“An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.” – Albert Camus
Friday, November 19, 2010
Playing with QR Codes
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 11/19/2010 at 11:06 AM
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Monday, November 15, 2010
Great Migrations
Are you guys watching Great Migrations? It is a new documentary on the National Geographic channel.
Tonight we watched the “making of” episode. While all of the slow motion shots you see throughout the show were shot on a Phantom HD, they focused on the camera during the shots of the Zebras and Cheetahs. All throughout the “background” filming of the (very frustrated) cameraman for 24 days, you can clearly see the Phantom HD label and the Phantom logo on the camera he is using. Not to reveal too much ... the baby cheetah lives ...
Phantom cameras are designed and manufactured by the company I work for—Vision Research. And, we are proud of the shots that Nat Geo was able to get over a 3-year period using our Phantom HD camera. And, our high-speed technology was just awarded an Emmy for broadcast technology used to bring you the ultra-slow-motion shots from the Olympics, World Cup, World Series, Super Bowl, etc.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 11/15/2010 at 07:00 PM
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Saturday, October 02, 2010
Cabin Visit 2010 - Day 14
This morning we took a walk around with the dogs and Bella had her swim—not as much as usual, I think it was cold. Then, Lynne and I wanted to cut enough wood to replenish what we’ve used on this trip. It has been so hot, that we did not use much! However, the big saw is so dull that it would take forever (and it is not good for the saw to try to cut with a dull blade), and I could not get the small saw started—I think I flooded it following the starting instructions. So, that was one chore avoided.
After a shower I went over to talk to our neighbor. I had some topics for him regarding the “mess” on our land from logging beetle kill trees. And, since he is president of the land owners’ association, I wanted to hear his side of some of the hot-button issues with the land owners. We ended up driving around a big chunk of Sand Creek Park to see various projects that he has been working on. And, I even saw some parts of the area that I had not explored before and met a couple that are renovating an old ranch house and barn. That took a couple of hours.
When I got home, Lynne made us a sandwich and we had our usual lazy afternoon and evening with “trailer spaghetti” for dinner. It is so named because it used to be our “go to” meal at the end of a long day of driving our trailer around when we were showing dos every weekend many years ago. We fry up some hamburger, coat it with a bottled spaghetti sauce and toss that with cooked spaghetti and Parmesan cheese. Very quick, yet usually pretty tasty depending upon the sauce we use.
We took a drive and watched a beautiful sunset and saw a small herd of elk—one big bull and an harem of 8 or 9 cows. Very beautiful.
We are both bushed and, I think, about ready to head for home. We were off to bed early and on Saturday will do as much prep as we can so that we can leave very early on Sunday morning. We lose an hour a day on our way home, so it is important to get an early start. We’ll load the truck Saturday as much as we can, then on Sunday morning we’ll “close up” the cabin, drive to Laramie where we can dump our trash, grab a MacDonald’s breakfast, fill up with gas and head east.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 10/02/2010 at 07:41 AM
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Friday, October 01, 2010
Cabin Visit 2010 - Day 12 & 13
I’ve fallen a bit behind in documenting our daily activities, so will try to catch up in this post.
On Wednesday (day 12) we took a walk to the bottom with the dogs, then put them in the cabin, and walked to a neighboring parcel where there is an old cowboy or shepherds cart as well a a cabin. Lynne took photos, and she has posted about them on her site. There is also an amazing old tree there that I called “Old Grand Dad” that must be several hundred years old. It is bent and gnarled and broken, but still going.
After that we spent the day around the cabin reading and taking it easy. I must have done some chores, but can’t think what now 
Oh, yeah. I attempted to sharpen the chain saw, but it needs professional help.
Salad for lunch.
We had leftover lasagna for dinner and we watched Survivor on TV with a nice fire in the fireplace.
On Thursday, we had a hearty breakfast (poached eggs on toast with hash browns) and then we took the dogs to the bottom and then left them in the cabin while we hiked the property lines. I have each corner stored on a GPS, and we use that to go from corner to corner. We can’t always go in a straight line, but the goal is to stay as close to the property boundary as possible and find each corner—most have survey stakes to mark them. It is a total of 2.25 miles and mostly up and down and trekking through dense forest. It is a beautiful hike though and takes us to parts of our property that are mostly inaccessible and that we do not otherwise see. By the time we get home we are scratched, muddy, and have legs like rubber.
After the long trek, all we want to do is take a shower and take it easy—sort of a theme lately. I did work on the gutters some.
The Zaffino’s came over mid-afternoon for a nice chat. Larry came over to review the clear cut area and talk about the logs that he will remove.
Dinner was awesome grilled rib eye steaks with baked potatoes and s’mores for dessert. We did not turn on the TV that I recall, instead we chatted, read and went to bed. It was cool overnight and the furnace ran a couple of times. Bella was antsy and finally settled down on the bed—but that makes it hard for us to be comfortable and sleep well.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 10/01/2010 at 07:48 AM
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Cabin Visit 2010 - Day 12
Today, we decided to make another short trip into Laramie. We needed cat food, wanted a supply of “special” bones for the dogs (for Christmas), I wanted a file to sharpen the chain saw, and we needed to make our annual trip to the West Laramie Fly Shop to buy a commemorative T-shirt. But, rather than go straight to town, we decided to take a long-cut over Sand Creek Pass down to the Laramie River Valley, up along the river to Woods Landing, then into Laramie. It was a nice drive, we got our shopping done quickly, and we headed home, arriving around noon. (Oh yeah, and we filled up with cheap gas.)
We had the 24-hour, 7-layer salad for lunch. Then, we spent the afternoon cleaning the cabin and Lynne prepared her wonderful porcini mushroom lasagna.
Dave and Sally came over and we took a hike “around” since they had never seen the parcel we are on in detail. After that we talked while dinner cooked. We have some shared experiences with expatriate assignments at Hewlett Packard, and there is never a shortage of conversation. Dinner was great as was the frozen pie Lynne made for dessert.
I think it was close to 10:00 before we headed for bed and then I read for an hour to finish the second book in a trilogy I am reading.
It is hard to believe we have only two more days here. There are a lot of chores I have not done yet, and now wonder if they will ever get done on this trip.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/29/2010 at 08:32 AM
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