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

Saturday November 14, 2009

Winternationals!

Filed under: Cars,Cool Stuff — don @ 10:22 am

Heading out soon. If I remember I’ll post some photos.

I remembered.

Here’s some video I took. It’s so amazing to me how fast these pro category vehicles go. Here’s a couple of Pro Stock motorcycles. They typically run low 7 seconds to high 6 seconds.

And here’s a couple of Pro Stock cars. These run in the mid to high 6 seconds.

A couple of Alcohol Funny cars. These run in the mid 5 seconds.

And finally a couple of Top Fuel Funny Cars. These run 1000 ft in around 4 seconds.

The Top Fuel cars used to run a whole quarter mile but because of an accident that killed a driver last year they backed off to 1000 ft. They still hit over 300 MPH. Yesterday we saw the fastest 1000 ft run ever for a Top Fuel dragster at 321 MPH in 3.8 seconds. They could probably improve on that today. These cars are the fastest accelerating vehicles in the world. Here’s some interesting facts about them.

Sunday October 11, 2009

Family Reunion

Filed under: Life — don @ 11:36 pm

This weekend our whole family minus a couple of grandchildren got together in Tempe. This is the first time I’ve seen my brother Dale in about 38 years. We also got to meet his daughters and son. The missing people were Darin(Richard and Dianna’s son) and Jocelyn(my daughter). I’m hoping the next one will get us all together.

Here’s a picture taken Saturday morning.
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In the back from left to right: Dale, Me, Dave, Mark, Brian, Robin, Karen, Richard, Daryl. In the middle it’s Betty, Heather, Donna, Jenny, Dayna, Dianna, Giselle. And the four in the front are Carsten, Camden, Grandma, and Nathan.

Here’s another pic of the grand kids with Grandma.
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From left to right behind Grandma it goes Dave, Heather, Brian, Robin, Jenny, Karen, and Dayna. Devon and Derek were around but didn’t get up in time to get in the picture.

We had a great time catching up on so many years. We really hope it happens again in the not too distant future.

Sunday September 27, 2009

Rice Cooker

Filed under: Food,Life,Personal — don @ 7:01 pm

There’s a store a mile or so away called Mr. Stuff. It’s got all kinds of one of a kind and small amounts of well, stuff for sale. A few weeks ago I was in there and they had a rice cooker for $15. I was on my bike so I had no place to put it. Today Betty and I were out getting a new light for out front and I suggested we should see if they still had the rice cooker. They did. We bought it and I cooked some rice when we got home. I think we got a good deal.
rc850

Sunday September 13, 2009

Back to Work

Filed under: Life,Work — don @ 7:47 am

I’m headed back to work tomorrow. I’ve accepted a job with ThinKom down in Torrance. They make antennas that are small and lightweight and fairly low cost compared to similar performing antennas. The founder of the company invented this antenna while he was working at Hughes in the early 90s. He formed ThinKom in 2000 and they have been growing since then. They finally got some larger contracts and decided they needed a Test Engineer. I interviewed with them on July 23rd and they made me the offer around the beginning of September.

I would have preferred to find something in the valley but I think ThinKom has a potential to be a pretty good thing for us. The fact they are growing at a time when everyone else is shrinking is a really good indicator.

Friday September 11, 2009

8 Years Later

Filed under: Life — don @ 9:02 am

twin_towers1

Tuesday September 1, 2009

Station Fire Smoke

Filed under: Life — don @ 5:52 pm

Here are a couple of pictures of the smoke from the Station fire. The first one is looking northeast towards the Angeles Forest and the fire itself.
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This next one is to the northwest. You can see the “edge” of the smoke. It’s actually smoky everywhere but you can kind of see the sky in the far west. We can’t even see the mountains at the north end of the valley. This is one of the worst visual days I can remember.
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Monday August 24, 2009

A few questions

Filed under: Life,Politics — don @ 4:33 pm

Saw this on Glenn Beck today(you know, that far right extremist). Here’s a list of questions:

• Can we survive this debt? If yes, how?
• Why the rush on health care reform, cap-and-trade?
• Who is writing these bills?
• Will Washington read and understand the bills?
• Why are you called “grassroots” if you are for, but “Astroturf” if you are against?
• Our unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is close to $100 trillion. Is there any way to pay for these programs without bankrupting America?
• We are in so much debt, why spend more borrowed money on cap-and-trade and health care programs before we stop the flow of red ink?
• The stimulus package funneled billions of dollars to ACORN: How does giving billions of dollars to ACORN stimulate the economy?
• If it was so important for Congress to pass the stimulus bill before they even had time to read it, why has only a fraction of the stimulus money been spent six months later?
• Former President Bush said he had to abandon free market principles in order to save them; how exactly does that work?
• Why won’t members of Congress read the bills before they vote on them?
• Why are citizens mocked and laughed at when they ask their congressman to read the bills before they vote on them?
• Was the “cash for clunkers” program meant to save the Earth or the economy? Did it accomplish either?
• How did Van Jones, a self-proclaimed communist, become a special adviser to the president?
• Did President Obama know of Van Jones’ radical political beliefs when he named him special adviser?
• The Apollo Alliance claimed credit for writing the stimulus bill; why was this group allowed to write any portion of this bill?
• If politicians aren’t writing the bills and aren’t reading the bills, do they have any idea what these 1,000-page plus bills actually impose on the American people?
• If the “public option” health care plan is so good, why won’t politicians agree to have that as their plan?
• If town hall meetings are intended for the politicians to learn what’s on our mind, why do they spend so much time talking instead of listening?
• Politicians are refusing to attend town hall meetings complaining, without evidence, that they are scripted. Does that mean we shouldn’t come out and vote for you since every campaign stop, baby kiss and speech you give is scripted?
• Why would you want to overwhelm the system?
• Is using the economic crises to rush legislation through Congress what Rahm Emanuel meant when he talked about not letting a crisis go to waste?
• What are the president’s “czars” paid? What is the budget for their staffs/offices?

Friday August 14, 2009

Bagels

Filed under: Food — don @ 6:12 pm

Today I made bagels. First time I’ve done that. They were mighty good but I think you can make more than the 8 in this recipe. divide it in to 10 or 12 as they were huge at 8.

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