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Inwood Hiking Trails in Snow

December 11, 2005

The path leading from points ‘E’ to ‘F’ in the Inwood Hiking Trails
(Click for more…)

As I tend to do lately, I headed out to the Inwood Hiking Trails yesterday to go wandering around. I haven’t really been hiking in the snow before, but I figured that a not-too-cold day after a nice snowfall would be a good time to wander around one of my favorite local hiking places.

Well, despite almost falling through some ice and ending up with frozen solid pant legs afterwards, it really was a nice walk. It turned out that everyone else who had been there since last week’s big snowfall had turned back after only going a few hundred feet into the park. That meant that all of the trails were covered with nothing more than animal tracks and nice, fresh, powdery snow. At one point I even came across both foot and wing prints from where a bird had landed and what appears to be signs of a small animal being dropped in the snow then running away. Perhaps from a bird or something?

The only part that had me somewhat worried was this pathway which, in the snow, seems innocent enough. However, if one looks at it in the summer time it’s pretty obvious that there is a bunch of marsh and other wet badness which one would not want to accidently fall in. (Although comparing the two pictures, I wonder if they are the same walkway, or similar ones.)

Anyway, it was a really nice time wandering through the woods. The only problem is that my calves, knees, and hips are horribly sore. I’ve realized that walking through 4″ – 6″ snow for a few hours, including up and down a number of relatively steep hills requires one to walk differently. And that walking differently puts a rather unique load on one’s body.

Oh and I also scanned in all four ‘pages’ of the flyer which is distributed near the entrance to the Inwood Hiking Trails: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

Based on the map of Inwood Hiking Trails I walked about 3.4 miles in the snow. Figuring in little bits of back tracking, wandering a short ways down other trails and other meandering, I’d figure I probably did a total of 3.5 miles, by the end of which I was far more tired than if I had done seven miles on dry ground. Wow.

Let’s do the time warp again…

December 9, 2005

Okay, so from last night around the time I got home until today just after I got home, I captured 2762 individual frames in an attempt to make a stop motion video of last night’s snow storm. One frame was captured every ~30 seconds, then those were all squished into a video running at 30 frames per second, making each second of cover 15 minutes.

The video is available here if you would like to see it:

08 – 09 December 2005 Snow Storm Timelapse (~12MB, H.264, 640 x 480 @ 30fps)

I apologize about the screen in the window, but it is non-trivial to remove it. Also, it appears the window is much dirtier than I thought, but I was having a hard time telling that last night, so I just ended up shooting through the dirty window. Ah well, at least it’s kinda nifty.

I’m sure there will be plenty of other snow storms this year. Next time I really want to have a camera that can be controlled by Apple’s Image Capture and have each photo taken automatically downloaded to the local machine. Now that could make for some nifty time lapse video.

making things moved from livejournal weather

Tonight’s photos…

December 9, 2005

Greasy, greasy three cheese bread from Hungry Howie’s.

Anyone want to see photos of a BTX machine? This Dell Dimension E310 (photo gallery retired) is the first BTX machine I have ever worked with, and I have to say that I rather like the layout. It allows the machine to be cooled very quietly.

Second, here are two photos of portions of tonight’s dinner:
· A bottle of Hennepin partially poured into the glass from which I drank it.
· Hungry Howie’s Three Cheese Bread with cajun seasoning on it. (Yes, it was really greasy.) The Hennepin is really nice, but the three cheese bread is (and should be) simply a food of desperation. Yes, that’s what is pictured above.

Also, when I stopped by Red Wagon Wine Shoppe yesterday at lunch I picked up a bottle of both Dogfish Head’s Pangaea and World Wide Stout, and Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (Marzen). A photo of those three beers can be seen here: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier (Marzen), Dogfish Head’s World Wide Stout, and Dogfish Head’s Pangaea

Finally, I also got some photos of last night’s dinner. The first part was Trader Joe’s Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4. These are kinda iffy, and I’m not sure if I’d buy them again.

The second part was Trader Jose’s (Joe’s) Wild Mushroom Quesadilla. They are $2.99 each, seem to store well in the fridge, and taste quite nice. I have to highly recommend these.

beer food moved from livejournal

Snow!

December 8, 2005

I am trying out an experiment. If things go according to plan, I’ll have a timelapse movie of tonight’s (forecasted) massive snowfall. At the same time, the image up above should update with the current captured frame. We’ll see how that goes.

Oh, and yes, that is the best image I could get without a bunch of CCD noise. And no, I don’t have an easy way to remove the screen, and the only window I have without a screen (the doorwall) doesn’t have enough light outside of it for one to be able to see the snow. Ah well. :)

If you want to view this on it’s own page refreshing every 30 seconds or so, visit http://www.nuxx.net/webcam.

moved from livejournal weather

KLEENEX Anti-Viral Tissues (Revisited)

December 8, 2005

KLEENEX^®-brand Anti-Viral Tissue Box
(Photo of anti-viral layer.)

Okay, having looked more into the KLEENEX^®-brand Anti-Viral tissues, I figured I’d add some more info about them.

First off, the copy from the back of the box:

Because cold and flu viruses are often spread by hand contact, KLEENEX^® Brand has developed a tissue for your whole family. KLEENEX^® Anti-Viral* tissue has three soft layers, including a moisture-activated middle layer that kills 99.9% of cold and flu viruses* in the tissue within 15 minutes. This product has not been tested against bacteria, fungo or other viruses. See below for anti-viral* details.

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS:
Citric Acid 7.51%
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate 2.02%
INERT INGREDIENTS 90.47%
Total 100%

Directions for Use: It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling. Use only as a facial tissue.
*Virucidal Agent: Rhinoviruses Type 1A and 2 (Rhinoviruses are the leading cause of the common cold); Influenza A and Influenza B (causes of the flu); Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV – the leading cause of lower respiratory infection in children).
Storage and Disposal: Store in a dry area. Dispose of used tissues promptly. Do not reuse empty container.

Okay, so now I am just confused. If one takes all the directions on the package into account, one should never handle the used tissues and therefore the anti-viral agents should be unnecessary.

That said, I can think of the following things which these tissues could allow one to safely do:

· Drying (possibly by hanging) of used tissues for future reuse, as they no longer contain cold-spreading virsuses.
· Recycling of used tissues into a food product. (Perhaps just a filler to provide extra bulk?)
· Behaving like a stereotypical OAP (older aged person) and carrying a tissue around and constantly reusing it.
· Non-infectious performance art prop. But what is the point then?
· Garbage can (bin) of used tissues can safely be used along side hair (human and/or animal) as rustic pillow stuffing.
· Reusable (leave-in-place-all-day) toilet seat liner.

Hrm. Still, I think these are technology and marketing going where they shouldn’t go. Despite the new possibilities, I’ll personally just stick with toilet paper roll when it comes to blowing my nose.

UPDATE: If I’m ever really mad at a girl who may be at my place, I’ll just run out of toilet paper and change to boxes of these on the back of the toilet.

health moved from livejournal

Anti-Viral KLEENEX

December 8, 2005

Anti-Viral KLEENEX taste, as expected, sour and bitter. They contain citric acid and sodium laureth sulfate which, I can only imagine, work with the wetness created when one’s nose is blown into them, and supposedly kills viruses. And yes, they taste just as I expected them to.

health moved from livejournal

Car Audio Tuning Help?

December 6, 2005

If anyone who reads this and knows a bit about audio stuffs (and maybe car audio stuffs) can offer some help with this, I’d greatly appreciate it:

As I mentioned here, I installed two new speakers and an amp / crossover which are part of the Honda accessory known as the Bass System Kit. The instructions for installation stated that one should set both the cut and gain settings to ‘the nine-o’clock position’ for my model car. I’ve found that the gain setting seems a bit high, and turning that down seems to have evened out the bass, but I can’t help but think the cut (crossover) setting just isn’t quite right. It almost seems as if too much mid-range audio is still going to those particular speakers.

What I’m asking is if anyone can give me some tips as to setting the cut (crossover) and gain settings for the amp. Currently I’m going with listening to different things while driving around, listening for any distortion or points which simply sound like they have too much bass then adjusting audio. This is kinda inefficient, though.

Without acquiring a scope, high quality mic, and signal generator (or test CD), how can I best set this up? Tuning car audio is one thing I have very little experience doing, and Google results seem to explain the settings more than explain how to do a good job tuning them.

Thanks!

automotive moved from livejournal

Car Stuffs

December 6, 2005

Honda Bass System Kit — Installed
(Click for more…)

Well, despite not having found any reviews about it, I ordered the Honda Bass System Kit back on the 25th when I found out that my new car was about in. Well, I have to say, it is a bit of a pain to install, but worth it. I still need to do a bit more tweaking, but it seems to fill out the bottom end nicely, making the factory audio system quite acceptable.

The only problem I had was that I thoroughly screwed up a gasket-like part and stuck it on the wrong side of the amp. I pulled it off cleanly, but I (stupidly) allowed it to fold over on itself, making a mess of the padding when I stuck it back on. I had some spare self-adheasive foam left (a spare EPT sealer) so I used that to fill the gap.

Other than that, the install went pretty well, including replacing the factory Honda speakers in the rear deck. All in all, I’m pretty happy with this kit. Now I just have to wait for the iPod connection kit to come out and (hopefully) things will be all set.

In addition to the Honda Bass System Kit I also ordered a touch-up paint pen, all-season floor mats, and splash guards. I’m hoping that the splash guards will help cut down the frequency of road tar and such getting thrown up on the body, and hopefully the all-season floor mats will keep the interior a bit nicer. I also got those installed today. The splash guards were a bit of a pain to install due to how close I had to work to the tire, but they came out pretty well. Although I am being a bit silly and worrying about how they’ll affect the aerodynamics of the vehicle on the whole.

The floor mats were literally a drop-in replacement for the carpeted ones. Even the plastic hooks which I was supposed to install on the driver’s side to keep the mat from sliding up under the pedals wasn’t needed, as there was already a pair there used to retain the normal floor mats. They even match the inside of the vehicle pretty well and give it a nice grounded feel.

There was one casualty of the work today, though: My Haujobb t-shirt. I should have known better than to wear it while working on a car, but I guess it is getting pretty old already. See, part of installing the splash guards requires one to use a paste wax behind where the parts will be installed. Well, I got some paste wax, and due to a poorly designed package, I ended up opening the main part of the container and subsequently dropping it against my shirt when I was just simply trying to remove the top cover. (The wax container is of this design and I was trying to remove the yellow part, but the whole thing opened.)

Along with the H and A Accessories order I received three large Dell boxes containing a computer which I let someone have delivered to my house. (I won’t say who it is for, because the recipient could be reading this. Maybe it’s you!) I tested out this computer and it works out great. There will likely be a post about it tomorrow, because it is the first BTX (Balanced Technology Extended) (Warning: PDF) machine I have been able to poke around. I must say, I’m pretty impressed. It’s nice and quiet, and the layout inside makes for much better airflow. More on that later.

Also, right as I was finishing everything up, and his girlfriend Angie (photo here) stopped by to hang out. It was really nice to see them again and sit around and talk and visit and whatnot.

Well, now I think I’ll look into going to bed. I had today off of work (acquired an extra day for coming into work the day after Thanksgiving) but tomorrow is back to normal. Goodnight. :)

Oh, I forgot one other thing… Today I received my electrical bill (DTE Energy) for the month of November and it was only $29.55. That’s really low, in my opinion. I don’t know if it was the two weeks I was gone or the new fridge, but I’m really happy about that. I guess next month I’ll find out what made the difference. I’d expect a $50 – $60 bill, and if it’s any less, I’ll be really happy. $10/less per month will really make the new fridge worth it. Woo!

acquired things automotive moved from livejournal

Dell 2005FPW

December 4, 2005

Click for more…

On Friday I came home from work and rather unexpectedly found the box containing my new monitor, a Dell 2005FPW, sitting on the front porch. This wasn’t supposed to be delivered until Monday, and it had a light dusting of snow on it, so I brought it inside to warm up. I let the monitor sit until today (well, Saturday) and after getting home from visiting and in Ann Arbor I decided to go set things up. So, the photo you see up above is the result of tonight’s efforts to get a new monitor set up on my desk. I have to say it went pretty well… The area remains nice and clean, and with the removal of the keyboard drawer and pushing everything back towards the wall, I can type a lot more comfortably, too It’s quite similar to my desk setup at work. I like it lots.

Today while out and about I also purchased my first tank of gas for the new car and got a first car wash. I’ll get a better handle on this number after a few more tanks and a bit more mixed driving, too. I also grabbed some photos of the car outdoors and in the daylight (photo gallery retired), both in an unwashed state and after getting it all cleaned up.

Oh, one last thing? Those two monitors that I want to sell? They can be seen in this photo and are a pair of IBM P260 displays with perfectly flat (vertically and horizontally) Sony tubes. They are really, really nice, and after doing a bit of research into market price, I’m going to ask for US$200 for the pair. So, if you want them, let me know and I can bring them to you or whatever. They work quite well. Also, please note that the color is off in the photo I linked to because I figured the white balance based on the room and the lights currently in there, not on the displays. So they will naturally look a bit off. But, yeah. $200. Not bad at all.

Hrm, now I think I’ll go start thinking about bed. It’s getting late.

acquired things automotive computers moved from livejournal

Uggh! DVI!!!!

December 3, 2005

Well, I got my new monitor today. For some reason Dell has chosen to put a DVI-D connector on the monitor, not a full DVI-I. (See Wikipedia’s DVI entry for more info) on their monitor, meaning that I have four extra pins to contend with. Uggh! Why couldn’t Dell just use the DVI-I connector and ignore the analog bits?

I think my best route is to simply break the four extra pins off of the cable. They aren’t needed, anyway.

UPDATE: Fuck. After removing the four extra pins from the DVI-I cable, I have realized that the wide, flat pin on a DVI-I connector is wider than the one on a DVI-D cable. Uggh. So now I need to order a 15′ DVI-D cable in order to use my new monitor properly. Poo.

UPDATE 2: Ahh, it’s working now. I just needed to operate on the cable. Woo! Better than waiting a few days for a new one.

acquired things computers moved from livejournal