Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Special Weather Statement

Expires 8:00 AM MST on November 28, 2007 -->
Statement as of 9:00 PM MST on November 27, 2007

... Very slick roads for the Wednesday morning commute...

Conditions Wednesday morning for the morning commute are expected to be very slippery on area roads. Snow showers from Tuesday evening have dropped between one half and one inch of snow in the Treasure and Magic Valley.

Minimum temperatures Wednesday morning are forecast to drop to the upper teens to lower 20s across the region. Any left over moisture will freeze up quickly overnight and produce a very slick condition on roads... sidewalks and other exposed surfaces.

Driving Wednesday morning may be quite hazardous. Caution is advised. It is early in the season and people need to refresh themselves in winter driving conditions. Allow extra time to reach destinations... slow down and keep plenty of distance between vehicles.

Fast Cars...

And How To Slow Them Down!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Flight Wait

Catching A Plane?

Sunday ATV Ride

25 Miles later and we are back from a great time riding in the cold.

Some fun hills to try.

The blue arrow represents what can happen to a fast moving photographer trying to get into the timed shot, but discovering a badger hole along the way!

This was one of those uncontrolled falls that you used to do when you were 8 years old many times a day with no ill effects, but now that you are over 40, might just result in you being crippled come Monday morning.

The adrenaline is just starting to wear off and the pain set in. This was what I thought the shot would look like originally.

Almost home and on the right side of the railroad tracks!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Monday, November 12, 2007

Roadside Assistance

Cool Sites Flood!

Once people become familiar with the Blog, there seems to be a continuing theme the very next time I see them. "How do you find all that stuff?" Well, Christmas comes early as I post some of my favorite sites, new and old. There are eleven of them here. If these don't keep you busy for awhile, throw away your computer, because you can't be helped!

Snopes

Before you forward that so-called "true" story that landed in your inbox this morning to everyone in your address book, you better check Snopes to make sure it's not completely full of you-know-what. It's an extensive index of urban legends, common fallacies, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumors, trashy gossip, and more.

Damn Interesting

Welcome to our collection of damn interesting things. Damn Interesting was founded, designed, and developed by Alan Bellows in September of 2005. Though we occasionally post bits which could be described as "news," our primary aim is to collect and dispense damn interesting facts and ideas, whether they appeared in the past, the present, or the (anticipated) future. New articles appear twice(ish) a week, though we're aiming to increase that a bit.

Number Logic

Welcome to Number-Logic.com, the web's premier site for Sudoku puzzles!

YourMinis

YourMinis gives you a page that you can modify with your own mix of widgets--RSS feeds, Flickr images, video feeds, weather and time blocks, and so on. The widgets and the YourMinis container page are all in Flash, and the widgets are very pretty to look at and easy to move around on the page. You can also do things with them (such as rotate them arbitrarily, for a scrapbook effect)

StumbleUpon

Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.

You Don't Know JACK

You Don't Know Jack was a popular computer game in the 1990s, and has since lived on in Internet form. Users can pit their wits on this often-peculiar weekly quiz show, or on the shorter, daily iteration called DisOrDat. Players compete for prize money, using their keyboard to chime in and answer multiple-choice quiz questions. The game is fondly remembered by many for its charismatic narrator, who mixes humor with player humiliation.

One of the reasons the game became so popular was for its low system requirements, which would allow the game to be run even on aging hardware. The current version is entirely Web-based, and runs on any browser with the Flash player plug-in installed.

Wayfaring

  • Create personalized maps
  • Share them with your friends
  • Explore maps created by others
  • Connect and collaborate

Panoramio

Panoramio is a website that enables digital photographers to geolocate, store and organize their photographs–and to view those photographs in Google Earth and Google Maps.

Thoof

Welcome to Thoof!

Thoof will show you interesting news, websites, videos, and other links, personalized to your individual tastes. Just click on the stories that interest you, and let Thoof do the rest. If you don't like the way a story is described, just click edit and propose a change to it. It's that simple! For more information, watch this screencast

GrandCentral

What is GrandCentral?
Get all the same calls, but in a whole new way.

GrandCentral doesn't replace your phones; we just link them together and help them do more. How do we do that? We give people One Number...for LifeTM - a number that's not tied to a phone or a location - but tied to you.

With GrandCentral, you can be reached with a single number, answer a call at any phone you want, seamlessly switch phones in the middle of a call, and even know whether a call is important before you take it.

What else can I do with GrandCentral?
We're not your typical phone company. And these aren't your typical features.

- Check your messages by phone, email, or online
- Keep all your messages online for eternity
- Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
- Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
- Click-to-dial from your address book
- Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
- Forward, download, and add notes to your messages

This service is currently in BETA. Reserve your number now... They signed me up the next day.

Pandora

About Pandora©

When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?

At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play music you'll love - and nothing else.

To understand just how we do this, and why we think we do it really, really well, you need to know about the Music Genome Project©.

Since we started back in 2000, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

With Pandora you can explore this vast trove of music to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

You can create as many "stations" as you want. And you can even refine them. If it's not quite right you can tell it so and it will get better for you.

The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help you connect with the music YOU like.

We hope you enjoy the experience!

Rain Arrives In Boise


Monday Morning Sunrise

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Table Rock

This is the panoramic shot covering 180+ degrees off the top of Table Rock.
That is downtown Boise.
A closer shot.
Underneath the "Table" are some small caves.
Deb and I take shelter from the wind in one of the caves.
Landscape photos do not show you if the wind is blowing. I needed Deb in the shot for that!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Scary Smart!

Passengers revolt after being told to fly on jet with its wing tip missing

An airline crew faced a rebellion when they told passengers they were going to fly on a jet that had lost its wing tip in a runway crash.

The SriLankan Airlines customers had been on the Airbus A340 a day earlier when it sliced through a wing of a stationary British Airways 747 at Heathrow, delaying departure by 24 hours.

So they were amazed to be boarding the same plane next day for the ten-hour flight to Colombo.

The 2:45am Fire Alarm

Well here it is 2:45 in the morning and I have just come back inside after being given the "All Clear" by the local fire department. I wasn't the first person out of the building, but I was close. I can assure you that when the sirens and strobe light starts to go off in your room... you'll wake up!

There are really only 2 things making this event blog worthy: The first is how few people actually evacuated the building. I counted no more that 10 people outside when I know for a fact that the entire hotel is booked. And, of those 10 people more than half of them were co-workers. You could see people looking out of their windows, but they weren't coming out!

The second, is the history of this fine hotel. I have had adventure here before! See Blogging In The Blackout for details.