My Substitute Reality -You're just jealous cause the little voices only talk to me-

Wednesday June 29, 2005

See the World, kind of

Filed under: Geek — don @ 7:36 am

Would you like to fly around the world? See things you’ve never seen? If so I’ve got the application for you. It used to be called Keyhole but Google bought them and now it’s called Google Earth. It’s a program that reads images from a database of satellite photos and creates a map of the earth. If you’ve used maps.google.com you might have seen the image quality. This goes one better and actually lets you “fly” around the globe allowing you to zoom in wherever you want.

I’ve been using the subscription version for about 6 months but now it’s free. For those who had a subscription we get Google Earth Plus which adds the ability to print in higher res and my favorite, connect to a GPS receiver. You can download all the waypoints, routes, and tracklogs from any Garmin or Magellen receiver.

I highly recommend it. If you’re like me you’ll spend hours the first few days looking at all the places you’ve lived, visited, or want to visit.

Note:(6/29 – 5:15pm) Google must have gotten a REALLY BIG response to this because as of this afternoon the download is on hold. They say it will be available again soon.

Friday June 24, 2005

Friday again

Filed under: Motorcycle,Personal — don @ 4:33 pm

I love Fridays. I usually get home from work around 4pm and it’s such a relief to have 2 WHOLE days ahead of me where I don’t have to fight the rat race unless I want to. Since I’ve been riding the bike I get home anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes faster than I did in the truck. Although that helps a lot the stress of lane splitting(LS) up the 405 might offset it. I do better than I did the first few times but it’s still not a lot of fun.

FZ1.jpg


I do miss having my coffee on the way to work but the coffee shop in our building serves Starbucks. I didn’t realize it but Starbucks is pretty darn good. It’s not bitter and it wakes me up without giving me the jitters(as long as I keep it to 1 cup).I’ve noticed there are 3 types of drivers when it comes to LS. Most of them don’t move at all. Some of them move out of the way. And once in a while you come upon a jerk that actually moves towards you to keep you from passing. I have no idea why they do that except for maybe dog-in-the-manger syndrome. They can’t get ahead and they don’t want anyone else to either.

Saturday June 18, 2005

Rathergood

Filed under: Nothing — don @ 11:59 pm

I would have to take exception to thier name but try out this link if you’re feeling down. I doubt I’ve ever seen anything so stupid yet had me falling down laughing.

Et tu honey?

Filed under: Personal — don @ 9:35 am

Yes, I snore. In fact I’ve been told my snoring might be a little loud at times. Ok, a little loud is probably an understatement. I guess I’m chainsaw loud, especially when I’ve got stuffed sinuses. I’ve tried taking antihystimines and going to sleep on my side. I’ve even tried those nose openers but I can’t go to sleep with something pulling at my nostrils. Nothing seems to work. But now I think my wife has possibly hit on a solution. She sent me the link to this story yesterday. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Luckily we don’t have any weights in the house.

Thursday June 16, 2005

Hannity and Home Boy

Filed under: Politics — don @ 9:44 pm

I used to like watching Hannity and Colmes. They are political commentators on Fox news in case you’ve been under a rock. Hannity is to the right of me and Colmes is WAY to the left(of me). During the election they offered a good mix of opinions on both sides.

Lately they don’t seem to be able to find political stories. First it was the runaway bride and now the missing teen in Aruba. For the last 2 weeks they have spent at least half of the show on the Aruba story. Although I feel for the family of Natalee Holloway I don’t think the story belongs on a political show. I guess Fox feels that will get them better ratings. Maybe I’m the only one who’s not interested in seeing these kinds of stories on political shows? I doubt it.

Come on guys, back to the name calling and venom slinging.

Wednesday June 15, 2005

Nice pic but where was it taken

Filed under: Motorcycle — don @ 6:35 am

The picture at the top of this blog is actually a panorama taken with my Olympus camera. I’m wondering if anyone knows exactly where it was taken. I suspect Chuck might be able to figure it out but most of you won’t. I’ve included a hint in this posting.

Monday June 13, 2005

Music meme

Filed under: Nothing — don @ 4:39 pm

There’s a music meme where you list the first song of each letter in your mp3 player. Here’s mine.

All By Myself- Celine Dion
Baby One More Time- Britney Spears
Carolina In My Mind- James Taylor
Dear Diary- Britney Spears
Eye of the Tiger- Journey
Fire And Ice- Pat Benatar
Gangsta’s Paradise- Coolio
Handy Man- James Taylor
I Got A Name- Jim Croce
Just a Girl- No Doubt
La Bel Age- Pat Benatar
Magic Man- Heart
Nashville Cats- Lovin Spoonful
One Moment In Time- Whitney Houston
Photographs And Memories- Jim Croce
Reminiscing- Little River Band
Save The Best For Last- Vanessa Williams
That Don’t Impress Me Much- Shania Twain
Unchained Melody- LeAnn Rimes
Walking Man- James Taylor
You Belong To The City- Glenn Frey

I see I’m missing 5 letters, k, q, v, x, and z. I don’t even have anything with those letters on my computer.

Sunday June 12, 2005

Gumbo Day

Filed under: Food,Work — don @ 9:53 am

Tomorrow is Gumbo Day at work. That means I’ll be making my roux. For those of you who have never made a roux it’s not easy. Simple yes, but not easy. It involves mixing flour and some kind of fat(oil, shortening, lard, etc.) in a pot and cooking it slowly, stirring ALL THE TIME!

If it only took 10 minutes or so it would be easy but it takes at least an hour for the dark chocolate color needed for a good gumbo. If you have the heat too high it will burn and you’ll have to start all over. I found a website with some pretty good recipes a few years ago.

I’ve made my gumbo about 6 times. So far I’ve never burned the roux but I know statistics will catch up to me sooner or later.

I like the spice so I usually add some kind of habanero sauce. One time I added a little of “Da’ Bomb“. For some reason there was a lot left over that Gumbo Day.

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