Worlds Smallest Palm Tree?

Music Machine

This is a very old music machine, about 125 years old. It is about 9 feet tall and about 2 feet wide. It belongs to some friends in Costa Rica. It plays large steel disks with holes in them, there are disks stored in the bottom section.

airport post

I am posting this from my phone. I uploaded the pictures from my phone too, but couldn't see thumbnails so I didn't know which pics I was uploading. (A cat and a giant Flower) I am at the Costa Rica airporft now, getting ready to board the plane.

Happy Birthday Mammie!

We've been in Costa Rica for a few days. It is a fantastic place.
The weather has been rainy, which isn't a bad thing, except today we need it to quit raining, because it is my Mother In Laws birthday!

On our Way

To Costa Rica!!

Very Cool!! No!! Very HOT!!!!!

A false-color image of the Sun taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. (Goddard Space Flight Center NASA)

Spectacular images from Sun probe

By Stuart Gary for ABC Science Online

• Video: NASA unveils solar images (7pm TV News NSW)

Scientists are seeing the violent and dynamic processes of the Sun in unprecedented detail thanks to a new spacecraft launched by the United States.

The "first light" data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is providing extreme close-ups of the Sun's surface, including never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots.

Scientists with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre say SDO will change their understanding of the Sun and its processes, having an impact similar to what the Hubble Space Telescope did for modern astrophysics.

Launched on February 11, SDO is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the Sun.

"It's a powerful new tool to help scientists understand solar activity like coronal mass ejections and solar flares which can have a huge impact for life on Earth," said Professor Iver Cairns from the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

"SDO will provide critical data to improve sciences ability to predict space weather events."

Professor Cairns says understanding space weather is important because of its impact on communications systems, spacecraft electronics and power supplies on the ground.

"In 1987 a blackout in Quebec, Canada caused by a solar storm left 4 million people without power, some for up to six months," he said.

Dr Steven Marsden, a stellar astronomer with the Anglo Australian Observatory, says the resolution of images from SDO is the best he has ever seen.

"It will us help study the Sun's magnetic activity, which is driven by an internal dynamo and a combination of heat convection and differential rotation," he said.

"While we have an understanding of this process, we still don't understand a lot of the finer details of how it operates."

Climate change

Dr Marsden says SDO will also help scientists understand the relationship between sunspot activity and climate change on Earth.

"During a period called the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715), sunspot activity almost completely disappeared. It coincided with a mini-ice age when the Thames River froze and there were colder than usual conditions across Europe," he said.

SDO carries a Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager which maps solar magnetic fields. It can also look beneath the Sun's opaque surface using ultrasound.

Another key instrument is the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, a group of four telescopes which will study the Sun's surface and atmosphere in 10 different wavelength bands.

"Because it operates at different wavelengths ... SDO will help us understand what's going on inside the Sun's dynamo," Dr Marsden said.

The third major component is the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment which measures fluctuations in the Sun's radiant emissions.

These emissions have a direct effect on Earth's upper atmosphere.

Cheap Furniture

I got this footstool that's supposed to look like a dawg. It doesn't look like a dawg very much and it's not a very comfortable footstool.
Well, I guess it KIND of looks like a dawg. A little

That was it

It was an Ok weekend, even though Saturday was rainy. We needed the rain.
I don't understand it, We water the banana plants almost every day. They hover on the brink of death. It rains and they put out new leaves, almost instantly. What's wrong with the water I give them? We're never going to get bananas at this rate.
Yesterday was laundry day and in the evening we went and visited the Bro and Sis In-Laws at East end.
And that was my weekend!

April 17, 2005

April 17, 2005 was my first post on this blog! Happy birthday to my blog!
Yeay!
Wippee.
yeah....
Great!
Ok,
it's cool...
thanks

No post today

Here it is quite windy and cloudy. We had a little rain but nothing substantial.
At work I am installing a new production studio. It is almost done, but I haven't told anyone yet, I'm telling everyone 6-9 months. And if they say "six to nine months?" I say no, sixty-nine months. And vice versa.

Tuesday Post

I was looking for some pictures to post today, but couldn't find any. I've posted them all already.

It a week and three days, the wife and I are going to Costa Rica! It's her Moms 60th Birthday and we're going for the party.

Also, her aunt has some land for sale that I will inquire about. It is on the Pacific Ocean, on top of a 900 foot cliff.

Also, I found a cool application for your phone. It is called Qik. You install it on your phone, and it uploads your video straight to the web. Then you or anyone else can watch it. You can also stream video live. Check this out. Actually, when I look at that page, it looks pretty bad, I think I need to get it sorted out. The first video, which is the newest, I was walking the dogs and lost the Wi-Fi connection, so I guess it just kept the old title from when I was feeding chickens. Although it has one wrong about a nap in the mosquito net. Go look anyway, I'll get it sorted later!

I beat my wife up every day (usually)

Today was the Kiwanis 5K Dog walk. The dogs loved it! They knew something unusual was going on first thing in the morning when The Wife beat me up. I usually beat my wife up every day, even on weekends. (I get up at about 5:15 and she usually gets up around 7-ish.)

Then when we both went out with them for the morning walk, the dawgs KNEW something was up and could not contain their excitement! I won't mention the joy of getting in the car! The thrill of the car ride, and the incredible rush of the painted dashes on the road flashing by as a dawg hung his or her head out of a window on either side of the car!!

The start

Dawgs walking their walkers

Sheba loved these pools and sat in every one!

Ditto, Sheba and their Mommmmma near the end!

It was really fun and we won a bag of Doggie treats in a raffle at the end!

First Time

click to enlarge

I went snorkeling yesterday after work and saw a starfish. It is the first time I ever saw a starfish of this type on Seven Mile Beach. You can find some scraggly ones under rocks, with long hairy arms, but not too many pillow types like this. I have seen this type in the North Sound, I guess this one must have walked all the way around!

Maybe the Nokia N97 Mini . . . .

Doesn't suck.

I had a 16 Gig memory card in it, and since I took it out, it seems to work fine.

Maybe.

Pretty Cool Yesterday

Yesterday didn't go as planned, ended up at remotes almost all day. The first was a press conference, but the second was from the fifth floor of a building downtown. Pretty cool up there. I have a video I may post tomorrow but I have to go to work now and don't have time to upload it.

Looking south towards town

Zoom of a cruise ship

Non zoom of the same ship

Nokia N 97 Mini SUCKS!

My phone has apparently bit the dust. It was a piece of crap from the moment I turned it on.
If I was Nokia, I would have never released that product. Full of bugs, non-intuitive, and non functional.
Last night I was playing around with my old Palm Treo, man, it's so fast compared to the Nokia. Push a button and it instantly goes to the page it's supposed to. The Nokia, press a button, nothing happens, press it again and maybe it works, or maybe it goes two pages. With everything, you have to wait and wait.
Don't get me wrong, there were moments where it worked fine, and if it worked consistently, it would be a great phone, but the way it is now, it is non-usable.

Feels Like Monday

But it's Tuesday.
It was an OK weekend, although I worked all weekend. We went to the beach on Sunday with the dawgs. They had a good time, and I had a good time and my Wife had a good time. It was very windy.

Sheba was very excited to be at the beach!

While Ditto is more of an old beach veteran

Working Day

Back to work today, the final day of the CARIFTA Games. I worked a lot this weekend.
I feel abused. It's hard to post with such a negative attitude, because I can really see my negativity here. I just want to start bitchin'!
Once it starts I am afraid it will never stop.

I'm up, ready to go to work. Today is the start of the CARIFTA Games. I can't really think of any way to describe it except Caribbean track and field olympics. Very big.
I'm kind of disappointed to be working. My day yesterday got screwed up trying to get ready for today. I think my wife is a little irked that I'm working too.

IKm trying something I haven't tried in a while, I am emailing this post from my phone!

How to screw up a long weekend

This is a long weekend here, Friday and Monday are holidays. However, I'm working Saturday and Monday. That's the perfect way to screw up a long weekend. I am kind of crabby this morning, I feel like I didn't sleep at all.