Happy Birthday Dad - 2019

Several years ago while I was in the CSU Sacramento Marching Musicians, we were at Disneyland on my dad's birthday.  I don't if they're still there, but AT&T had these big speaker-phone booth rooms that were soundproof(-ish).  To start the day off, I got a bunch of the band members to go with me straight to Tomrrowland and pile into one of the booths, and we all sang my dad "Happy Birthday".

This is a callback to that day.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

Yes, it's been a while.  Blog momentum is difficult.

But anyway, you need to watch this:



It'd be great if every show could have fun recaps like this.  But then, not every show is on HBO and can thumb its nose at the censors hiding in Standards and Practices and the FCC.

At This Time, I Only Eat Hot Dogs and Artichokes

So, John and I regularly chat during the day on YIM.  Some days it's only a few sentences, and others it's long conversations.

His first message to me today was to ask if I'd seen the super-cut "Star Wars - The Force Awakens" trailer.  It combines all of the footage from the three trailers.  I finally got some time and watched it.  You can too:



I told him when I was done that I was now seven-years-old and want all the toys.

The Duck Army Videos

Have you seen the Duck Army video?



When I showed this to my wife and friends, there were 8 million views, and as I compose this there are over 9.6 million views.

Now, Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) saw this video and had to have his own collection.



And we all have the same reaction as Adam does.

But Adam made a duck bomb.



Adn then now, he has made a hanging bomb.



And here's how he made it.



Now, as Adam says, these are dog toys.  My Dad and I could not imagine them lasting long against a dog, but apparently, they are pretty sturdy.  Also, pretty annoying.



I'll admit that I did this post mostly to have all of these videos together for myself, but...  Share and Enjoy!

Music on My Mind

So, this morning I had a song come up that reminded me of someone I used to date.  I thought I'd do a search of videos and songs to see what I could come up with.

Most of these remind me of dances.

75 Years of Green Lantern

So, strangely enough, my first Green Lantern comic book was also my first Flash book.  You can see the cover in this post.

It was also where I learned a little bit about Aaron Burr and dueling.  I don't remember much else about the story; I'd have to dig it up to refresh my memory.

But it did bring a certain poignancy to this "Got Milk" commercial:

YouTube of Ice and Fire

There are times in the world when you know you're screwed.

I remember a story of a couple in a car racing away from the Mt. St. Helen's eruption.  They barely made it to safety ahead of the pyroclastic flow.  The driver said he passed a car while he was going over 100 mph.  The other car didn't make it out.

I think I've written before about my most viewed episode of Nova about the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.  The giggle we all let out when volcano is going off, and the scientists are racing for the car.  One of them (the passenger) runs around and yells, "Open the door... open the fucking door!"

Then there's the mountain climbers in Japan who hid in a temple while a volcano turned the land around them into an ash covered wasteland.

Then there are two just from this weekend.

The first is a guy who must have felt he was screwed, but apparently made it out okay.  He captured the initial eruption of Mt. Calbuco.



Adn then there's the climbers at the Mt. Everest base camp.  I'm sure they must have felt something from the Nepal earthquake.  But I don't see how they could have had any idea what was coming.



Once again, one of the simple, but powerful, bit of wisdom from Will Durant comes to mind:

"Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice."

Sunsets

So, last year some time, I started taking pictures of sunsets.  With the new year, I thought I would try to take a picture every night.  I've missed a few due to uncontrollable circumstances.  The most annoying was the day I got the flat after riding through Temescal.

I had wanted to go to either the end of the Powell Street spit or the University Avenue park to get a shot of the sunset through the Gate, but I wasn't able to get home in time let alone get to the water.  They woudl have been amazing too, because the clouds were so fluffy.  I go a few walking my bike, but they aren't quite the same.

Today, I came across a link to a sunset taken from an office in the Mission on March 24 this year.

And here is what I got from that evening:

Tribute Reading

When Robin Williams died, I listened to his old works.  It felt good to hear his voice again, and chuckle, laugh, and giggle at all the bits that marked me as a kid.

Last week, I decided it was time to re-read Terry Pratchett.  I'm going to save the Discworld for last.  I'm going to read his other work first starting with the best collaboration I've ever read: Good Omens.

Neil hasn't been able to write anything about his friend of thirty years, but apparently he had an appearance last week that turned into a remembrance of Sir Terry.



And there's been an article out about Neil's daughter Rhianna as well.

Adn then there's this from the Daily Telegraph:

RIP - Leonard Nimoy - UPDATED

You will be missed, sir.

Here is the NY Times article.

---  UPDATE ---

And a fitting farewell posted on another site that I feel needs to be borrowed.

New Stuff

One of the things that fascinates me most about volcanoes and lava flows is that the exposed material is the newest/youngest material on the surface of the earth.  Yes, the elements are ancient, but the solids that form, the mineral crystals and associated rocks are brand new.

That's why this video is that much cooler.

Lots of Photos Before Christmas

So, it's been an interesting time lately.  I've been spending Wednesdays evenings with my parents helping out while mom is in chemo.  Of course that didn't happen this last week as I had a cold that started Sunday night, and I couldn't risk giving it to mom.

So Thanksgiving was quiet as I dealt with congestion and a sinus headache from the bouncing barometer.  Jennifer and I made an early morning run to storage to get our containers of Christmas decorations.

And that stack is over 6 feet tall.  We meant to take a picture for scale, but forgot.  The six boxes on the bottom are 64-liter Really Useful Boxes.  They're amazingly sturdy.  I remmeber seeing a photo once of a Mini Cooper sitting on top of four RUBs.  [I found a video]

So anyway, they're really great.  We're considering converting all of our storage boxes to them.  Plus there's the added bonus of being able to see what's inside if you get the clear ones.

So we like angels.  The one on the left is the tree topper,a dn was the first we bought as a married couple.  We got the little one next to it later because it matched so well.  Then we just started accumulating angels.  They end up scattered throughout the flat surface decorations.

And here is the finished tree.  

The following are the flat surfaces that got decorated with different colors and lighted garlands.

Obviously next to the tree.

Behind the couch.

The corner of the entryway.

Out in the hallway by the front door.

On the way into home proper.

And our bookshelves.

And the final photo is of Oscar and Felix who while they were very upset during the decorating phase, they do like curling up under the tree.

Thoughts on Video

So, I was taking a moment to watch this below video of the snow storm in Buffalo:



and when the pilot brings the drone back to take a selfie, I had a flashback to when we moved back to California, and I recorded a video tour of the new house for family and friends.  There were a few times in bathrooms and bedrooms where I caught myself in a mirror, and broke the description of the house with, "Cameraman."

It was on a compact camera that used magnetic tape.  We then transferred the video to VHS tapes for distribution.  This was in 1986 and most everyone's VHS players were standardized.

This had not been the case just a few years prior when we had lived in Kentucky and done another video of our redone backyard with new brick patio and flower mounds.  We recorded our tour at what we assumed was the normal speed because our VHS player could record up to 6 hours of material on a cassette.  Unfortunately, the friends we sent our tape to did not have that format on their player and could only record 4 hours of material on a cassette (maybe only even 2).

So what happened?  Apparently it was like watching a poorly cranked film on playback.  The dog and I were accused of extreme hyperactivity and it was recommended that I cut back on the sugar.  And we were asked if the scenic flower mounds were Indian burial mounds.

At the time of this writing, the snow drone video has been viewed over 300,000 times.  And yet 30 years ago, we couldn't even get our video to be properly watched once.

Solar Freakin' Roadways

So there's not much time left on this campaign, but I watched the video again, and I wanted everyone to hear about it, so I'll shout out to may tiny cross-section of the internet.



And if you'd like to get in on it, there are still eleven days left ,as of right now, to get in on their Indiegogo campaign.

So if you have the wherewithal, go and do.  And if not, then share the video.

Phonebloks

Earlier today, I was pointed to Phonebloks by two sites that I regularly visit.

Technically, I was referred to this video below:


I think the concept is incredible.  It's like legos and reminds me of my old PC tower.  I was gettign good for a while upgrading my PC.  This could really be a thing.

King or Queen

Over the past year, I have been away from my wife overnight while working more than the rest of time together combined.

Because of this, we find ways of keeping the other in our thoughts.

Somehow, I appointed the egret as my animal.  There always seemed to be one flying or walking nearby when I was thinking about something difficult.  Having one or more around was just cool.

Jennifer has developed an association with ravens.  Somewhat from reading American Gods, but somewhat for the same reason as me with egrets.

She also has an affinity for butterflies (hence two of her tattoos).  Some of this comes from our visit to the butterfly house at The-Park-Formerly-Known-as-Marine-World, and some from the butterfly house in Key West that we visited twice while there.  She’s also had some other personal experiences with butterflies.
And then there’s dragonflies.  I find them fascinating, and like the things they hunt (mosquito larvae and, a recent find, termites).  I’ve had some close encounters with them including a big one that was sitting next to a lock at a job site one time.  Unfortunately, I don’t have that picture on my computer; it must be on the NAS at home.

But with these affinities, Jennifer and I know when the other is thinking about us.  Sometimes.

Last year when I was in Madera, there was one day when no matter where I looked for about 5 minutes, there was a butterfly swooping across my vision.  It was just as if Jennifer were waling past me saying, “Hi, honey.”  That day was the end of my stay at that job, and before I hit the road, I sent her a text saying I was on my way home.  I knew when she got the message, because while on the highway, a cloud of butterflies suddenly erupted from the flowering bushes in the median.

She had a similar experience one day at Lake Merritt.  She was thinking about me, and suddenly an egret landed on the beach n ear here and walked slowly across her vision while she was reading, seeming to make sure that she noticed it.

So yesterday I had an amazing experience with dragonflies.  We had cut down a tree a few weeks ago, and yesterday finally did some digging near it.  I think the excavator bumped it going by, but I noticed later that it was covered in winged termites.  The termites started taking to the air, and I saw two dragonflies start swooping through them, eating them on the wing.  Soon, there were at least eight dragonflies hunting through the fleeing termites.

Dragonflies and Termites

The termites are invisible, but the swooping things are the dragonflies.

And then today, I saw a butterfly flit by.  It stopped for a second on a large transformer, and I thought I’d get a picture, but it flew away.  Then it landed on the fence, so I got as many pictures of it as I could before it flew away.

It just kept opening and closing its wings in the sunlight.  I waited each time for it to open before I took the picture.  The third one is my since the wings were flattest and so the whole insect is in focus.









These aren’t with any fancy camera either.  This is just a basic, digital point-and-shoot.

I Think Barry and Wally Blinked - Updated

So MIT has created a camera that can record one trillion frames per second.  Below is a video they made which shows the propagation wave of a camera flash.

Happy Ink Day

So last night at about this time, I was two-thirds through my latest tattoo session.  And I knew it had been a long time, but I didn’t realize until I posted the picture on Facebook that it had been over a year since my last session.  Unemployment really put a crimp in my plans.

This time I was in Davis.  The artist who was working on me is taking over a shop.  He’s wanted to open one since he stared tattooing, and this opportunity was unexpected, but is an offer he just can’t refuse.  The owner is walking him through everything, mentoring him on how to run the business, and the hand-off will be official with the start of the new year.

So if you’re in the area, and need some modification, go check out Primary Concepts Tattoo in Davis.  Phil has only been there for about two weeks, so his work isn’t up yet, but it will be soon.

But more about me…

This was one of my longer sessions we started close to 6:30, and were walking out the door about 10:15, so all told with breaks and such we did about 3 hours.

I find it is best if I'm talking to people when I’m getting the work done.  It helps me compartmentalize the pain.  So we talked about Phil taking over the shop, about his equipment, state regulations for shops and tattooists.  And I told him about this video:

We’re wondering if it’s real after seeing others from the YouTube channel.

Sword Fighting

I saw this video, and it’s really quite the pastiche of Hollywood sword fights.  The only notable ones I didn’t see were the old black and white Zorro movies.

And then there’s the whole meta-ness of it by having the sword fight from “The Princess Bride” which is a tribute in and of itself to the old Ho

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Hollywood sword fights.

First!

And the first new thing to come in on the feed reader? This hilarious video: