What Am I Doing?

Thursday, October 27, 2005

I Survived Siagon Video

This is a great video of a TYPICAL intersection in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! (Used to be called Siagon.) This is the way it really is! Now, get out there and cross the street!

Sunday, October 23, 2005

"After budgets cuts led to the layoff of engineers and scientists at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a US Senate committee has approved a $3 billion dollar subsidy to assist Americans in their difficult transition to digital television in 2009. The old analog television spectrum will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The transition date was chosen to not interfere with college football bowl games or basketball playoffs." From the article: "The draft of a House bill would end analog transmissions on Dec. 31, 2008. It does not mention a subsidy for set-top converter boxes. So, lawmakers will likely have to work out differences between the two bills, though Stevens said he did not anticipate a big fight with the House over the deadline or the subsidy."

Fire Marshall Deb

It seemed like a simple plan, take the trailer full of garbage to the dump. This we did, but after driving away from the dump, enduring ridicule for my trailer backing skills, and inhaling the stench of loaded diapers and stale beer, I decided there had to be an easier way to get rid of all of the yard debris we have.

Thus the first ever Rick & Deb brush burning party began! I drug out the hose, broke out the chain saw, and piled up some stuff to light on fire.

The easiest thing, light wood on fire.

It took me 45 minutes to get this damn thing going! We had stopped at the gas station on the way home from the dump, (when I had this great idea) to pick up some lighter fluid, but they were out. We tried newspaper, brazing torch, hell I even fired up the leaf blower to fan the flames! In the end, I think the fire finally felt pity for me, and just started up.

We managed to clean up all of the many piles of debris around the yard. Hail to the Brush Burning Fire!

Brush Burning Relaxation

This was taken around 5:30pm. We sat out here until 9:30 before we hosed the embers down so we could go to sleep. We got rid of at least two full truck loads of brush, wood, huge nasty piles of old carpet, and construction wood scraps! Much of this stuff was left over from the trailer house that was on the property before we showed up.

Hawaii Art

We picked out a signed, framed photo by G. Brad Lewis, a renowned Volcano photographer, while on our trip to Waikiki. It arrived an a large wooden box and we now have it on display in the bedroom. The red lava at the edges of the photo just flat glow under good light.

Note: The large golden 'G. Brad Lewis' has been placed on the photo shown above to prevent people from stealing his shots. The actual piece has a small handwritten signature in the lower right corner.

Japanese Polar Bear Scare

Japanese Polar Bear Scare

Do NOT dress up like a seal and expect to walk by a Polar Bear unnoticed.

The Game, Is Now Doom The Movie!

kgw.com News for Oregon and SW Washington Movies: "Doom ain't Shakespeare. But it's not bad.

Based on the video-game franchise of the same name from id Software, Doom the movie is a surprisingly non-kitschy action film."

The Business traveler!

Ouch, that has got to hurt!

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Accidental Invention Points to End of Light Bulbs

Accidental Invention Points to End of Light Bulbs: "The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.

An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete."