Cool Stuff « My Substitute Reality

Sunday May 2, 2010

Jessica’s almost home!

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Life — don @ 4:04 pm

Not sure how many who read this are following Jessica Watson but if you are you know she’s almost home.

Jessica is a 17 year old girl who decided to try to become the youngest person to sail solo, unassisted, and non-stop around the world. She’s now a week or so from arriving home in Sydney Australia. I’ve been following her since a few days after she started in October and it’s been inspiring to read about her trials and joys. She’s had a few knockdowns and some huge seas in the 7 months she’s been sailing.

Abby Sunderland, a 16 year old from Southern Cal left a few months ago to try to beat Jessica’s pending record but she’s having to put in to port to fix a broken auto-pilot. That means she won’t be able to beat Jessica on the non-stop, unassisted part but she can still become the youngest to ever circumnavigate the globe. Abby’s brother was the youngest when he did it a few years ago.

I’ve got links to both girls over in my Links section. Pretty interesting reading if you’ve got some time.

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Sunday April 25, 2010

Garden 2010 Version

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Food,Life — don @ 7:46 am

We planted a garden a few weeks ago. Ok, Patrick planted 90% of it but I helped. Ok, I didn’t help much but I did buy the soil and the plants.

If you recall from last year we planted a garden and the earwigs immediately ate most of it. All that survived last year was the tomatoes and peas. This year we planted all kinds of stuff and dusted with Sevin every few days.

All of the plants seem to be surviving the bugs. A couple of them died for some unknown reason but we hope everything else keeps going.

I’ve posted pictures in my gallery.

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Saturday March 27, 2010

Superbike Races at Fontana

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Motorcycle — don @ 6:00 pm

Another first for me today. I went out to Fontana Raceway(where they hold the California 500 NASCAR Race) and watched really fast motorcycles race. I’ve added the pictures to my gallery.

I have watched motorcycle races on TV many times and have always been amazed at the amount they lean in the corners. Today I found the most amazing thing was how fast they get going in the straight. These are motorcycles with the same basic engine that I have in mine in that they are 1000cc. These bikes have quite a bit more horsepower although not as much more as I would have thought. Mine has about 130 and these have 200. They hit over 175 MPH in the straight and they get there pretty fast.

One problem today was very high wind. I was hit with it on the way out(I rode my bike) and couldn’t believe they would actually race it in. They did postpone the race for about an hour and a half and when they did finally start it was still quite windy.

I have to say it was a lot of fun. I would do it again as long as I knew it wasn’t going to be so windy.

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Sunday March 14, 2010

First geocache

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Geocaching,Life — don @ 2:07 pm

Betty and I finally decided to get out and see if we could find a geocache or two. We had to pick Michelle up at 1pm so at 12:30 we headed over to this cache.

It was in a park with lots and lots of Mugles around. We walked around and couldn’t find it. It was getting close to time to get Shell so we had to leave without success.

After we picked up Shell we decided we would look for one more and then go home. I knew one was near a Del Taco just down the street from us so I pulled in and located this one on my iPhone. I walked over to a pole and there it was sitting in a little niche on the pole. Success!

I think we’ll try it again next week and spend a bit more time but for our first try it quite satisfying.

I think the iPhone with one of the apps is plenty good enough to find any cache. Does anyone have a recommendation?

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Wednesday March 3, 2010

Moon Pic

Filed under: Camera/Photography,Cool Stuff,Life — don @ 6:59 pm

Here’s a picture I took with the new camera. I was quite amazed that you need a really fast shutter speed to take a picture of a full moon at full zoom on my 55-200 lens. I think this was taken at 1/1600th and probably 4.5 f-stop. I originally was taking them at slow shutter speeds and all I was getting was a bright disc and you couldn’t see the features. I like this one a lot.

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Sunday February 14, 2010

Winternationals… for real

Filed under: Camera/Photography,Cars,Cool Stuff — don @ 10:25 am

A few months ago I made a post titled Winternationals but it was really the NHRA Finals that I went to in November. They both happen at Pomona Raceway in California but one is the end of the season and one is the beginning.

Yesterday Betty and I went to the true Winternationals and I got a lot of photos. They are all in my gallery now. I didn’t post the full size pics because it would have taken forever to upload them. The ones there are 1/4 size. If you happen to see one you would like the full size pic for just let me know.

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Wednesday December 23, 2009

Street View getting better

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Life — don @ 7:38 pm

Google has finally gotten to the Rawson Rd farm. Here’s some screen shots I just got. They also have some in Cuba but none on Hill St. They do have View Rd which goes right by the house I think although I don’t remember which one was ours.

Note: Added Cuba Cheese Shop