunday, Yehudah and Mechel and I rode from Sloatsburg to Awosting and back. With our detours, it was around 22 miles.
Three Sundays ago, that is. Here's the map:
Never mind.
Anyway, here are some pictures. For the butterfly pictures, I screwed together my 1967 Pentax's 135mm lens and 3x teleconverter and mounted them reversed onto the FZ1. For the fly pictures I used the 135mm lens by itself (since the lenses are reversed, shorter focal lengths yield higher magnification). The fly is less than half the size of a typical house fly.
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I should mention that on Sunday, Yehudah and Mechel and I rode from Sloatsburg to Awosting and back. With our detours, it was around 22 miles.
Three Sundays ago, that is. Here's the map:
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Ride Lance, ride!
Lance is well on his way to his 6th Tour victory. I was enjoying this Nike video until I saw the AMD logo on his jersey.
Oh well. No one's perfect.
Oh well. No one's perfect.
Caviar and diamond-tipped canes
You know, I’m not wealthy like Al Franken or Michael Moore; I can’t go somewhere to give a speech and pocket 30 grand. I don’t begrudge them their success, but I do wish they would stop going purple because I get a tax cut and can afford to fix my daughter’s windows without dipping too far into savings. Okay? Deal?
Read the Bleat
Read the Bleat
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Sunday Stuff
I started with the usual sorts of things - cleaning up the basement, mowing the lawn, putting the cardboard out for recycling, as so on. I asked Trish to help me move some bags of leaves that didn't quite make it out to the curb before winter. Since the bottoms were rotted out and the leaves mostly composted, Trish suggested we just throw them onto the compost pile. Out came the snowshovels. When I started to move the fourth bag, a cloud of yellow jackets came pouring out of the bag. I grabbed Mechel and ran. The yellow jackets didn't pursue us. So, I sprayed two cans of hornet/wasp killer into the two bags I saw the yellow jackets coming out of. Hopefully by tomorrow we'll be able to safely move the bags.
This afternoon, we went to Iona Island. A former Navy installation, it's now part of Harriman Park. We went there looking for birds, as the Audubon Society lists it as a "hot spot" in Rockland county. We saw lots of swallows, and one Heron fly by, but that's about it.
Quite the day!
This afternoon, we went to Iona Island. A former Navy installation, it's now part of Harriman Park. We went there looking for birds, as the Audubon Society lists it as a "hot spot" in Rockland county. We saw lots of swallows, and one Heron fly by, but that's about it.
 Trish and Mechel look out onto the marshlands |  |
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 Barge on the Hudson |  A commuter train on the other side of the Hudson |
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Quite the day!
Friday, July 16, 2004
Behold the zoom-age!
I tried out the new lens today. I drove out towards Piermont over lunch. On the way there, I saw the herons below in Sparkill creek. The rest of the pictures were taken on the Piermont Pier:
My camera now has a maximum zoom of 924mm. For a total cost of $425, the results are pretty impressive. Of course, with $2200 ($1200 camera + $1000 lens), you can do stuff like this.
Wow.
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My camera now has a maximum zoom of 924mm. For a total cost of $425, the results are pretty impressive. Of course, with $2200 ($1200 camera + $1000 lens), you can do stuff like this.
Wow.
Place your tray in the upright position.....
....because we're about to crash this plane into a building. Annie Jacobsen of the Wall Street Journal describes a recent flight on which fourteen Syrian "musicians" went through a dry run for 9/11 part 2.
Read the article.
Update: Lileks picked up on the article today. "I tell you, something like this happens on a big scale – lots of planes dropping out of the sky, half the country is going to ask for detention camps. All because we didn't dare delay or inconvenience self-professed bands of Syrian "musicians" because it might suggest we were (gasp) dispositionally suspicious of a dozen Syrians clutching violin cases. Is profiling a good idea? Read the piece, put yourself on that plane before you answer the question."
Read the Bleat.
Update: here's a follow-up article.
Read the article.
Update: Lileks picked up on the article today. "I tell you, something like this happens on a big scale – lots of planes dropping out of the sky, half the country is going to ask for detention camps. All because we didn't dare delay or inconvenience self-professed bands of Syrian "musicians" because it might suggest we were (gasp) dispositionally suspicious of a dozen Syrians clutching violin cases. Is profiling a good idea? Read the piece, put yourself on that plane before you answer the question."
Read the Bleat.
Update: here's a follow-up article.
Monday, July 12, 2004
Sunday Stuff
Cleaned the garage. Helped Trish clean the basement. Made a website for Tricia's daycare.
All in a days work.
Actually, making the website was pretty interesting. I used NetObjects Fusion 7 to create the site. I had received a complementary copy of NOF7 a while ago, so I thought I would give it a whirl. Making a website using a tool like NOF was very different than doing everything in HTML by hand like I've done so far. Some aspects were much faster, but occasionally I would get to a point where I couldn't get NOF to produce an effect that I could implement in HTML manually with 30 seconds of effort. After a steep-ish learning curve, though, I was able to get it to do my bidding (once I accepted the fact that I was not in control).
It's like that whole "I'll collect your garbage for you but you can't use pointers directly" thing that Java does. In that case, I say good riddance. In the case of NOF I'm not so sure.
All in a days work.
Actually, making the website was pretty interesting. I used NetObjects Fusion 7 to create the site. I had received a complementary copy of NOF7 a while ago, so I thought I would give it a whirl. Making a website using a tool like NOF was very different than doing everything in HTML by hand like I've done so far. Some aspects were much faster, but occasionally I would get to a point where I couldn't get NOF to produce an effect that I could implement in HTML manually with 30 seconds of effort. After a steep-ish learning curve, though, I was able to get it to do my bidding (once I accepted the fact that I was not in control).
It's like that whole "I'll collect your garbage for you but you can't use pointers directly" thing that Java does. In that case, I say good riddance. In the case of NOF I'm not so sure.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
A new lens for the camera!
My parents bought me a Raynox 2020Pro teleconverter for by birthday (thanks Mom and Dad!) I didn't realize I needed a special adapter ring to mount the lens to the camera, so today I took some pictures by holding the camera in one hand and the lens in the other. Shooting handheld at the equivelant of 900mm at 1/125th of a second didn't yield the sharpest image. Plus, I shot through our 60 year old living room window. Still, not to shabby eh?
Monday, June 28, 2004
Too big, too big!
Standing over the shoulder of someone trying to load my blog, I thought "wow, this thing is way too huge!" With over 10 megs of images, the blog takes a horrific amount of time to load. So now, when clicking on my link in the "Family Journal" page, you'll be taken to a page that just contains the latest ten entries. Nice and small(er). From there, there's a link to the entire blog as well.
As long as we're talking shop, I'm using CSS now to render the page (as well as XML and XSLT). Here's the stylesheet. It puts the white border around the images (except the ones it doesn't!) and centers images in tables.
As long as we're talking shop, I'm using CSS now to render the page (as well as XML and XSLT). Here's the stylesheet. It puts the white border around the images (except the ones it doesn't!) and centers images in tables.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Sunday pics
Out in the garden:
Later, I was in the den and saw a bird in the tree we haven't had around before. Turns out it's a Northern Flicker:
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Later, I was in the den and saw a bird in the tree we haven't had around before. Turns out it's a Northern Flicker:
Thursday, June 24, 2004
This weeks ride to work
I rode to work, Trish came to work and I dropped the three of them at the airport, I drove back to work, loaded the bike in the trunk, and drove home.
17.8MPH Average on the way in.
17.8MPH Average on the way in.
Ride on Sunday
I went out for a ride with Yehuda and Mechel last Sunday (6/20/04). Up to Willow Tree park and back. We rode the Mariner loop, too. 11.47MPH average, 7.38 miles.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Farewell, Yonah and Yaacov!
A couple of guys from Yeshiva left this week. Yonah and his family moved to Long Beach, California to run the Hillel there, while Yaacov and his wife are moving to Phoenix, Arizona. The Yeshiva had a going-away get-together last Thursday.
The Rosh Yeshiva gives chizuk (words of encouragement) to Yaacov and Yonah
On Sunday, Yonah had another get-together for families. While there, I spotted an insect eating a fellow bug:
 Yaacov and Avi |  Yonah |
The Rosh Yeshiva gives chizuk (words of encouragement) to Yaacov and Yonah
On Sunday, Yonah had another get-together for families. While there, I spotted an insect eating a fellow bug:
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Sunday, June 20, 2004
Infocomm pictures
The product I'm working on, the TPMC-10, was shown at Infocomm a couple weeks ago. Here are some pictures:
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Friday, June 18, 2004
No One Asked Us
"The analogy is simple. For years, you have watched the same large, violent man come home every night, and you have listened to his yelling and the crying and the screams of children and the noise of breaking glass, and you have always known that he was beating his wife and his children. Everyone on the block has known it. You ask, cajole, threaten and beg him to stop, on behalf of the rest of the neighborhood. Nothing works. After listening to it for 13 years, you finally gather up the biggest, meanest guys you can find, you go over to his house, and you kick the door down. You punch him in the face and drag him away. The house is a mess, the family poor and abused...but now there is hope. You did the right thing."
Read the article.
Read the article.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Sunday Stuff
This past Sunday, Yehudah and I went for a ride with Mechel on the tandem. Through the Merrick / Dr. Frank neighborhood to Rt. 306, to Carlton, to Spook Rock, to Viola. 7.22 miles, 11.21 MPH average.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Hiking the Sherwood Trail
Today we went to Harriman Park to hike the Sherwood Trail. We were going to go up to Pine Meadow Lake, checking out Geocache GCHQF0 and GC2226 along the way. However, as is always the case in Harriman, the map was so poor that we got lost a couple times. Thankfully, the book was descriptive enough that we were able to recover.
The first surprise was that the bridge over the Mahwah River was washed out. We looked around for a while and found a log to cross over the river:
Next we ran into a junction. I thought we were crossing over a jeep road associated with a gas pipeline, and that this was the continuation of the trail:
We didn't really want to hike through waist high brush, so we walked back down to the river. We met a fellow who told us that we need to turn left at the "T" and that is the trail (so what's to the right? Nothing on the map!). So, we went back up and kept going:
Oops, got lost again! We ended up going up the wrong way on the high tension service road. Too bad the map doesn't show the offset as the trail crosses the service road (Grrr!):
Baila woke up on the way down. She was looking around at the scenery, having a great time:
Even though we didn't get where we were going, it was a great first family-of-four hike. Here's a map showing our route, along with the two Geocaches and the lake:
Here's a close-up of our route. The spur on the left was our misadventure to the high tension tower:
The first surprise was that the bridge over the Mahwah River was washed out. We looked around for a while and found a log to cross over the river:
Next we ran into a junction. I thought we were crossing over a jeep road associated with a gas pipeline, and that this was the continuation of the trail:
We didn't really want to hike through waist high brush, so we walked back down to the river. We met a fellow who told us that we need to turn left at the "T" and that is the trail (so what's to the right? Nothing on the map!). So, we went back up and kept going:
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Oops, got lost again! We ended up going up the wrong way on the high tension service road. Too bad the map doesn't show the offset as the trail crosses the service road (Grrr!):
Baila woke up on the way down. She was looking around at the scenery, having a great time:
Even though we didn't get where we were going, it was a great first family-of-four hike. Here's a map showing our route, along with the two Geocaches and the lake:
Here's a close-up of our route. The spur on the left was our misadventure to the high tension tower:
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
I knew it!
When I saw the Segway, I thought "Come on, how hard can it be?" After all, the guy who taught my Saturday Academy Robotics class when I was in High School, Neldon Wagner, had built a two legged walking robot. It seemed to me that the Segway is just a two motor platform with a gyro (like the one in the R/C helicopter I had in college) to let it know when it's falling over.
It's so nice to see that someone has demonstrated that that's the case.
It's so nice to see that someone has demonstrated that that's the case.
Miracle in the Catskills
This bus carrying 49 Monsey Bais Yaakov girls home from a camp in the Catskills crashed on Sunday.
As the bus crossed the water main, it toppled over on its right side into the water below, causing the occupants to suffer serious to minor injuries. No one was killed. According to Sullivan County Fire Coordinator Dick Martinkovic, the crash could have been much worse. “When the bus rode over the top of the water main, it prevented it from plunging head-on at full speed into the creek, which would have caused a far worse crash with possible fatalities,” he said.
Wow, what a happy coincidence!
Monday, May 24, 2004
Last Sunday
Mechel and Yehuda and I went for a bike ride again:
...We went up to Pamona road, East to Route 45, South to Eugene Levy Park (where we played for 15 minutes), then home. 8.37 miles, 11.35MPH average.
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...We went up to Pamona road, East to Route 45, South to Eugene Levy Park (where we played for 15 minutes), then home. 8.37 miles, 11.35MPH average.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Sunday stuff
This past Sunday I went for a ride with Yehuda again. This time we took Mechel along in the Burley, so we covered our 6.85 miles at a rather slow 11.45MPH. We rode up to Willow Tree Park, and around the lake. Mechel liked that part. Maneuvering an 11 foot long trailer towing a 4 foot long trailer around the bike path was no easy feat.
Late in the day, we went to Kakiat County Park. I played with the new camera a bit. Here are some shots, including some long exposure pictures to give the water that blurry effect:
Late in the day, we went to Kakiat County Park. I played with the new camera a bit. Here are some shots, including some long exposure pictures to give the water that blurry effect:
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
The new camera!
My Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 arrived today. While only 2 megapixel, its 12x optical zoom with image stabilization gives it quite a reach! It was being closed out at $225, so I bought one to hold me over until the kind of camera I really want gets a bit cheaper.
Here's a picture of a goose, taken about 100 - 150 feet away:
Here's the center of the frame without resizing:
Not close enough? Maybe I'll put one of these expansion lenses on my "wishlist":
Excessive? Nah.
Update: Here's a review.
Here's a picture of a goose, taken about 100 - 150 feet away:
Here's the center of the frame without resizing:
Not close enough? Maybe I'll put one of these expansion lenses on my "wishlist":
Excessive? Nah.
Update: Here's a review.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Parenting is tough!
Parents everywhere are facing tough questions regarding their teenage children. For example, this from an upper-middle-class couple in Minneapolis, MN:
"My 11 year old daughter is prostituting herself for mall money (guess we shouldn't have bought her the child-size underwear that says "eye candy" when she was 8 years old). Now that she's pregnant, why can't she get a "morning after" abortion pill without my consent?"
And this question from a couple living in a village in the West Bank:
"My 18 year old daughter was coerced by her fiance towards intimacy. Now that she's pregnant, should we strangle her with a cord like her sister, or douse her with gasoline and set her on fire?"
Scary, scary stuff.
"My 11 year old daughter is prostituting herself for mall money (guess we shouldn't have bought her the child-size underwear that says "eye candy" when she was 8 years old). Now that she's pregnant, why can't she get a "morning after" abortion pill without my consent?"
And this question from a couple living in a village in the West Bank:
"My 18 year old daughter was coerced by her fiance towards intimacy. Now that she's pregnant, should we strangle her with a cord like her sister, or douse her with gasoline and set her on fire?"
Scary, scary stuff.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Sunday outing
...We went to Rockland Lake. After going biking there, I decided it would be great to take the whole family.
The highlight of the trip was Mechel getting to feed the Swans. One got a little too close (and Mechel was putting the bread down on the dock, not throwing it like I told him to) and got Mechel's thumb along with the bread. Mechel was more scared than hurt, I think; it didn't break the skin.
Later in the day, I took my neighbor Yehuda on a ride on Rolling Thunder. We covered 9 miles at an average speed of 13.14 MPH.
It looks like I have an up-and-comming backup stoker if Yehuda isn't available someday:
The highlight of the trip was Mechel getting to feed the Swans. One got a little too close (and Mechel was putting the bread down on the dock, not throwing it like I told him to) and got Mechel's thumb along with the bread. Mechel was more scared than hurt, I think; it didn't break the skin.
Later in the day, I took my neighbor Yehuda on a ride on Rolling Thunder. We covered 9 miles at an average speed of 13.14 MPH.
It looks like I have an up-and-comming backup stoker if Yehuda isn't available someday:
Thursday, May 06, 2004
This week's ride to work
I rode in on Tuesday. It was 55ish in the morning, and 65ish in the afternoon.
AM Avg: 17.83MPH
PM Avg: 14.03MPH
Overall: 15.70MPH
This is week #18:
AM Avg: 17.83MPH
PM Avg: 14.03MPH
Overall: 15.70MPH
This is week #18:
Sunday, May 02, 2004
Catch the (micro)wave
Got the two microwaves mounted on a temporary shelf until we get the cabinets:
The shelf isn't bent - it's the barrel distortion of the camera. Too bad PhotoImpact doesn't have a filter to correct it.
The microwaves are great - they provide truly variable cooking intensity (not the pulsed 100% intensity that cheap microwaves use to approximate a lower setting). Trish put some corn in and pushed "vegetables". "Fresh? Frozen? Canned?" asked the microwave. We told it canned and pushed start. The microwave has temperature and humidity sensors, so it runs until the food is hot 'n' steamin'!
Eventually it will look like this.
The shelf isn't bent - it's the barrel distortion of the camera. Too bad PhotoImpact doesn't have a filter to correct it.
The microwaves are great - they provide truly variable cooking intensity (not the pulsed 100% intensity that cheap microwaves use to approximate a lower setting). Trish put some corn in and pushed "vegetables". "Fresh? Frozen? Canned?" asked the microwave. We told it canned and pushed start. The microwave has temperature and humidity sensors, so it runs until the food is hot 'n' steamin'!
Eventually it will look like this.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Today's ride
Well, Tuesday, actually. After work I put Mechel in the Burley and we rode to Rockland Lake State Park. 21.05 miles, 11.88 MPH average. It was very hilly, and Mechel is getting very heavy! I had to get off and push, and one hill was so steep I had to take a break from pushing! That hill at least has a name - it's bad enough when you're defeated by a hill, but when the hill isn't even worthy of a name....
Taking this to seriously, am I?
Anyway, it's called Phillips Hill. In the image below, which is a altitudinal cross-section from our house to the lake, the ride home was from right to left:
We also got to ride across Lake DeForest, which is the flat spot between mile 6 and mile 7.
Mechel had a great time. We saw baby geese, and a train, and a fire truck, and....
When I put him in the Burley, he was squirming around a bit. I asked him what he was doing. "I'm getting comfortable," he said. Not bad for a 31 month old...
Taking this to seriously, am I?
Anyway, it's called Phillips Hill. In the image below, which is a altitudinal cross-section from our house to the lake, the ride home was from right to left:
We also got to ride across Lake DeForest, which is the flat spot between mile 6 and mile 7.
Mechel had a great time. We saw baby geese, and a train, and a fire truck, and....
When I put him in the Burley, he was squirming around a bit. I asked him what he was doing. "I'm getting comfortable," he said. Not bad for a 31 month old...
Monday, April 26, 2004
Sunday Fun
A couple weeks ago, we lost power on one of the two 110 volt legs coming into our house. I did a quick hack in the power box to bridge the working leg to the broken one. The failure was due to all the construction that's going on between our house and the road (a new house is being built there).
Since our house is so old, the power company would not allow a simple repair. The folks building the new house had to dig a trench from the road to our house. In the process, they had to dig through our ornamental garden.
Tricia asked the Digger operator to move the plants first, so he dug up each plant with the 2'x2'x2' chunk of dirt it was planted in.
Trish and I moved the plants to the side of the house where the oil tank used to be. I found some paving stones in the yard and we made a little path:
We had a couple left over, so we planted the Clematis and a Hasta next to the parking area:
Thankfully, it rained quite a bit on Monday, which should be great for the newly transplanted plants. Some of our Hasta looks as if it has been nibbled on. We found some deer tracks around the yard yesterday, so I suspect they're the culprits.
A few weeks ago I had diverted the gutter that used to run across the path to the front door. It fell down, so yesterday I reinforced the joints with screws. Not as elegant as the St. Louis arch (who was no saint, by the way), but at least no one will be tripping over the gutter any more:
Since our house is so old, the power company would not allow a simple repair. The folks building the new house had to dig a trench from the road to our house. In the process, they had to dig through our ornamental garden.
Tricia asked the Digger operator to move the plants first, so he dug up each plant with the 2'x2'x2' chunk of dirt it was planted in.
Trish and I moved the plants to the side of the house where the oil tank used to be. I found some paving stones in the yard and we made a little path:
We had a couple left over, so we planted the Clematis and a Hasta next to the parking area:
Thankfully, it rained quite a bit on Monday, which should be great for the newly transplanted plants. Some of our Hasta looks as if it has been nibbled on. We found some deer tracks around the yard yesterday, so I suspect they're the culprits.
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A few weeks ago I had diverted the gutter that used to run across the path to the front door. It fell down, so yesterday I reinforced the joints with screws. Not as elegant as the St. Louis arch (who was no saint, by the way), but at least no one will be tripping over the gutter any more:
Friday, April 23, 2004
RIP Pat Tillman
Tillman, 27, turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to be an Army ranger after 9/11.
"There is in Pat Tillman's example, in his unexpected choice of duty to his country over the riches and other comforts of celebrity, and in his humility, such an inspiration to all of us to reclaim the essential public-spiritedness of Americans that many of us, in low moments, had worried was no longer our common distinguishing trait.
When Pat made his choice to leave the NFL and became an Army Ranger, he declined requests for interviews because he viewed his decision as no more patriotic than that of his less fortunate, less renowned countrymen who loved our country enough to volunteer to defend her in a time of peril. It is that first lesson of patriotism that we should reaffirm in our own lives as we celebrate the courageous life and mourn the heroic death of this most honorable American." -Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz
In other words, who knew there still exist Americans whose aspirations and passions extend beyond the local shopping mall....
CNN | MSNBC | FOXNEWS
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
This week's ride to work
We're in week #16.
AM:
Avg: 17.74 MPH
PM:
Avg: 13.88 MPH
Unlike last time, I was able to get all the way home without getting off and pushing.
AM:
Avg: 17.74 MPH
PM:
Avg: 13.88 MPH
Unlike last time, I was able to get all the way home without getting off and pushing.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Prager: The World Stinks!
"In sum, I feel that I am living in a world that is morally sick. Good is called bad, and bad is called "militant," "victimized," "misunderstood" and "the product of hopelessness," but rarely bad. Only those who fight the bad are called bad."
Read the article.
Read the article.
Monday, April 19, 2004
B"H So many Simchas!
This past Thursday, I went to the Seudas Bar Mitzvah (the dinner in honor of the Bar Mitzvah) of our neighbor, Yehuda.
At the dinner, Yehuda was Mesayem Shishei Sidrei Mishna (he completed the Six Orders of the Mishna). This is an incredible accomplishment, one which I hope to soon accomplish.
(L to R): Yehuda, Yehuda's father Avraham Hillel, and Yehuda's Grandfather
On Sunday, I went to the wedding of our friends Rafael and Shalva in Woodbury, NY. Rafael and I were in Yeshiva together in 2002. Here's Rafael at the Kabbalas Ponim:
The Rabbeim (Rabbis) sign the Kesubah (wedding contract):
I haven't been to so many weddings, but I was struck by how different it felt this time, since I've known Rafael for a couple years. I was just so happy for them - it was really something.
The first dance lasted a little over an hour (!):
...Of course, that was at least partially due to the fact that leading the band was none other than Yisroel Williger (listen)!
As a gift, I got one of those four picture folding frames with a picture of Rafael and I, and maps of the three adventures we went on together. Here are the images:
Mazel Tov to all!
At the dinner, Yehuda was Mesayem Shishei Sidrei Mishna (he completed the Six Orders of the Mishna). This is an incredible accomplishment, one which I hope to soon accomplish.
(L to R): Yehuda, Yehuda's father Avraham Hillel, and Yehuda's Grandfather
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On Sunday, I went to the wedding of our friends Rafael and Shalva in Woodbury, NY. Rafael and I were in Yeshiva together in 2002. Here's Rafael at the Kabbalas Ponim:
The Rabbeim (Rabbis) sign the Kesubah (wedding contract):
I haven't been to so many weddings, but I was struck by how different it felt this time, since I've known Rafael for a couple years. I was just so happy for them - it was really something.
The first dance lasted a little over an hour (!):
...Of course, that was at least partially due to the fact that leading the band was none other than Yisroel Williger (listen)!
As a gift, I got one of those four picture folding frames with a picture of Rafael and I, and maps of the three adventures we went on together. Here are the images:
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Mazel Tov to all!
Friday, April 16, 2004
Have seven months with nothing to do?
Why not build your very own BattleMech?
...It's a 38% scale replica of the 20 to 100 ton mechanized robots from the role playing game "BattleTech". Many an afternoon were squandered playing BattleTech in my teen-age years. At least it kept me out of trouble. More or less.
Here's the article detailing it's construction.
Finished? More free time? How about a garden monorail?
...It's a 38% scale replica of the 20 to 100 ton mechanized robots from the role playing game "BattleTech". Many an afternoon were squandered playing BattleTech in my teen-age years. At least it kept me out of trouble. More or less.
Here's the article detailing it's construction.
Finished? More free time? How about a garden monorail?
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Saturday, April 10, 2004
Friday, April 09, 2004
Barnum and Baily meet Bagels and Blintzes
Well, matza actually - it is Passover after all. Mom and Dad were going to take Mechel but they had to catch their plane. Oh well.
Here's the article.
Here's the article.
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Designing our kitchen
Here's the North wall of our kitchen:
We got our two new ranges and microwaves today, so I went to millspride.com and used their Online Kitchen Designer. Here's what we came up with:
Neat, huh?
We got our two new ranges and microwaves today, so I went to millspride.com and used their Online Kitchen Designer. Here's what we came up with:
Neat, huh?
Friday, March 26, 2004
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Ds for W
Luckily, Democrats like me have a courageous and honorable leader that we’re proud to support. It just so happens that he has a little R next to his name.
-Democratic Senator Zell Milller
Here are his remarks.
-Democratic Senator Zell Milller
Here are his remarks.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Anti-war protestors: more US dead, please
From the "Global Day of Action" rally in San Francisco on Saturday, March 20th, 2004:
Touching, isn't it?
Touching, isn't it?
Saturday, March 20, 2004
This week's ride to work
AM:
Avg: 16.65 MPH
Max: 38.4 MPH
PM:
Avg: 12.14 MPH
Max: 33.6 MPH
Yikes! I can really tell I've been off the bike for 4 months! On the way back I had to get off the bike 4 times - my legs were really hurting. It took 2 days for the sore sensation to go away.
Hopefully the chart will show a pretty rapid improvement like it did in '03 (the x-axis is the week of the year):
Avg: 16.65 MPH
Max: 38.4 MPH
PM:
Avg: 12.14 MPH
Max: 33.6 MPH
Yikes! I can really tell I've been off the bike for 4 months! On the way back I had to get off the bike 4 times - my legs were really hurting. It took 2 days for the sore sensation to go away.
Hopefully the chart will show a pretty rapid improvement like it did in '03 (the x-axis is the week of the year):
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Monday, March 08, 2004
Friday, March 05, 2004
Monday, March 01, 2004
Sunday, February 29, 2004
More flying
Mom and Dad are visiting, so the five of us went up to Harriman to go flying for the fourth time (links to the first 3 times: 1/25/04, 1/11/04, 1/04/04):
Like last time (video), I circled a few times and got stuck in a tree about 30 feet off the ground. Dad and I managed to shake the tree until the plane fell down a bit farther, then we pulled it out:
I really need to join a club with a bigger field. Or I need to learn how to fly. Or both.
Like last time (video), I circled a few times and got stuck in a tree about 30 feet off the ground. Dad and I managed to shake the tree until the plane fell down a bit farther, then we pulled it out:
I really need to join a club with a bigger field. Or I need to learn how to fly. Or both.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Sunday, February 08, 2004
TOC or no TOC?
I spent a little time putting together a table of contents for the Blog. The idea was to spare people's computers from having to load all the images from the last 8 months just to view the latest entry. The table of contents had a link for every entry, and when clicked would lead to a page that contained the blog entries for just that month. That way, to view a given entry, the browser would only have to load all the entries for that month, not all the entries ever entered.
In the end, though, I switched back to this format. I didn't like how it broke up the reading experience. To read the blog, the user would have to click on the latest link, read February's entries, then return to the table of contents, click on a January entry, read all the January entries, go back to the table of contents, click on a December entry, etc. I like being able to just continually scroll down without having to click back and forth.
What do you think?
In the end, though, I switched back to this format. I didn't like how it broke up the reading experience. To read the blog, the user would have to click on the latest link, read February's entries, then return to the table of contents, click on a January entry, read all the January entries, go back to the table of contents, click on a December entry, etc. I like being able to just continually scroll down without having to click back and forth.
What do you think?
Thursday, February 05, 2004
Janet Jackson and the Frog
"Never mind the message it sends to international audiences...who may have been wondering whether America really is immoral."
Was there ever any doubt?
Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal
(Hat tip: Avi)
Was there ever any doubt?
Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal
(Hat tip: Avi)
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Citizen Hero (or something)
In 2001, Scott Foresman published a 3rd grade Social Studies text book called Communities. Since our bike trip involved using the Internet while traveling through Virginia, they felt we were a good way to end the "communication technologies" chapter. Anyway, I added scans of the cover and pages from the book to the website.
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Flying and Sledding
We tried flying today, but at 20 degrees, the plane engine wouldn't start:
I found some tips on how to fly in cold weather, so hopefully we'll do better next time.
On our way out of Silvermine, I took Mechel sledding down the abandoned ski run while doing my best Howard Dean impersonation. You can either watch the video, or download it and then watch it.
I found some tips on how to fly in cold weather, so hopefully we'll do better next time.
On our way out of Silvermine, I took Mechel sledding down the abandoned ski run while doing my best Howard Dean impersonation. You can either watch the video, or download it and then watch it.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Let there be (more) light!
I added a 55 watt light kit to my aquarium tonight. Here are before and after pictures. Both pictures are taken at 1/15th of a second at F2:
Before: Stock 36 watt (2 x 18w T-8 bulbs) lighting.
After: 36 watts + new 55 watt kit = 91 watts!
Before: Stock 36 watt (2 x 18w T-8 bulbs) lighting.
After: 36 watts + new 55 watt kit = 91 watts!
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Sunday is for the birds
I hooked up my digital camera to my little telescope using my SteadyPix adapter and took some bird pictures. Here's a sample:
Thursday, January 15, 2004
Breaking in the snowblower
We got about 6 inches of snow last night. This morning, I broke out our new snowblower and got to work. It took about an hour to clear our 300 foot long driveway.
After that, I drove the snowblower up to our walkway and blew some snow onto the window for Trish and Mechel:
Shortly after that I ran over the power cord for the walkway lights. It cut the cord, and tore the connector out of one of the lamps. Tonight I fixed the cord, but that lamp is still broken.
After that, I drove the snowblower up to our walkway and blew some snow onto the window for Trish and Mechel:
Shortly after that I ran over the power cord for the walkway lights. It cut the cord, and tore the connector out of one of the lamps. Tonight I fixed the cord, but that lamp is still broken.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Come fly the friendly skies
We took the plane out today, despite the 20 degree weather. The first flight was in pretty high wind and ended badly - I had to replace the propeller and spinner. On the last flight, we discovered that the plane will actually take off from the ground, and does not have to be thrown - probably due to the wheel I added to the back of the plane.
Anyway, the last flight went pretty well until I got a little too close to the trees. A 1000 x 1000 foot field isn't all that big when you're going 30 miles an hour! If you like, you can watch the video, or download it and watch it later.
As you'll hear in the video, the engine noise made Mechel upset. He also cried when the plane crashed. Its OK Mechel!
I realized I was in trouble when I saw the left wing go behind a tree branch (below). I tightened up the turn, but I was too far into the trees and hit another tree 25 frames (0.8 seconds) later.
Living up to it's name, the DuraPlane survived the 40 foot fall unscathed.
Mechel helped me clean up the plane and posed with me for a victory shot:
I'm looking forward to next Sunday!
Anyway, the last flight went pretty well until I got a little too close to the trees. A 1000 x 1000 foot field isn't all that big when you're going 30 miles an hour! If you like, you can watch the video, or download it and watch it later.
As you'll hear in the video, the engine noise made Mechel upset. He also cried when the plane crashed. Its OK Mechel!
I realized I was in trouble when I saw the left wing go behind a tree branch (below). I tightened up the turn, but I was too far into the trees and hit another tree 25 frames (0.8 seconds) later.
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Living up to it's name, the DuraPlane survived the 40 foot fall unscathed.
Mechel helped me clean up the plane and posed with me for a victory shot:
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I'm looking forward to next Sunday!
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Saw the ISS
When I went out to the car yesterday at 6:30am, I saw a bright object moving across the northern sky. It years past it could have been the Shuttle or Mir, but nowadays it had to be the International Space Station. Using NASA's J-Pass webpage, I verified it was the ISS:
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Flying in Harriman State Park
Today, we took my Duraplane 20 Trainer up to Harriman State Park. I joined the Interstate Model Flying Club and the AMA, which allows me to fly my plane at the abandoned parking lot at Silvermine lake (formerly overflow parking for the Silvermine Ski Area, which was closed in the 1980s.) As you can see from the width of the road, the lot is roughly 1000 feet by 1000 feet:
It was raining quite a bit, but I really wanted to fly, so we gave it a shot anyway. Mechel helped me prep the model before we started. We brought along the controller for his radio controlled car so he could pretend to control the plane:
I throttled up to 100%, and Trish gave the plane a toss. I throttled down too soon, though, lost airspeed, and crash-landed (The plane was never more than 20 feet off the ground). The elevator came off, and I broke the propeller, but otherwise the plane is fine:
Even though I only got to fly for 10 seconds or so, it was fun. It will take a while to get back to where I was in 2000, able to do loops and such.
On the way back to the van, we spotted some berries dripping with water:
Can't wait for next Sunday!
It was raining quite a bit, but I really wanted to fly, so we gave it a shot anyway. Mechel helped me prep the model before we started. We brought along the controller for his radio controlled car so he could pretend to control the plane:
I throttled up to 100%, and Trish gave the plane a toss. I throttled down too soon, though, lost airspeed, and crash-landed (The plane was never more than 20 feet off the ground). The elevator came off, and I broke the propeller, but otherwise the plane is fine:
Even though I only got to fly for 10 seconds or so, it was fun. It will take a while to get back to where I was in 2000, able to do loops and such.
On the way back to the van, we spotted some berries dripping with water:
Can't wait for next Sunday!
Monday, December 29, 2003
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Planning the basement
Trish is considering opening a daycare in our basement, so we've been trying to plan out where everything will go (in this picture, south is up):
All the rooms already have sheetrock, outlets, etc. except for the southern bathroom and the kitchen.
If you install the Cortona 3D viewer for Internet Explorer, you can view our plan in 3D!
If you want to be able to move stuff around in the floorplan, download Room Arranger and edit our Room Arranger data file.
All the rooms already have sheetrock, outlets, etc. except for the southern bathroom and the kitchen.
If you install the Cortona 3D viewer for Internet Explorer, you can view our plan in 3D!
If you want to be able to move stuff around in the floorplan, download Room Arranger and edit our Room Arranger data file.
Trish and I go to a concert
On Tuesday night Trish and I went to our first concert. Yerachmiel Begun and the Miami Boys Choir teamed up with Dedi for Miami 26 (!) in Hackensack, NJ:
MBC is like Menudo (there's a word I never thought would show up on my blog) in that the members keep changing as they get older. Either that, or they do something to keep them young - their first album is called "Entebbe", and the song of the same title commemorates Israel's raid on Entebbe in 1976.
I didn't take my camera, but other people took plenty of pictures. The concert started at 8pm, and we left at the half-time intermission at 9:45pm, so we only got to see the colored outfits, not the black-and-white ones.
The two title songs were excellent. Here are some other selections: 1 2 3 4
Dedi was telling jokes throughout the concert.
It was also the first time Trish and I went out on a "date" without Mechel since he was born.
MBC is like Menudo (there's a word I never thought would show up on my blog) in that the members keep changing as they get older. Either that, or they do something to keep them young - their first album is called "Entebbe", and the song of the same title commemorates Israel's raid on Entebbe in 1976.
I didn't take my camera, but other people took plenty of pictures. The concert started at 8pm, and we left at the half-time intermission at 9:45pm, so we only got to see the colored outfits, not the black-and-white ones.
The two title songs were excellent. Here are some other selections: 1 2 3 4
Dedi was telling jokes throughout the concert.
It was also the first time Trish and I went out on a "date" without Mechel since he was born.
Saturday, December 13, 2003
The new living room
Two weeks ago on Thursday (12/4) we started using the house's main entrance instead of the entrance off the living room. This meant we could put more furniture against that wall, so Trish redecorated the living room:
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Confession: I am a Republican Muslim
Using the 2004 Presidential Candidate Selector, I discovered that I should vote for Bush (although not by a large margin - I guess that makes me a moderate. Or indifferent). Even more gratifying was the discovery that I have 0% in common with the views of Al Sharpton:
That was so much fun that I used the Belief System Selector. Turns out I'm a Muslim:
| 1. | Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%) Click here for info |
| 2. | Bush, President George W. - Republican (68%) Click here for info |
| 3. | Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (51%) Click here for info |
| 4. | Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (48%) Click here for info |
| 5. | Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (47%) Click here for info |
| 6. | Libertarian Candidate (37%) Click here for info |
| 7. | Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (34%) Click here for info |
| 8. | Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (30%) Click here for info |
| 9. | Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (26%) Click here for info |
| 10. | Phillips, Howard - Constitution (23%) Click here for info |
| 11. | LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (15%) Click here for info |
| 12. | Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (14%) Click here for info |
| 13. | Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (0%) Click here for info |
| 14. | Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (0%) Click here for info |
That was so much fun that I used the Belief System Selector. Turns out I'm a Muslim:
| 1. | Islam (100%) |
| 2. | Orthodox Judaism (100%) |
| 3. | Sikhism (91%) |
| 4. | Bahá'í Faith (83%) |
| 5. | Reform Judaism (82%) |
| 6. | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (77%) |
| 7. | Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (63%) |
| 8. | Jehovah's Witness (62%) |
| 9. | Jainism (62%) |
| 10. | Hinduism (60%) |
| 11. | Eastern Orthodox (60%) |
| 12. | Roman Catholic (60%) |
| 13. | Seventh Day Adventist (53%) |
| 14. | Orthodox Quaker (51%) |
| 15. | Liberal Quakers (51%) |
| 16. | Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (49%) |
| 17. | Mahayana Buddhism (46%) |
| 18. | Unitarian Universalism (41%) |
| 19. | Theravada Buddhism (37%) |
| 20. | Scientology (33%) |
| 21. | Neo-Pagan (32%) |
| 22. | Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (31%) |
| 23. | New Thought (30%) |
| 24. | New Age (23%) |
| 25. | Non-theist (23%) |
| 26. | Secular Humanism (14%) |
| 27. | Taoism (13%) |
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Saturday, December 06, 2003
Lots o' snow
We got about 15 inches of snow today:
Here's a picture from early October when we installed these new lights leading to our front door:
Of course, this is nothing compared to last year (2/17/03), when we got about 30 inches:
Three cars in a row (see the side view mirrors?)
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Here's a picture from early October when we installed these new lights leading to our front door:
Of course, this is nothing compared to last year (2/17/03), when we got about 30 inches:
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Three cars in a row (see the side view mirrors?)
Fun with the digicam
A couple of Sundays ago (November 23rd), I played around with long exposure time photography. I took my props down to the basement and closed the door so it was completely dark. The first subject I used was Mechel's motorized fire truck - I focused the camera where I thought the truck would end up, set the camera for a long exposure, set the 10 second self-timer, pressed the shutter, and ran to the other side of the room and started the truck when the self timer light stopped blinking.
Stationary fire truck: 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
8 second exposures, 200 ISO equivalent
Next I drove Mechel's radio controlled ambulance around in a circle:
8 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Finally, I tried messing around with flashlights and one of those LED keychain lights:
With the lights off, I rotated my arm while holding the LED keychain light - 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Began the exposure with the flash - 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Began the exposure with the flash - the slashes in the middle are the flashlight shining into the camera as a swung it around - 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
The "me" on the right was illuminated by the flash. I then walked to the left while swinging the flashlight, and then shined the flashlight at myself to create the right "me". 6 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
The "me" on the right was illuminated by the flash. I then walked to the left and shined the flashlight at myself to create the right "me". 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Stationary fire truck: 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
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8 second exposures, 200 ISO equivalent
Next I drove Mechel's radio controlled ambulance around in a circle:
8 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Finally, I tried messing around with flashlights and one of those LED keychain lights:
With the lights off, I rotated my arm while holding the LED keychain light - 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Began the exposure with the flash - 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Began the exposure with the flash - the slashes in the middle are the flashlight shining into the camera as a swung it around - 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
The "me" on the right was illuminated by the flash. I then walked to the left while swinging the flashlight, and then shined the flashlight at myself to create the right "me". 6 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
The "me" on the right was illuminated by the flash. I then walked to the left and shined the flashlight at myself to create the right "me". 4 second exposure, 200 ISO equivalent
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
This week's ride to work
The new wheel works great. My front fender detached five times on the way to work, so I crazy-glued it at work. We'll see how the return trip goes.
My poor performance is probably on account of having to stop five times to fix the fender.
AM Climate: 40F and Windy
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:56
Total Time: 1:02:00
Avg Speed: 17.96 MPH
Max Speed: 39.8 MPH
PM:
Avg Speed: 15.04 MPH
Max Speed: 34.9 MPH
Here's a picture I took when I got home. Notice the reflective band on the rear tire:
Let there be (halogen) light!
My poor performance is probably on account of having to stop five times to fix the fender.
AM Climate: 40F and Windy
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:56
Total Time: 1:02:00
Avg Speed: 17.96 MPH
Max Speed: 39.8 MPH
PM:
Avg Speed: 15.04 MPH
Max Speed: 34.9 MPH
Here's a picture I took when I got home. Notice the reflective band on the rear tire:
Let there be (halogen) light!
Monday, November 24, 2003
Sunday Stuff
I spent a good part of the day mounting the rear wheel from the tandem onto the Linear. This allows me to use the tandem's hub brake as the Linear's rear brake, so I was able to get rid of the side-pull cantilever brakes. Back in '96 I modified the Linear by cutting about 18" off the beam, to make the bike shorter. This brought the bottom of the seat very close to the rear brakes. Unfortunately, when I would sit on the seat, my weight pressed against the brake cable sheath, causing the rear brake to pivot and press against the rim. So now I won't have that problem anymore.
Another advantage of the new wheel is it comes with a Shimano Deore XTR 8 speed cassette - a major upgrade from the decades-old 6 speed freewheel on the other wheel.
I also put a new Primo 1 1/8" tire on the wheel - it has a nifty reflective strip!
The Aerospoke with hub brake
Close-up of the hub brake - the brake cable is pulled through the blue sheath,
causing the arm at the bottom to pull upwards, engaging the brake pads in the drum.
(The rectangular aluminum component mounted next to the quick release is my custom Burley trailer hitch.)
Close-up of the hub brake from the inside of the "rear triangle"
It did, however, add about 2 pounds to the bike.
Another advantage of the new wheel is it comes with a Shimano Deore XTR 8 speed cassette - a major upgrade from the decades-old 6 speed freewheel on the other wheel.
I also put a new Primo 1 1/8" tire on the wheel - it has a nifty reflective strip!
The Aerospoke with hub brake
Close-up of the hub brake - the brake cable is pulled through the blue sheath,
causing the arm at the bottom to pull upwards, engaging the brake pads in the drum.
(The rectangular aluminum component mounted next to the quick release is my custom Burley trailer hitch.)
Close-up of the hub brake from the inside of the "rear triangle"
It did, however, add about 2 pounds to the bike.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
New fish for the tank!
Last Thursday, I bought a pair of Dwarf Puffers for the aquarium. These fish are specialists at eating snails. Right now they're less than 1/2 inch long (the snail in the picture below is the size of a pea), and they only seem to bother the really small snails. They will grow to be a maximum of about 1" long.
This week's ride to work
This past Sunday I installed a rear fender, and attached the two headlights to the front fender by clamping them to a piece of 3/4" PVC attached to the fender. We'll see if having the lights closer to the ground and no longer illuminating the fairing helps night riding. I also re-mounted the rear rack by drilling new mount holes, so the chain doesn't collide with the mount screws, so I can use my lowest gear again.
Last night I installed new rear brake pads, as well as a new section of brake cable sheath. Back in '96 I modified the Linear by cutting about 18" off the beam, to make the bike shorter. This brought the bottom of the seat very close to the rear brakes. Unfortunately, the new brake sheath is quite stiff, so when I sit on the seat, my weight presses on the sheath, causing the rear brake to pivot and press against the rim.
That's why my performance was so poor - having the brakes on the whole time tends to slow one down. Hopefully I can fix it for tonight's ride.
I must have left my USB flash drive on my bike seat when I left the house, as it fell onto the street when I went around a corner. I managed to recover it before it was squashed by a passing car.
AM Climate: 48F and foggy
Distance: 14.90 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 52:54
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 17.05 MPH
Max Speed: 39.9 MPH
I think I still have rear brake rubbing issues. I also need to glue the front fenders to their clips (so they don't pop off when I hit a bump), adjust the cycle computer sensor (it's under-reporting distance travelled), adjust the shifter cable to allow shifting into the highest gear, and adjusting the fairing so it stops striking one of the front spokes.
PM Climate: 50ish and somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.95
Ride (moving) Time: 1:00:39
Total Time: 1:10:00ish
Avg Speed: 14.79 MPH
Max Speed: 34.7 MPH
The new front light mount
The new rear fender and xenon strobe
Last night I installed new rear brake pads, as well as a new section of brake cable sheath. Back in '96 I modified the Linear by cutting about 18" off the beam, to make the bike shorter. This brought the bottom of the seat very close to the rear brakes. Unfortunately, the new brake sheath is quite stiff, so when I sit on the seat, my weight presses on the sheath, causing the rear brake to pivot and press against the rim.
That's why my performance was so poor - having the brakes on the whole time tends to slow one down. Hopefully I can fix it for tonight's ride.
I must have left my USB flash drive on my bike seat when I left the house, as it fell onto the street when I went around a corner. I managed to recover it before it was squashed by a passing car.
AM Climate: 48F and foggy
Distance: 14.90 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 52:54
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 17.05 MPH
Max Speed: 39.9 MPH
I think I still have rear brake rubbing issues. I also need to glue the front fenders to their clips (so they don't pop off when I hit a bump), adjust the cycle computer sensor (it's under-reporting distance travelled), adjust the shifter cable to allow shifting into the highest gear, and adjusting the fairing so it stops striking one of the front spokes.
PM Climate: 50ish and somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.95
Ride (moving) Time: 1:00:39
Total Time: 1:10:00ish
Avg Speed: 14.79 MPH
Max Speed: 34.7 MPH
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The new front light mount
The new rear fender and xenon strobe
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Tonight's Lunar Eclipse
Tonight I took some pictures of the lunar eclipse using the SteadyPix mount to attach my Casio QV-2000UX camera to my Meade ETX-60AT and Celestron 8" Star Hopper Telescopes.
The total eclipse lasted for about 30 minutes, as the moon barely passed fully within the Earth's shadow. Even at totality, the moon was still distinctly brighter on one side. The first three images are before the total eclipse, the last two after.
Taking pictures afocally is a major pain! Hopefully someday I'll have a digital camera with threads for attaching accessories, so I can use something like this to attach my camera to the telescope.
It was really neat watching the moon get darker - during the total eclipse, the moon was a dull red color.
Here's a picture I took back in 2000 - since the moon is first-quarter, the sun light lit up the crater edges nicely:
The total eclipse lasted for about 30 minutes, as the moon barely passed fully within the Earth's shadow. Even at totality, the moon was still distinctly brighter on one side. The first three images are before the total eclipse, the last two after.
Taking pictures afocally is a major pain! Hopefully someday I'll have a digital camera with threads for attaching accessories, so I can use something like this to attach my camera to the telescope.
It was really neat watching the moon get darker - during the total eclipse, the moon was a dull red color.
Here's a picture I took back in 2000 - since the moon is first-quarter, the sun light lit up the crater edges nicely:
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
This week's ride to work
Hoo Rah! A new best AM average speed. If I were in the Marines, I would yell "Semper Fi!", but the closest I got to the Marines was the Boy Scouts, and hollering a lusty "Be Prepared!" doesn't have the same mystique.
I installed my new rear xenon strobe and a second headlight (see 10/28/03), so we'll see how it goes tonight.
I tried a slightly different route today, which while slightly shorter involved a killer hill. I suspect my speed would have been even higher had I stuck to the old route.
AM Climate: Cool (55ish) and nice
Distance: 14.86 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 46:48
Total Time: 53:40
Avg Speed: 19.05 MPH
Max Speed: 38.1 MPH
Before I left work, I installed my front fender, which kept me much more dry on the way home. Having the two lights on the fairing was the best arrangement yet, but the light still illuminates the fairing, making it hard to see. I'll try mounting the lights on the fender and see how that goes.
PM Climate: Raining Lightly
Distance: 14.70
Ride (moving) Time: 58:06
Total Time: 1:10:00ish
Avg Speed: 15.18 MPH
Max Speed: 33.1 MPH
I installed my new rear xenon strobe and a second headlight (see 10/28/03), so we'll see how it goes tonight.
I tried a slightly different route today, which while slightly shorter involved a killer hill. I suspect my speed would have been even higher had I stuck to the old route.
AM Climate: Cool (55ish) and nice
Distance: 14.86 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 46:48
Total Time: 53:40
Avg Speed: 19.05 MPH
Max Speed: 38.1 MPH
Before I left work, I installed my front fender, which kept me much more dry on the way home. Having the two lights on the fairing was the best arrangement yet, but the light still illuminates the fairing, making it hard to see. I'll try mounting the lights on the fender and see how that goes.
PM Climate: Raining Lightly
Distance: 14.70
Ride (moving) Time: 58:06
Total Time: 1:10:00ish
Avg Speed: 15.18 MPH
Max Speed: 33.1 MPH
Monday, November 03, 2003
Blast from the (lunar) past
Surfing around on the web, I found the website for an experiment I participated in 16 years ago: building a simulated lunar base in an underground lava cave. In the picture below, from this article, we're assembling the "sanitation unit" (read: toilet). I'm the fellow in the center of the picture in the background. Fellow Spartan Al Shupp is the shorter fellow in the right foreground:
Hard to believe that was 16 years ago!
Hard to believe that was 16 years ago!
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Sunday Tomfoolery
So much for progress: I spent a good part of the day trying to get my video capture card, an ATI TV Wonder VE, to work. I guess if you don't use it for a while the drivers go bad. Anyway, I finally had to move it to my PC to get it to do anything at all. You get what you pay for, I guess.
I also took apart one of our dehumidifiers to see if I could adjust the humidistat, but there were no potentiometers on the circuit boards.
I also took apart one of our dehumidifiers to see if I could adjust the humidistat, but there were no potentiometers on the circuit boards.
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
About my new bike lighting system
Problem: I wanted a really nice lighting system for my bike but didn't want to have to pay a lot for it.
Solution: I bought a pair of inexpensive bike lights and replaced the 6 volt, 5 watt bulbs with a 12 volt 20 watt bulb and a 12 volt 12 watt bulb. Back in '01 when I was working on the Intel Web Tablet, the battery design was changed, so hundreds of four cell (7.4 volt, 3Ah) Lithium Ion battery packs were thrown away. These scrap batteries were offered to the engineering folks, so I took 10 of them. I took the packs apart and made a 6 cell (12 volt 3Ah) pack for the 20 watt lamp, and a 3 cell (12 volt 1.5Ah) pack for the 12 watt lamp.
I've used the 20 watt lamp, mounted on the recumbent's fairing, for a couple weeks now. It's great! I had to buy a special charger to charge these Lithium Ion cells. I finished building the 3 cell pack yesterday, and mounted the 12 watt lamp on my helmet. We'll see how it goes (assuming I can fix my front tire).
I'm waiting for my front and rear xenon strobes to arrive - they're much brighter than the LED blinkers most bikers use. There's no such thing as "too safe"!
Solution: I bought a pair of inexpensive bike lights and replaced the 6 volt, 5 watt bulbs with a 12 volt 20 watt bulb and a 12 volt 12 watt bulb. Back in '01 when I was working on the Intel Web Tablet, the battery design was changed, so hundreds of four cell (7.4 volt, 3Ah) Lithium Ion battery packs were thrown away. These scrap batteries were offered to the engineering folks, so I took 10 of them. I took the packs apart and made a 6 cell (12 volt 3Ah) pack for the 20 watt lamp, and a 3 cell (12 volt 1.5Ah) pack for the 12 watt lamp.
I've used the 20 watt lamp, mounted on the recumbent's fairing, for a couple weeks now. It's great! I had to buy a special charger to charge these Lithium Ion cells. I finished building the 3 cell pack yesterday, and mounted the 12 watt lamp on my helmet. We'll see how it goes (assuming I can fix my front tire).
I'm waiting for my front and rear xenon strobes to arrive - they're much brighter than the LED blinkers most bikers use. There's no such thing as "too safe"!
This week's ride to work
On the way to work, I take the Old Western Highway south through the village of Blauvelt. I found out last week that the Joseph B. Clarke Rail Trail leaves Blauvelt and heads south towards my work.
The trail was pretty rough, especially for a recumbent with one inch wide, 100psi tires (see the last photo on this page). I punctured my front tire, and when I tried using the tire irons built into my Topeak Alien tool, I broke one of them. So, I called someone from work who picked me up. I'll have to go down to the local bike shop to pick up some real tire irons so I can fix the tire for the ride home.
I rode a little over 10 miles before the flat, so at least I got some exercise out of it. I doubt I'll ride the trail again on the recumbent, but I have a feeling I'll be back on my mountain bike.
The trail was pretty rough, especially for a recumbent with one inch wide, 100psi tires (see the last photo on this page). I punctured my front tire, and when I tried using the tire irons built into my Topeak Alien tool, I broke one of them. So, I called someone from work who picked me up. I'll have to go down to the local bike shop to pick up some real tire irons so I can fix the tire for the ride home.
I rode a little over 10 miles before the flat, so at least I got some exercise out of it. I doubt I'll ride the trail again on the recumbent, but I have a feeling I'll be back on my mountain bike.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Poor Fishy!
Our Dwarf Gourami died Friday afternoon:
It was in the hospital tank twice in the past with the same disease that killed Baxter, our Siamese Fighting Fish.
The Dwarf Gourami was almost DOA from the pet shop. They pack each fish in a plastic bag, then put the bags into a paper bag. The paper bag had gotten wet, and when I stepped out of the car, the bottom of the bag broke through. The three plastic bags hit the ground, and two of them held, but the bag with the Dwarf Gourami broke open. There I was, at night, with this fish flopping around on the pavement, about 50 yards from our apartment. I picked it up and ran all the way to the apartment, and threw it into a glass of water. It wasn't moving at all, but after about 30 seconds it started wiggling a bit. I then realized I had left the other two fish in their bags back on the pavement, so I ran back out and got them. That was back in late January, so its pretty amazing it lasted this long, I guess.
It was in the hospital tank twice in the past with the same disease that killed Baxter, our Siamese Fighting Fish.
The Dwarf Gourami was almost DOA from the pet shop. They pack each fish in a plastic bag, then put the bags into a paper bag. The paper bag had gotten wet, and when I stepped out of the car, the bottom of the bag broke through. The three plastic bags hit the ground, and two of them held, but the bag with the Dwarf Gourami broke open. There I was, at night, with this fish flopping around on the pavement, about 50 yards from our apartment. I picked it up and ran all the way to the apartment, and threw it into a glass of water. It wasn't moving at all, but after about 30 seconds it started wiggling a bit. I then realized I had left the other two fish in their bags back on the pavement, so I ran back out and got them. That was back in late January, so its pretty amazing it lasted this long, I guess.
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
This week's ride to work
Looks like I may have had some brake rubbing issues. There were also traffic problems - I had to wait 10 minutes in Tappan while the train lumbered by.
AM Climate: 58 degrees, somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.98 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:46
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.05 MPH
Max Speed: 42.5 MPH
On the way home, it was raining, and I got pretty wet from road spray. Guess I'll have to install fenders on the bike.
The bulb I have for the bike light has a very wide beam, so it disperses too quickly. I failed to see a storm drain grate, and went over it. My front wheel went between the grate bars, and I started to fall over before clearing the grate. I ordered new bulbs today, so hopefully it won't be a problem next week.
PM Climate: 60ish degrees and raining lightly
Distance: 14.84
Ride (moving) Time: 58:11
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 15.30 MPH
Max Speed: 35.0 MPH
AM Climate: 58 degrees, somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.98 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:46
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.05 MPH
Max Speed: 42.5 MPH
On the way home, it was raining, and I got pretty wet from road spray. Guess I'll have to install fenders on the bike.
The bulb I have for the bike light has a very wide beam, so it disperses too quickly. I failed to see a storm drain grate, and went over it. My front wheel went between the grate bars, and I started to fall over before clearing the grate. I ordered new bulbs today, so hopefully it won't be a problem next week.
PM Climate: 60ish degrees and raining lightly
Distance: 14.84
Ride (moving) Time: 58:11
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 15.30 MPH
Max Speed: 35.0 MPH
Last week at the Homowack
My parents took us to The Homowack for Chol Hamoed Sukkos (this past Monday through Friday). I hope to create an adventure page for the trip shortly. We played mini-golf, did some bowling, rowed around on the lake, found the Homowack water tower, and explored the Shawangunk mountain range. The food was great, as was the evening entertainment - we got to hear Ira Heller and Yossi Goldstein, as well as see magicians, contortionists, etc.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Hey, there's our house!
Just found our house using GlobeXplorer:
July 2nd, 2001
The image on the right shows our approximate property lines. Note the car in the driveway for scale. The grey building in the lower center is the detached garage, and the white building next to it is one of the two 8'x12' sheds on the property. The other one is immediately to the right of the first, and is mostly obscured by the trees.
Since the GlobeXplorer logo is always in the same location relative to the picture frame, I screen-captured three different images with slightly different locations (so that the position of the house relative to the logo changed), then used PhotoImapct's Clone tool to copy the logo-less sections from the other images over the logo-ed sections of my master image.
Never mind.
Here's a broader view - the field to the left of our house is where the new house is currently being built. The road is on the far left.
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July 2nd, 2001
The image on the right shows our approximate property lines. Note the car in the driveway for scale. The grey building in the lower center is the detached garage, and the white building next to it is one of the two 8'x12' sheds on the property. The other one is immediately to the right of the first, and is mostly obscured by the trees.
Since the GlobeXplorer logo is always in the same location relative to the picture frame, I screen-captured three different images with slightly different locations (so that the position of the house relative to the logo changed), then used PhotoImapct's Clone tool to copy the logo-less sections from the other images over the logo-ed sections of my master image.
Never mind.
Here's a broader view - the field to the left of our house is where the new house is currently being built. The road is on the far left.
This week's ride to work
Mounted my new bike light (more on that later) and a 2nd waterbottle cage.
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that average speed doesn't tell the whole story. The cycle-computer only factors in time that the bike is moving (to eliminate traffic stops as a factor in the result), but that means that two identical rides, except where in the middle or the 2nd ride I took a 10-minute break, would yield the same result. Today, I had to wait through three or four traffic light cycles at the corner of Germond and Route 304 - while that stopped time doesn't detract from the average, the break it affords certainly improved my later performance.
I don't think there's necessarily a way to solve the problem, but it's something to consider, especially with my overall average speeds being so close to each other now.
AM Climate: 62 degrees, somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.96 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 48:27
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.53 MPH
Max Speed: 40.2 MPH
PM Climate: 70ish, somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.96
Ride (moving) Time: 58:35
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 15.32 MPH
Max Speed: 36.2 MPH
I'm becoming increasingly convinced that average speed doesn't tell the whole story. The cycle-computer only factors in time that the bike is moving (to eliminate traffic stops as a factor in the result), but that means that two identical rides, except where in the middle or the 2nd ride I took a 10-minute break, would yield the same result. Today, I had to wait through three or four traffic light cycles at the corner of Germond and Route 304 - while that stopped time doesn't detract from the average, the break it affords certainly improved my later performance.
I don't think there's necessarily a way to solve the problem, but it's something to consider, especially with my overall average speeds being so close to each other now.
AM Climate: 62 degrees, somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.96 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 48:27
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.53 MPH
Max Speed: 40.2 MPH
PM Climate: 70ish, somewhat muggy
Distance: 14.96
Ride (moving) Time: 58:35
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 15.32 MPH
Max Speed: 36.2 MPH
Thursday, October 02, 2003
Latest on the Aquarium
Baxter, our Siamese Fighting Fish, died today:
Baxter was our only named fish - Trish bought him back in February for "fish week" when she was the director of The Goddard School. Hopefully we can find a similarly colored one before Mechel wisens up....
Check out our Aquarium page for more on the aquarium (I created the page today). We currently have three Siamese Algae Eaters, a Bushy Nosed Placo, three Red Eye Tetras, two Praecox Rainbows, two Pearl Gouramis, a Dwarf Gourami, and a Bosemani Rainbow.
Baxter was our only named fish - Trish bought him back in February for "fish week" when she was the director of The Goddard School. Hopefully we can find a similarly colored one before Mechel wisens up....
Check out our Aquarium page for more on the aquarium (I created the page today). We currently have three Siamese Algae Eaters, a Bushy Nosed Placo, three Red Eye Tetras, two Praecox Rainbows, two Pearl Gouramis, a Dwarf Gourami, and a Bosemani Rainbow.
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
This Week's Ride to Work
Yesterday, Bill at Piermont Bicycle replaced my broken spoke, so I'm back in action!
AM Climate: 57 degrees (summer is over!)
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:13
Total Time: 56:20
Avg Speed: 18.23 MPH
Max Speed: 39.4 MPH
The ride home was a little slow, mostly because it was in the dark. I was going down streetlight-less hills at 35+ MPH with a little AA battery headlamp on, just hoping the road kept going straight.
PM Climate: 60ish
Distance: 14.82
Ride (moving) Time: 57:54
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 15.36 MPH
Max Speed: 37.3 MPH
AM Climate: 57 degrees (summer is over!)
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:13
Total Time: 56:20
Avg Speed: 18.23 MPH
Max Speed: 39.4 MPH
The ride home was a little slow, mostly because it was in the dark. I was going down streetlight-less hills at 35+ MPH with a little AA battery headlamp on, just hoping the road kept going straight.
PM Climate: 60ish
Distance: 14.82
Ride (moving) Time: 57:54
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 15.36 MPH
Max Speed: 37.3 MPH
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Today's ride to work
AM Climate: Cool and Crisp
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:01
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.29 MPH
Max Speed: 40.5 MPH
I hit a bump and my lunch box came off the bike, went into the rear wheel, and broke a spoke. It's always something.....
PM Climate: Cool
Distance:14.93 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 0:57:11
Total Time: 1:05:00
Avg Speed: 15.67 MPH
Max Speed: 35.8 MPH
Distance: 14.95 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:01
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 18.29 MPH
Max Speed: 40.5 MPH
I hit a bump and my lunch box came off the bike, went into the rear wheel, and broke a spoke. It's always something.....
PM Climate: Cool
Distance:14.93 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 0:57:11
Total Time: 1:05:00
Avg Speed: 15.67 MPH
Max Speed: 35.8 MPH
Sunday, September 21, 2003
Sunday Stuff
This past week, in advance of Hurricane Isabel, I installed downspouts on the garage's existing gutters:
Today, I covered the sump pump pit with plastic sheeting. That way, the dehumidifiers don't work so hard to dry out the basement only to have the water in the sump pit evaporate and increase the humidity.
I also fixed my recumbent's rear shifter cable - hopefully biking will resume this week.
In the afternoon we went to Van Saun Park (link, link) in Paramus, NJ. Mechel fell asleep on the way there, and refused to wake up, and it was late in the day anyway, so we decided to let him sleep. Trish and I briefly checked out the train, the zoo, the carousel, and the pony rides. We'll have to come back when Mechel is awake!
1/2 sec, f10
1/4 sec, f10
1/8 sec, f10
Wake up Mechel, you're missing all the fun!
...When we got home, he was still sleeping. You snooze, you lose!
Today, I covered the sump pump pit with plastic sheeting. That way, the dehumidifiers don't work so hard to dry out the basement only to have the water in the sump pit evaporate and increase the humidity.
I also fixed my recumbent's rear shifter cable - hopefully biking will resume this week.
In the afternoon we went to Van Saun Park (link, link) in Paramus, NJ. Mechel fell asleep on the way there, and refused to wake up, and it was late in the day anyway, so we decided to let him sleep. Trish and I briefly checked out the train, the zoo, the carousel, and the pony rides. We'll have to come back when Mechel is awake!
1/2 sec, f10
1/4 sec, f10
1/8 sec, f10
Wake up Mechel, you're missing all the fun!
...When we got home, he was still sleeping. You snooze, you lose!
Monday, September 15, 2003
Here She Comes!
Here comes Hurricane Isabel - looks like it will pass about 160 miles West of our house (indicated by the red dot on the map) early Friday morning:
Am I supposed to cover my windows with plywood? It will have been over land for about 300 miles before it passes by, so it should have calmed down somewhat, but then again "calmed down somewhat" from 155 MPH winds might still be pretty nasty.
Am I supposed to cover my windows with plywood? It will have been over land for about 300 miles before it passes by, so it should have calmed down somewhat, but then again "calmed down somewhat" from 155 MPH winds might still be pretty nasty.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Weekly ride to work
I attempted the weekly ride on Wednesday (9/10). 3 miles into the ride, my rear shifter cable broke, reducing my 21 speed recumbent to a 3 speed. I rode and pushed my way home and Trish drove me to work. We think that in the confusion the garage door got left open after I stowed my bike, so we were gone from the house for an hour with the garage unlocked. You wouldn't think that would have been a problem, but....
We've been robbed!
When we came home from buying our van last night (Wed. 9/10/03), our low voltage path lights were not working. Tonight they were also not working, so I went to check the lights in the garage - I assumed the breaker for the outsie power had tripped. When the lights in the garage came on, I thought I had perhaps unplugged the transformer for the lights. I noticed there was nothing plugged in, and if fact the cord that comes in through the garage wall was missing, so I walked around the side of the house and discovered that the transformer had been torn off the garage's exterior wall, and the wires leading to the sidewalk lights had been cut. Grrrr. Trish will call Ruud to find out how much the thing costs, and then she'll call the Police. We suspect it was stolen while Trish was taking me to work on Wednesday - when she came back, the garage door was open. Perhaps it had been left unlocked when I put my bike away that morning? In any case, we were only gone an hour. Oh well.
Our new people-mover
Our new 2003 Honda Odyssey LX:
...We bought it yesterday in Queens. We used the Motley Fool car buying method with great success!
...We bought it yesterday in Queens. We used the Motley Fool car buying method with great success!
Sunday, September 07, 2003
More insect pictures
When we got back from the hike, there were all sorts of insects on one of the plants in our garden:
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Hiking in Monsey Glen Park
We went hiking today in Monsey Glen Park. The whole hike was not more than a mile. Mechel hiked about 75% of it himself - his first hike!
I climbed up to the old Consolidated Rail railroad track - its still there, but not in use. I'm tempted to build a rail bike....
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I climbed up to the old Consolidated Rail railroad track - its still there, but not in use. I'm tempted to build a rail bike....
Last Sunday....
Last Sunday (Aug. 31st) Mechel and I pulled out the dishwasher to fix the X10. It turned out that the dishwasher supply line connector was leaking a bit, so we tried tightening it up:
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Today's ride to work
AM Climate: Cloudy and very humid (blech!)
Distance: 14.91 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 50:14
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 17.81 MPH
Max Speed: 43.5 MPH
Excuses for poor performance: Brake rubbing on rear wheel (grrr..), Bad weather, wet roads, bad luck with traffic lights.
PM Climate: Cloudy, hotter and still humid
Distance: 14.88 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 56:53
Total Time: 1:03:22
Avg Speed: 15.70 MPH
Max Speed: 37.4 MPH
Distance: 14.91 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 50:14
Total Time:
Avg Speed: 17.81 MPH
Max Speed: 43.5 MPH
Excuses for poor performance: Brake rubbing on rear wheel (grrr..), Bad weather, wet roads, bad luck with traffic lights.
PM Climate: Cloudy, hotter and still humid
Distance: 14.88 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 56:53
Total Time: 1:03:22
Avg Speed: 15.70 MPH
Max Speed: 37.4 MPH
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Folly. Utter Folly.
Today, I received this E-mail regarding my online account application at Washington Mutual:
Date: 9/3/03
From: response@wamu.com
Subject: Re: DDATypeAccount
September 3, 2003
Dear Ben:
We're sorry we are unable to open a new account online for you
at this time. Our decision is based on information we received from
Experian, a consumer-reporting agency. There are discrepancies with the
date of birth provided on the application.
So here's my question: If I mistyped my birthdate (among the many pages of information I was required to enter) why not call to confirm the information? I guess if you mis-enter one piece of information, you have to start all over again. That's just plain silly.
Date: 9/3/03
From: response@wamu.com
Subject: Re: DDATypeAccount
September 3, 2003
Dear Ben:
We're sorry we are unable to open a new account online for you
at this time. Our decision is based on information we received from
Experian, a consumer-reporting agency. There are discrepancies with the
date of birth provided on the application.
So here's my question: If I mistyped my birthdate (among the many pages of information I was required to enter) why not call to confirm the information? I guess if you mis-enter one piece of information, you have to start all over again. That's just plain silly.
Thursday, August 28, 2003
We're off the grid (sort-of)
Yesterday night I installed our Internet-based telephone system. Basically, there's a box (the ATA-186) that plugs into the router, and then the phone plugs into the box. The phone works the same as it did plugged into the phone jack. There are several providers of this service - we went with Vonage, as it offers area code 845 phone numbers. Here's a diagram (from Vonage) of how it works:
There several advantages:
Cost: $26 a month for a "phone line" with all the usual features, free local and regional calls, and 500 free long distance minutes a month.
Portability: The phone number is associated with the ATA-186 - if I take the box (and my phone) anywhere in the world and plug it into an internet connection, when someone calls my home phone, the phone will ring! If we move across town or to another state, we can keep our old phone number
The primary disadvantage is reliability: If the cable modem connection fails, bye-bye phone service. Fortunately, we can call the cable company using the cell phone. Power failure is also a problem, but we have a 450VA UPS which should power the cable modem, router, and ATA-186 for quite some time.
...So, I called verizon and cancelled our service with them. Its pretty amazing that phone calls can be thrown around on the internet in real-time - being attached to the phone company with thousands of feet of copper wire suddenly seems so passé. Of course, we're still attached to the cable company, but one utility is better than two.
There several advantages:
Cost: $26 a month for a "phone line" with all the usual features, free local and regional calls, and 500 free long distance minutes a month.
Portability: The phone number is associated with the ATA-186 - if I take the box (and my phone) anywhere in the world and plug it into an internet connection, when someone calls my home phone, the phone will ring! If we move across town or to another state, we can keep our old phone number
The primary disadvantage is reliability: If the cable modem connection fails, bye-bye phone service. Fortunately, we can call the cable company using the cell phone. Power failure is also a problem, but we have a 450VA UPS which should power the cable modem, router, and ATA-186 for quite some time.
...So, I called verizon and cancelled our service with them. Its pretty amazing that phone calls can be thrown around on the internet in real-time - being attached to the phone company with thousands of feet of copper wire suddenly seems so passé. Of course, we're still attached to the cable company, but one utility is better than two.
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Today's "weekly ride to work"
Update: I re-measured my wheel circumference, and discovered that the cycle computer thought my wheel's circumference was 3.7% less than it really is. I've updated all the statistics for the "go to work" rides.
AM Climate: 74 degrees, 79% RH
Distance:14.39 Miles 14.92 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 48:35
Total Time: 54:00
Avg Speed:17.77 MPH 18.42 MPH
Max Speed:38.7 MPH 40.1 MPH
PM Climate: 78 degrees, 68% RH (Forecast)
Distance:14.40 Miles 14.93 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 57:52
Total Time: 1:01:05
Avg Speed:14.93 MPH 15.48 MPH
Max Speed:35.8 MPH 37.1 MPH
Fortunately, the weather forecast below did not come true; I made it home dry (as far as rain is concerned, anyway):
Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service
...SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY445 AM EDT TUE AUG 26 2003
THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS PLACED MOST OF THE TRI-STATE AREA IN A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FOR LATER TODAY. ONLY THE EASTERN PART OF SUFFOLK COUNTY ON LONG ISLAND AS WELL AS NEW HAVEN... MIDDLESEX AND NEW LONDON COUNTIES IN CONNECTICUT REMAIN OUTSIDE OF THIS INCREASED THREAT AREA.
THE COMBINATION OF A WARM AND MOIST AIRMASS ALREADY IN PLACE OVER THE REGION AND AN APPROACHING SURFACE TROUGH WILL PRODUCE ENOUGH INSTABILITY TO ALLOW STRONG AND POSSIBLY SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING. THESE STORMS COULD BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 58 MPH OR LARGE HAILOF PENNY SIZE OR GREATER. AREAS OF VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE WITH THESE STORMS.
THOSE WITH OUTDOOR PLANS AND ACTIVITIES SHOULD STAY ALERT TO RAPIDLY CHANGING SKY CONDITIONS AND SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY IF THREATENING WEATHER IS OBSERVED. SKYWARN SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING....
AM Climate: 74 degrees, 79% RH
Distance:
Ride (moving) Time: 48:35
Total Time: 54:00
Avg Speed:
Max Speed:
PM Climate: 78 degrees, 68% RH (Forecast)
Distance:
Ride (moving) Time: 57:52
Total Time: 1:01:05
Avg Speed:
Max Speed:
Fortunately, the weather forecast below did not come true; I made it home dry (as far as rain is concerned, anyway):
Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service
...SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY445 AM EDT TUE AUG 26 2003
THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS PLACED MOST OF THE TRI-STATE AREA IN A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FOR LATER TODAY. ONLY THE EASTERN PART OF SUFFOLK COUNTY ON LONG ISLAND AS WELL AS NEW HAVEN... MIDDLESEX AND NEW LONDON COUNTIES IN CONNECTICUT REMAIN OUTSIDE OF THIS INCREASED THREAT AREA.
THE COMBINATION OF A WARM AND MOIST AIRMASS ALREADY IN PLACE OVER THE REGION AND AN APPROACHING SURFACE TROUGH WILL PRODUCE ENOUGH INSTABILITY TO ALLOW STRONG AND POSSIBLY SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING. THESE STORMS COULD BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 58 MPH OR LARGE HAILOF PENNY SIZE OR GREATER. AREAS OF VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE WITH THESE STORMS.
THOSE WITH OUTDOOR PLANS AND ACTIVITIES SHOULD STAY ALERT TO RAPIDLY CHANGING SKY CONDITIONS AND SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY IF THREATENING WEATHER IS OBSERVED. SKYWARN SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING....
Monday, August 25, 2003
Star Gazing at Wawayanda
As a member of the Rockland Astronomy Club, I have a permit to go observing at Wawayanda State Park all year 'round. This past Saturday night, the club had a scheduled viewing night there, so I packed up my stuff and headed out there for the first time. I took along Alan, one of the Brits from Yeshiva.
By the time we got the scope set up (I took my strutted 8" dob) it was about 11:30pm. We looked at Mars for some time. I tried out my new color filter set - the red filter did seem to bring out more detail as promised. In the past, when I've looked at Mars, I haven't been able to make out any detail, but this time I was able to see the Southern Polar Cap, as well as the large dark area Syrtis Major on the left equatorial area and the smaller dark area of Mare Erythraeum to the right (you can check this out using Sky and Telescope's Mars Profiler - enter "8/22/2003" for the date and "21:30" for the time to get a feel for what we saw (our view wasn't nearly that detailed, but the basic shapes were there)). The blue, green, and yellow filters didn't seem to do much.
After Mars, we looked at some deep sky objects - I showed Alan some objects I had seen before: M45, M57, M71, M27, M31, M32, and M110.
...I also sighted four new Messier Objects I had not seen before:
M26 - unimpressive - just a diamond of four stars.
M11 - was nice - largish, with one bright star and hundreds of dimmer members.
M72 - was dim fuzzy patch (at least at with my 32mm lens, which is 38x on my 1220mm focal length telescope).
M73 - quirky asterism.
We got home around 4am. The skies were surprisingly good - Its only a 40 minute drive, and we could see the Milky Way nearly from horizon to horizon.
By the time we got the scope set up (I took my strutted 8" dob) it was about 11:30pm. We looked at Mars for some time. I tried out my new color filter set - the red filter did seem to bring out more detail as promised. In the past, when I've looked at Mars, I haven't been able to make out any detail, but this time I was able to see the Southern Polar Cap, as well as the large dark area Syrtis Major on the left equatorial area and the smaller dark area of Mare Erythraeum to the right (you can check this out using Sky and Telescope's Mars Profiler - enter "8/22/2003" for the date and "21:30" for the time to get a feel for what we saw (our view wasn't nearly that detailed, but the basic shapes were there)). The blue, green, and yellow filters didn't seem to do much.
After Mars, we looked at some deep sky objects - I showed Alan some objects I had seen before: M45, M57, M71, M27, M31, M32, and M110.
...I also sighted four new Messier Objects I had not seen before:
M26 - unimpressive - just a diamond of four stars.
M11 - was nice - largish, with one bright star and hundreds of dimmer members.
M72 - was dim fuzzy patch (at least at with my 32mm lens, which is 38x on my 1220mm focal length telescope).
M73 - quirky asterism.
We got home around 4am. The skies were surprisingly good - Its only a 40 minute drive, and we could see the Milky Way nearly from horizon to horizon.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Today's "weekly ride to work"
Update: I re-measured my wheel circumference, and discovered that the cycle computer thought my wheel's circumference was 3.7% less than it really is. I've updated all the statistics for the "go to work" rides.
AM Climate: 74 degrees, 80% RH
Distance:14.37 Miles 14.90 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 49:51
Total Time: 54:48
Avg Speed:17.29 MPH 17.93 MPH
Max Speed:39.4 MPH 40.9 MPH
PM Climate: Hot and Wet
Distance:14.39 Miles 14.92 Miles
Ride (moving) Time: 1:01:55
Total Time:
Avg Speed:13.94 MPH 14.45 MPH
Max Speed:34.1 MPH 35.4 MPH
AM Climate: 74 degrees, 80% RH
Distance:
Ride (moving) Time: 49:51
Total Time: 54:48
Avg Speed:
Max Speed:
PM Climate: Hot and Wet
Distance:
Ride (moving) Time: 1:01:55
Total Time:
Avg Speed:
Max Speed:
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
The Hakimi / Bloom wedding
Trish and Mechel and I went to the wedding of Daniel Hakimi and Annie Bloom in Huntington Station, NY last night. Trish and I have known Annie since our Oregon days - she came back from Neve Yerushalayim a few weeks before Tricia went. It was wonderful to see two people come together to form a bayis ne'eman b'Yisroel.
It was also great to see a number of folks from Portland:
In addition to Rabbi Oppenheimer and the Goldstein and Rosenberg families, we also saw Janice Cohen, Ariza Fax, and Annie's roommate, Laliev Ben-Avraham. Trish and I miss the Kesser gang, so its great when Kesserites pop up in our neck of the woods!
Mechel at the wedding
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Annie receives Tricia and Mechel
Annie receives other guests
It was also great to see a number of folks from Portland:
(left to right) Rabbi Oppenheimer, Yosef Rosenberg, Rabbi Shmuel Goldstein (former Kesser Israel youth director)
Yosef Rosenberg, Mechel and I
Rabbi Oppenheimer speaks with Mrs. Bloom
In addition to Rabbi Oppenheimer and the Goldstein and Rosenberg families, we also saw Janice Cohen, Ariza Fax, and Annie's roommate, Laliev Ben-Avraham. Trish and I miss the Kesser gang, so its great when Kesserites pop up in our neck of the woods!
The New Dishwasher
This past Sunday I picked up and installed our new Kenmore dishwasher. I took the power leading to the old dishwasher and wired it to an outlet, then ran a direct power line from the back of the outlet to the dishwasher. I wired the outlet in the middle there so that I could plug the garbage disposal into an X10 appliance module. This allows us to turn it on and off using a wireless switch.
Unfortunately, the disposal wasn't working consistently - I think its because the X10 wireless receiver is plugged into a circuit that's not on the same leg as the X10 appliance module. When the A/C is on, which uses 220v (and thus bridges the legs), the disposal works (look at this page for an explanation of the problem). For some reason, Trish doesn't like the idea of having to turn on the A/C to run the disposal. One more thing to fix...
We also continued our battle against a mildewy basement by buying two dehumidifiers - after 48 hours of operation, the humidity in the basement is down from 70% to 46%. It feels warmer and dry, but there is still a faint "basement-ish" smell.
Unfortunately, the disposal wasn't working consistently - I think its because the X10 wireless receiver is plugged into a circuit that's not on the same leg as the X10 appliance module. When the A/C is on, which uses 220v (and thus bridges the legs), the disposal works (look at this page for an explanation of the problem). For some reason, Trish doesn't like the idea of having to turn on the A/C to run the disposal. One more thing to fix...
We also continued our battle against a mildewy basement by buying two dehumidifiers - after 48 hours of operation, the humidity in the basement is down from 70% to 46%. It feels warmer and dry, but there is still a faint "basement-ish" smell.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
A biking we will go....
I rode my bike to work for the first time today. From Monsey to Rockleigh (at least the way I went) was 14.74 miles. Here are the stats:
Update: I re-measured my wheel circumference, and discovered that the cycle computer thought my wheel's circumference was 3.7% less than it really is. I've updated all the statistics for the "go to work" rides.
Elevation change: 450 foot drop (0.58% average grade)
Time: 55:28
Average Speed:16.72 MPH 17.34 MPH
Max Speed:40.8 MPH 42.3 MPH
I used my linear recumbent (mine was originally an underseat steering model like the one on the left, but I converted it to overseat steering so it looks more like the one on the right) with my Zzip fairing (shown on my tandem, "rolling thunder"). The ride went well, despite it being 80 degrees with 95% humidity. Blech. The ride home will be even nastier, I suspect.
Update: Here are the stats for the return trip:
Distance:14.64 15.18 (I went back a slightly different way)
Time: 1:10:00
Avg Speed:12.81MPH 13.28 MPH
Max Speed:35.8 MPH 37.1 MPH
It was really hot and wet going back, and I definitely noticed the elevation gain! For a 15 mile ride, I think eating something, or at least drinking a Gatoraide-type drink instead of water, would make a big difference.
Update: I re-measured my wheel circumference, and discovered that the cycle computer thought my wheel's circumference was 3.7% less than it really is. I've updated all the statistics for the "go to work" rides.
Elevation change: 450 foot drop (0.58% average grade)
Time: 55:28
Average Speed:
Max Speed:
I used my linear recumbent (mine was originally an underseat steering model like the one on the left, but I converted it to overseat steering so it looks more like the one on the right) with my Zzip fairing (shown on my tandem, "rolling thunder"). The ride went well, despite it being 80 degrees with 95% humidity. Blech. The ride home will be even nastier, I suspect.
Update: Here are the stats for the return trip:
Distance:
Time: 1:10:00
Avg Speed:
Max Speed:
It was really hot and wet going back, and I definitely noticed the elevation gain! For a 15 mile ride, I think eating something, or at least drinking a Gatoraide-type drink instead of water, would make a big difference.
Monday, August 11, 2003
More Sunday stuff
Nothing really major this Sunday.
To try and combat the mildew smell that comes up form the basement through the A/C ducts, I put up a sheet of plastic to isolate the well area in the basement from the rest of the basement. The well is in a small cubby which is actually not under the house (unlike the rest of the basement, which is immediately under the house). Since there's no house to keep the basement's ceiling dry there, water seems to seep between the concrete slabs which make up the roof for the well cubby. My humidifier was reading 70% when it was down in the basement. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll try using a dehumidifier.
I did many, many loads of laundry, and we did a bit of weeding and shrub trimming. The former owner of our house, a landscaper, said that the shrubs leading up to our house are Taxus sp., a type of Yew tree. He said they can't be trimmed past the needle line (leaving just the branches) as it would take years for the shrub to regenerate. The folks at OSU seem to disagree - clearly more research is needed.
To try and combat the mildew smell that comes up form the basement through the A/C ducts, I put up a sheet of plastic to isolate the well area in the basement from the rest of the basement. The well is in a small cubby which is actually not under the house (unlike the rest of the basement, which is immediately under the house). Since there's no house to keep the basement's ceiling dry there, water seems to seep between the concrete slabs which make up the roof for the well cubby. My humidifier was reading 70% when it was down in the basement. If this doesn't solve the problem, I'll try using a dehumidifier.
I did many, many loads of laundry, and we did a bit of weeding and shrub trimming. The former owner of our house, a landscaper, said that the shrubs leading up to our house are Taxus sp., a type of Yew tree. He said they can't be trimmed past the needle line (leaving just the branches) as it would take years for the shrub to regenerate. The folks at OSU seem to disagree - clearly more research is needed.
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Answer: A lot!
I have a largish berry bearing bush (try saying that five times fast) outside my den window. Its not uncommon for me to look up and see a squirrel or cardinal munching on the berries. Today, I looked up, and for the first time, I saw a woodchuck.
He was chucking wood!
Never mind the berries, he was eating leaves and branches. A member of the Marmot family (Marmota monax, to be precise), the woodchuck, or groundhog (also known as the "Whistlepig", apparently) is a largish rodent, about the size of a cat:
It was raining quite a bit - they don't always look so soggy.
He was chucking wood!
Never mind the berries, he was eating leaves and branches. A member of the Marmot family (Marmota monax, to be precise), the woodchuck, or groundhog (also known as the "Whistlepig", apparently) is a largish rodent, about the size of a cat:
It was raining quite a bit - they don't always look so soggy.
So many tasks, so little time!
Well, I managed to get two major "Sundayish" things done - one was putting together a three piece furniture set I had purchased at Home Depot:
They were being closed out at $80 - not too shabby!
After that, I set out to install a new faucet in our kitchen sink - the old faucet was not compatible with our portable dishwasher. I ended up having to pull the sink out just to get the old faucet off:
Trish said "Well, as long as you had to take the sink out, you might as well install the garbage disposal". Its this sort of logic that has folks go in for an oil change and come home with a new transmission. Despite that, I acquiesced, and the two of us spent a good bit of time getting the thing installed. Its pretty amazing how nasty the stuff in and around old plumbing can be. Blech! Mechel also got in on the project:
Finally, we got the new faucet and disposal installed. I still have to hook up the water lines to the faucet (I need longer connectors). I also need to pull out the dishwasher to hook up the power for the disposal. Rather than install a new wall switch, I'll probably use an inline X10 module to turn the disposal on and off.
Of course, the minute I pull out the dishwasher, I'll hear "As long as you've got it out, you might as well install the new dishwasher".
...Which is what I'll do.
They were being closed out at $80 - not too shabby!
After that, I set out to install a new faucet in our kitchen sink - the old faucet was not compatible with our portable dishwasher. I ended up having to pull the sink out just to get the old faucet off:
Trish said "Well, as long as you had to take the sink out, you might as well install the garbage disposal". Its this sort of logic that has folks go in for an oil change and come home with a new transmission. Despite that, I acquiesced, and the two of us spent a good bit of time getting the thing installed. Its pretty amazing how nasty the stuff in and around old plumbing can be. Blech! Mechel also got in on the project:
Finally, we got the new faucet and disposal installed. I still have to hook up the water lines to the faucet (I need longer connectors). I also need to pull out the dishwasher to hook up the power for the disposal. Rather than install a new wall switch, I'll probably use an inline X10 module to turn the disposal on and off.
 |  |
Of course, the minute I pull out the dishwasher, I'll hear "As long as you've got it out, you might as well install the new dishwasher".
...Which is what I'll do.
Thursday, July 31, 2003
Oil, that is.... black gold.... Texas tea.
Before we bought our house, our inspector found a overflow pipe in the yard, indicating the presence of an underground oil tank (for heating oil). The then owners of the house, who had lived here since 1980ish, had always had natural gas heat, and didn't even know the house used to be heated with oil. I knew someone in Oregon who, upon removing his oil tank, discovered that it had leaked (about 3% of underground oil tanks fail), and was forced by the government to clean it up by removing the contaminated earth. It ended up costing him about $80,000.
So, before we bought the house, we had the ground around the tank tested. The tests came back negative, indicating that the tank had not leaked. We had the tank pulled out today. I aimed my videocamera at the work site and hooked it up to my computer, which was running webcam software, so I could watch the work proceed throughout the day. Here are some highlights:
Here's the site on the south side of the house - I pained an "X" on the ground so they would know where to dig. Note the date and time at the top of the image.
The bulldozer goes to work
The top of the tank is cut open with what appears to be a circular saw
The tank's contents are sucked out
Thar she blows! A hump like a snow hill! Well, OK, more like a 550 gallon oil tank, 5 feet long and 4 feet across. It's huge!!
The hole is (mostly) filled in. Tomorrow they will be filling in the hole the rest of the way and reconnecting the electrical connection between the garage and the house that was (oops) severed during the digging.
So, before we bought the house, we had the ground around the tank tested. The tests came back negative, indicating that the tank had not leaked. We had the tank pulled out today. I aimed my videocamera at the work site and hooked it up to my computer, which was running webcam software, so I could watch the work proceed throughout the day. Here are some highlights:
Here's the site on the south side of the house - I pained an "X" on the ground so they would know where to dig. Note the date and time at the top of the image.
The bulldozer goes to work
The top of the tank is cut open with what appears to be a circular saw
The tank's contents are sucked out
Thar she blows! A hump like a snow hill! Well, OK, more like a 550 gallon oil tank, 5 feet long and 4 feet across. It's huge!!
The hole is (mostly) filled in. Tomorrow they will be filling in the hole the rest of the way and reconnecting the electrical connection between the garage and the house that was (oops) severed during the digging.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Of Tables and Telephones
Sunday is usually fix-up-the-house-we-just-moved-into day around here. I finally got around to spraying the mildew in the basement with bleach solution; we'll see if that does the trick.
My parents we're kind enough to buy us a dining room set for our new house. I was perfectly happy using our 8 foot long Office Depot folding table, but Tricia doesn't really appreciate my "steel 'n' chipboard" sensibilities. We chose the Bassett "Options" line, in the "light oak" finish to match our dining room - we got the table with 6 chairs, and a china hutch.
Unfortunately, the table only sits 6 with the 18" leaf installed, and we really wanted a table that seats eight. So, I ordered new table slides from a table slide manufacturer and an extra leaf from Bassett. Today, I installed the new slides - my custom 2 leaf, 8 foot version of the table worked out very well:
I also got around to installing a deadbolt in the dining room door, in addition to the those I installed in the other two doors a couple weeks ago.
A new house is being built in the lot in front of ours, and on Friday the construction team managed to cut of phone cable. The contractor sent his phone guy to fix it today, and they rigged up a temporary solution - we have a phone cable going from tree to tree until it reaches our house. I guess the plan is to properly re-install the phone cable as the construction nears completion.
My parents we're kind enough to buy us a dining room set for our new house. I was perfectly happy using our 8 foot long Office Depot folding table, but Tricia doesn't really appreciate my "steel 'n' chipboard" sensibilities. We chose the Bassett "Options" line, in the "light oak" finish to match our dining room - we got the table with 6 chairs, and a china hutch.
Unfortunately, the table only sits 6 with the 18" leaf installed, and we really wanted a table that seats eight. So, I ordered new table slides from a table slide manufacturer and an extra leaf from Bassett. Today, I installed the new slides - my custom 2 leaf, 8 foot version of the table worked out very well:
I also got around to installing a deadbolt in the dining room door, in addition to the those I installed in the other two doors a couple weeks ago.
A new house is being built in the lot in front of ours, and on Friday the construction team managed to cut of phone cable. The contractor sent his phone guy to fix it today, and they rigged up a temporary solution - we have a phone cable going from tree to tree until it reaches our house. I guess the plan is to properly re-install the phone cable as the construction nears completion.
Friday, July 25, 2003
Thursday, July 24, 2003
It's Alive!
I guess now that the journal is up and running I should actually enter something into it. Getting this to work was (for me) quite an accomplishment - in the process of getting this going, I learned a bit of XML and XSL, how to use the XMLDOM engine, and a bit of JavaScript.
The idea behind this journal is that I'll be able to quickly add entries when we go on trips, etc. without having to fashion webpages, make links, etc.. Additionally, the main page shows the latest entry, so I don't have to maintain a "log of changes" page.
I hope to soon have a journal up for Tricia and Mechel.
The idea behind this journal is that I'll be able to quickly add entries when we go on trips, etc. without having to fashion webpages, make links, etc.. Additionally, the main page shows the latest entry, so I don't have to maintain a "log of changes" page.
I hope to soon have a journal up for Tricia and Mechel.