nuxx.net

Frankenmuth, MI

November 27, 2004

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Well, in a fit of boredom, I decided to head to Frankenmuth by myself today. In case you don’t know, Frankenmuth is a rather interesting German-settled town in central Michigan. It has a really kitschy/campy feel to it, and it’s always decorated for Christmas. Almost as if it’s a storybook Christmas town. I ended up wandering around the town for a bit, poking my head in a few places, and getting a few bits of candy and bread.

While I didn’t make a stop at Bronner’s (which is literally the world’s largest christmas store), I did see a good bit of stuff, including an arcade full of all sorts of old games, which happens to be closing for good tomorrow.

So, if you want to check out the pictures, I’ve got them all uploaded and captioned here. Enjoy. :)

Now I think I’m going to head to Luna… Well, maybe in a few minutes.

moved from livejournal travel

Video Updates

November 24, 2004

Hey everybody… Due to a whole bunch of linking to a video on my site by complete strangers (normally I don’t mind this, but it’s used almost 5GB this month alone) and a desire to clean things up, I’ve moved all the videos that had been found in http://www.nuxx.net/files to http://www.nuxx.net/files/videos. So, if for some reason you are looking for something and it seems to have been moved, that’s where it was moved to. :)

computers moved from livejournal nuxx.net

Help!

November 23, 2004

I’ve got an idea, and I’m curious if anyone can throw an opinion about it my way.

First off, I have a Kodak DC4800, but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. I want a new camera, a Nikon D70, but I can’t afford it yet.

So, here’s what I’m thinking of doing…

I should be able to get a Nikon Coolpix 3200 and matching case for ~$158. Rechargable AA batteries for it will run about about $25 with charger, and 512MB of UltraII SD memory $65.99. That makes it about $250 for a new, smaller camera with about the same capabilities as my current one.

The current one should sell for about $125 on eBay, making it all a difference of about $125 for the new camera. This will provide something much smaller and considerably lighter than my current camera, with plenty of memory. Unfortunately the zoom and resolution of this camera is the same as the old one…

Then, sometime next year after saving up a bit, the D75 could be a possibility. This way I’d eventually have a small, more knock-around camera, and a better one for more serious photography.

How does this sound? Does anyone have any suggestions or better ideas?

Thanks!

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Picture Update

November 23, 2004

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I spent a bit of time last night scanning in still more negatives. The photo above is from the collection of photos taken when I went to England in 1995 with the L’Anse Creuse High School North Wind Ensamble. We toured around bits of southern England, London, Portsmouth, and a number of other places. These photos are fairly randomly taken bits of that trip. If you are flipping through them from start to finish, be aware that the photos towards the end of the collection are more interesting.

While I’m still being frustrated by discoloration caused by rolling at the ends of strips of negatives in all the photos, I also went ahead and scanned in a number of photos which were taken on my last day of high school. This was my carrying a camera around, snapping photos randomly, showing various people doing various things.

So, that’s it for now. Hopefully tonight I’ll get even more scanned in, maybe a Washington DC trip in 1994 with Civil Air Patrol, some of friends from 1996/1997, Undernet’s #industrial people, etc.

We’ll see how it goes. :)

Links Again:
· England with LCN Wind Ensamble (May 1995)
· Last Day of High School

found things moved from livejournal travel

Ketchikan, Alaska in 1996

November 22, 2004

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I know I posted a bit about this before. However, something I’ve wanted complete for eight years is finally done. I’ve just completed uploading all of the photos that I know to have from the times in 1996 when I visited Ketchikan, Alaska. This was a rather interesting trip made under a number of circumstances (which I won’t get into here). Suffice to say, it was a very memorable and life-changing time for me.

That said, all the photos I know to have are now available, complete with captions. The 158 photos are available for viewing here: http://www.nuxx.net/gallery/alaska_1996

These were batch scanned on an Epson Perfection 3170, then run through a simple Auto Level / Auto Color / Auto Contrast routine in Photoshop. While they aren’t ideal, they do look pretty good, much better than the original prints. I’d imagine that individual images could be cleaned up further if need be.

Please, feel free to look through them, and if you can make corrections to any of the captions, let me know. As these photos were all taken over eight years ago, my memory is a bit fuzzy as to names. However, events and other details are fairly crisp.

If everything goes as planned, I’m hoping to add more photos to the gallery this week, including a trip I took to Washington DC with Civil Air Patrol in (I believe) 1994, England in 1995, many photos I took of people from (I)ndustry BBS, photos from when I was in high school, and a few of some people from Undernet’s #industry.

found things moved from livejournal travel

Beer – Part Deux!

November 20, 2004

[Crossposted to and .]

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Well, about five and a half days have passed since I brewed up my first batch of beer. As the bubbling has slowed to about four per minute, I figured it was time to get the beer off the trub (the yeast and gunk at the bottom of the fermenter) and into a secondary fermenter to allow it to batch age.

So, that’s what I did, and there’s pictures of it available. To see them, either click here or on the photo above. I’ve also uploaded my current brewing notes in case anyone is interested in reading them.

Some of the notable pictures include:

· I’m impressed by the clarity of the beer thus far.
· The trub – the stuff lingering in the bottom of the fermenter.
· The fermenter, sanitized and ready to go.
· It’s likely to batch age like this for the next two weeks.

Oh, and if anyone here who also brews beer sees anything that I’m doing wrong or can provide me with any pointers, I’d greatly appreciate them.

Thanks!

beer moved from livejournal

Coffee!

November 19, 2004

[Cross-posted to and .]

Mmm… I apologize for not having better pictures, but I wanted to take a moment to brag about something…

I just got done roasting and then brewing a 50/50 blend of Organic Mexican and Organic Sumatra coffee. This was then ground and roasted with some wonderfully clean-tasting spring water, and it has made for an absolutely amazing friday afternoon snack. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything sweet (dark chocolate would be especially good) to munch on. :\

The coffee was acquired from The Runcible Spoon in Bloomington, IN, and the mug pictured above is a Ray Troll mug for Raven’s Brew coffee, purchased from SOHO COHO in 1996.

Did I mention my fondness for southeast Alaska?

food moved from livejournal

Mmm… Beer!

November 16, 2004

[Crossposted to and .]

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So… My house smells like a brewery. Last week I decided to take a stab at brewing beer, so I picked up the supplies. Today I actually gave everything a go. Because it’s fairly involved and I’ve never done it before, I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but there are quite a few of them here.

Now I’ve got about a week or so to wait, then the beer will go into the secondary fermenter, with bottling coming a few weeks later.

It’s supposed to be a English Brown Ale, so hopefully it’ll be good. :)

beer moved from livejournal

Clifty Falls State Park

November 11, 2004

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In my driving around on Tuesday, I came across a place called Clifty Falls State Park. Per the state’s site it appears that I didn’t see all of the park that I could have. Alas, I did still have fun wandering around. Click the picture above to see the photos I took there. Also, it seems that the Indiana DNR has some videos of the park here. I missed the tunnel. :(

moved from livejournal outdoors travel

Mammoth Cave National Park

November 8, 2004

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Well, I sure was the cheap tourist today. I managed to visit three National Park Service sites, even though one of them was closed. Whoops!

So… What did happen today. (A word of warning about the photos… Something is odd with the automatic exposure on my camera. I think that it was set to ‘center spot weighted’ from when I was doing some eBay photos, so the exposure is quite a bit…. Off… In some of the shots. I’m sorta frustrated at that. At least it can be cleaned up if need be.)

Well, first I woke up at right about 8am, got dressed, then headed southbound on I-65 towards Mammoth Cave National Park. I stopped at Burger King for some breakfast (two egg/cheese crossants, hash browns, and a coffee) as it’s the only really veggie-friendly breakfast-serving fast food place that I know of. The trip down there didn’t really take too long, and while heading southbound I somehow hit a timezone border. WTF? I was headed practically straight south… Regardless, that all put me at the park at about 9:40am CST, which was just in time for the 9:45am Frozen Niagara tour. It turns out that this particular tour is the longest one offered on weekdays during the winter season. I wouldn’t have minded something longer, but with that being the only option, I took it.

Clicky if you really want to read this…

moved from livejournal outdoors travel