Spring Time

[Bartender]

Since it is spring time in my neck of the woods, I thought I might take a couple of pictures of some flowers in my yard. No, they're not taken with a digital camera, just a plain old Minolta XG1 (pretty time consuming to setup, shoot (without a preview), and then have them developed). I think that I should look into a nice digital camera.

http://www.hlmcompany.com/flowers.php

In the navigation bar, you'll see a temporary section called Spring Time. You can click on that to see the few pictures that I've uploaded. One word of caution, the expectation is about 25 seconds to download one picture @ 28.8 speeds. Hence, I only put one picture per page.

There are no pictures of it, buy my herb garden is coming along too, I can start using some of the produce in our kitchen.

[i]

The pictures are very nice. Actually, I think the whole site is nicely done.

[Bartender]

Thanks i; Buck has put a little bit of time into that site, although it still lacks quite a bit content.

[Mercutio]

Since I'm on broadband for the day and forced to use IE I went and took a look anyway (thanks for the warning, though).

I particularly like the last one. It's fairly obvious to me that those images are cropped to that white border, but I really like the color balance in the last group.

I can, um, take pictures of the spring graffiti around my apartment; Latin Kings have started crossing out Gangster Disciples work, which is probably not a good sign...

[Bartender]

Thanks Mercutio. The last one is my favorite too, and amazingly, it didn't require any color/brightness/contrast alterations. I thought that all the images looked better with the white "inner glow", instead of just a stark edge.

I'm sorry to hear that your neighborhood is so synthetic and plagued with gangs. Around here, when we see a gang, it is usually a pack of coyotes looking for a meal. (The neighborhood cats and small dogs usually make good snacks for them. The only other bandits we have are raccoons - and boy, can they make a mess.) Although we do have the usual rambunctious teenagers that enjoy showing off the speed of their cars or the loudness of their stereos, the Sheriffs department does a pretty good job of curbing criminal activity.

I remember one time when some kids pulled a prank on our house: We were having a party of sorts, the doorbell rang, and when we went to open the door, it wouldn’t open. One strong yank (with a little of my weight put into it) revealed that they had put a stick in between the two door handles for the front doors. So, we (a few of us men – aged 20 to 55) went charging outside. As we scoped the neighborhood (probably about 9:00 pm), we found a couple of those jokers. You should have seen the look on their face when we grabbed them and dragged their sorry behinds back to their house. A few stern words (without foul language) and all was done. They never bothered us again. It sounds that if we had done that in your neighborhood, we would have been shot, stabbed, robbed, and left for dead.

[Bartender]

I added a few more pictures for those not challenged by bandwidth.

[Tea]

I haven't had a chance to comment in any detail yet, Bartender, but very nice pictures. I'm enjoying them. Also, great work with your WD history: a valuable resource in the making. I'll make a link to it from the redhill site shortly.

[Bartender]

Thanks Tea, spring certainly is beautiful time of year.

[Tannin]

bastards!

[Buck]

pffttt!

[Mercutio]

Tannin, wouldn't a simple move to the northern coast of Oz (Ballarat is in the southeastern portion, correct?) solve your weather complaints? Personally I like three of the seasons, and to get a real spring and autumn, you have to have a winter in there somewhere. Unfortunately.

And like you weren't lording your weather over us all through our winter anyway.

I guess I *do* have something good to say about "outside" where I live. Today the weather is perfect. It's 70 F and just the slightest breeze, and for the first time in almost a week, it isn't raining. Somehow during the last seven days, leaves have finally filled in on all the trees, which gives me something to look at besides the buildings across the courtyard.
It rained pretty hard here, and some of the courtyard flooded. Now it's like I have a little pond outside my apartment. It won't last but right now I'm enjoying it (on my deck with laptop, busily avoiding work I should be doing).
A small thing, I suppose.

[Bartender]

Good to see that you're finding some joy Mercutio. The weather by you sounds very comfortable.

[Mercutio]

The outside-ness isn't voluntary. I'm stucl out here because the other member of my household has asked for the apartment to herself until she goes off to teach. :(

[Bartender]

The outside-ness isn't voluntary. I'm stucl out here because the other member of my household has asked for the apartment to herself until she goes off to teach. :(

Good thing then that the weather is fair.

[P5-133XL]

Whenever I look at the subject for this topic, I just keep hearing "It's springtime for Hitler and Germany" From the Producers.

[Bartender]

Whenever I look at the subject for this topic, I just keep hearing "It's springtime for Hitler and Germany" From the Producers.

What a hillarious movie too - I thought about that after I wrote the topic.

[Mercutio]

Talking about "Springtime for Hitler" reminds me of The Boys from Brazil (http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue54/classic.html).

Let me tell you, I got some interesting results when I typed that into Google.

And of course, talking about Brazil (http://www.trond.com/brazil/) at all reminds me of a favorite dystopian vision and a really overlooked film.

And we're on to movies, which are mostly an indoor activity that I have a decent understanding of.

I'd like to go camping, though. I've never done that. The idea in my mind is finding someplace nice with woods and trees and clean water and real darkness and stars to look up and see.

[Tea]

Australia is very good for that. Just sell your car and take a month off. :)

[i]

Australia is very good for that. Just sell your car and take a month off. :)

I thought Australia was full of deadly poisonous insects though. What are those spiders called? Funnel webs? Eeek.

Living here in North Carolina is hard enough. I'm sick of it actually ... it seems like I can't even get near plants higher than about 3 inches without finding at least a couple of *&#(%@ ticks on me. Lyme disease sucks ... I'm grateful it's rare.

The last time I did some plumbing repairs in the crawl-space under my house, I came nose-to-nose with a black widow spider. The hilarious part was that, despite having virtually no room to move (it's called a crawl-space for a reason), I could not possibly have been better prepared. I was wearing ultra-thick welder's gloves that came up to my elbows, and I was holding a lit blowtorch.

HAH! Bet you didn't expect THAT, did you Mr. Spider! Bwahahahaaaa.

[Sol]

I thought Australia was full of deadly poisonous insects though. What are those spiders called? Funnel webs? Eeek.


Actually Funnel web spiders are an example of Australia’s rich and poisonous Arachnid population. Our poisonous insects are a quite distinct and mostly imported mix of European Wasps and Fire Ants among others.

Mostly, however, our nasties are pretty localized with Funnel Webs mostly only around Sydney, although they are heading south slowly they still have 2000km or so before they reach our neck of the woods.

Camping in Australia is really quite safe, because of all the poisonous things which are about abulances and rescue crews are usually ready with anti-venoms for any local insect/arachnid/snake which might pose a threat to campers. As a result no one has died of a Funnel Web bite in I think about 6 years or more.





Tannin, wouldn't a simple move to the northern coast of Oz (Ballarat is in the southeastern portion, correct?) solve your weather complaints?


Are you crazy? That portion of Australia contains 9 of the worlds 10 deadliest snakes.
Or to put it another way the worlds 9 deadliest snakes. Plus Fire Ants and other assorted poisonous things.
Better to stay down here with only the whitetails.

[timwhit]

Mercutio,

The best camping/canoeing I have ever done is in the boundary waters in Minnesota. My friends and I go up every year for a week (for 5 years). It is canoeing and camping to the extreme. Some days you don't ever see another person for an entire day.

Going to the boundary waters is about the only thing that I look forward to the entire year. There is just something about being up there, days from civilization. I don't think I would trade the week a year up there for anything.

We saw the northern lights a few years ago up there, it was pretty cool. Being 10 feet from a moose was really cool too. Very humbling, we were just sitting in a canoe in the middle of a small stream with no current. The thing was feeding by the edge of the water, we got pretty close and it saw us but didn't seem to care too much. Finally after watching it for about 10 minutes it splashed right across the water to the other side and took off through the trees. This thing had horns and all. I was thinking about it later, but if it had felt threatened by us there wouldn't have been a damn thing we could have done about it. That moose would have clobbered us. It looked like a big clumsy horse, with horns on it.

[James]

Time to quote that memorable song by the Scared Weird Little Guys :

Deadly Animals
By The Scared Weird Little Guys

Redback, Funnel-Web, Blue-ringed octopus
Tiapan, Tigersnake and a Box jellyfish
Stonefish and the poison thing that lives in a shell
That spikes you when you pick it up

Come to Australia
You might accidentally get killed

Your life's constantly under threat
Have you been bitten yet?
You've only got three minutes left
Before a massive coronary breakdown

Redback, Funnel-Web, Blue-ringed octopus
Tiapan, Tigersnake and a Box jellyfish
Big shark just waiting for you to go swimming
At Bondi Beach

Come to Australia
You might accidentally get killed
Your blood is bound to be spilled
With fear your pants will be filled
Because you might accidentally get killed

[Bartender]

Time to quote that memorable song by the Scared Weird Little Guys :

Deadly Animals
By The Scared Weird Little Guys

Redback, Funnel-Web, Blue-ringed octopus
Tiapan, Tigersnake and a Box jellyfish
Stonefish and the poison thing that lives in a shell
That spikes you when you pick it up

Come to Australia
You might accidentally get killed

Your life's constantly under threat
Have you been bitten yet?
You've only got three minutes left
Before a massive coronary breakdown

Redback, Funnel-Web, Blue-ringed octopus
Tiapan, Tigersnake and a Box jellyfish
Big shark just waiting for you to go swimming
At Bondi Beach

Come to Australia
You might accidentally get killed
Your blood is bound to be spilled
With fear your pants will be filled
Because you might accidentally get killed

Oh yeah, those are great words to attract tourism. Maybe this should be sung to all of those seeking asylum.

[i]

Hey ... look at what I just stumbled across while trying to identify the bast ... err, tick ... currently attached to my leg:

Australian Spider and Insect Bites (http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/anaes/spiders.html)

Includes some nice succulent ("juicy" doesn't do it justice) details. :wink:

[adriel]

Here's my springtime contribution:

http://www.pcez.com/~adriel/spidey.jpg

The spider sucked the muskeeter for about two days and left it an empty shell, then snapped its head off. I've been feeding the spider bugs from outside--I found it sneaking around in my room, and because it is missing a leg I thought I'd take care of it. The maintenance is easy, I just give it bugs and water, and wipe up the poop every day or change insect containers.

[Cliptin]

Hey ... look at what I just stumbled across while trying to identify the bast ... err, tick ... currently attached to my leg:

Australian Spider and Insect Bites (http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/anaes/spiders.html)

Includes some nice succulent ("juicy" doesn't do it justice) details. :wink:

Yuck, even the ticks in Oz are nasty. I have no problem with ticks in general; some people are positively fanatical about never getting one on them. Paralysis is something I'd like to avoid, however.

[CougTek]

I've been feeding the spider bugs from outside--I found it sneaking around in my room, and because it is missing a leg I thought I'd take care of it. The maintenance is easy, I just give it bugs and water, and wipe up the poop every day or change insect containers.
I met weird people during my life and you are certainly one of them.

[Mercutio]

When I was in college I had a roommate - and one of my better roommates - who had to keep a cockroach alive as part of an entymology class. That thing scared the hell out of me. It was probably two inches long and made noises all night long. About halfway through the semester I started killing his roaches, but creatively. I'd get a couple days of peace and he'd get a new roach the next week from his instuctor. . He was a senior and didn't really care by that point anyway.

At least spiders don't make noise.

[i]

At least spiders don't make noise.

Yes, silent ... and deadly. :wink:


I have no problem with ticks in general; some people are positively fanatical about never getting one on them. Paralysis is something I'd like to avoid, however.

I don't have a problem with ticks in general either. But I do have a problem when they decide to attach themselves to me.

I read the names of more types of bacteria yesterday while perusing tick literature than I have since first-year biology. That's my problem with ticks: they're great disease carriers.

You've probably heard of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease, but here's a list of some of the other fantastic diseases the North American tick population may someday decide to share with you:

Partial list of tickborne diseases (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/list_tickborne.htm)

[Cliptin]

No thanks! Ignorance is bliss.

[adriel]

CougTek, I may be a weird person, but taking care of a poor little spider isn't what makes me weird.

I think this one is a little more "springtimish", and not as evil looking as the last:

http://www.pcez.com/~adriel/spidey02.jpg

[Bartender]

For anyone not bandwidth challenged and interested in another picture, I've added one more to my online gallery of Spring. It will be the first picture, so you don't have to download and scroll through the whole lot.

[Cliptin]

For anyone not bandwidth challenged and interested in another picture, I've added one more to my online gallery of Spring. It will be the first picture, so you don't have to download and scroll through the whole lot.

Thanks again Bartender.

[Bartender]

No problem Herbie! Have you ever gone bananas?

[Cliptin]

No problem Herbie! Have you ever gone bananas?

I did once in South America. South American roads will do that to you.

[Bartender]

:D

[timwhit]

If anyone wants to see pictures of a garden...I threw up some pictures of my dad's garden, he spends every spare minute out there.

http://www.timwhit.com/garden

These are from the backyard and they are a few weeks old, things look a bit fuller now.

[flagreen]

That's a pretty garden. It was a treat to see real grass! Not this sorry excuse for grass we have down here in Florida, but real honest to God grass!

[Bartender]

Beautiful garden - very well organized, maintained, and manicured; give him my compliments and praise. Your father should very proud of his artwork. I hope he didn't mind the picture of him on the internet.

[Mercutio]

I'm allergic to a lot of plants so I think when I get my own apartment I'm going to just buy TONS of fake trees and ferns and stuff. It'll be like living in a jungle. Except for all the dusting. :)

Your parents' backyard looks very similar to my parents'.

[timwhit]

I'll pass on the compliments, he will be pleased to hear them. His yard is like an obsession, he thinks he has finally gotten it the way he wants it...and now my mom wants to move.

He actually won the Homewood Garden award a few years ago, but that only takes into account the front yard. The yard has also have been on a couple garden walks in the past few years.

I mow the grass...that's why it looks so good. :)

[Prof.Wizard]

If anyone wants to see pictures of a garden...I threw up some pictures of my dad's garden, he spends every spare minute out there.

http://www.timwhit.com/garden

These are from the backyard and they are a few weeks old, things look a bit fuller now.
Hey, tim... who are all those dudes at your domain? :D

(sorry to be looking- I'm thinking to buy some host space and register a domain for myself and I'm taking ideas...)

[timwhit]

Those are my friends and me at a party from a couple of weeks ago. I put them up so people could go and look at them.

[Prof.Wizard]

Cool. Really funny stuff you've uploaded there. You mush have a bunch of fun with that camera... :D

Tell me something. Is Tim Whit your real name?

I was thinking to register my last name as a domain, and not a nick or something. I know it's not a big deal, but since it would be personal it might sound more right, don't you think?

Everyone toss your opinions here...
Better www.mihailidis.gr (my surname) or www.profwizard.gr (my nick)?

I think: nick changes... last names not. Moreover, a Greek surname sounds like a hitman, not? 8)

[timwhit]

My full name is Tim Whitney. I would have registered my last name if I could have. But, Whitney is a fairly common last name and it was taken with every extension.

I wouldn't even know how to pronounce your last name Prof. Anyways, it's the Italians that are the hitmen not the Greeks. Don't you watch movies Prof?

The camera isn't mine it's my friends. I just used it for a few nights, he wasn't in the right state of mind to be operating expensive toys...not that I was either...but I thought that I was. If anyone cares it is a Canon S330, all the pictures were originally taken at 1600x1200 and then scaled down to 640x480 for the web.

[Groltz]

Picture taken (http://www.groltz.storageforum.net/images/Hill.JPG) on the evening of April 27, 2003 from my back door step. (430 Kilobytes)

--Steve K

[Howell]

Wow Steve, That's gorgeous.

[Mercutio]

I've decided that I supremely dislike spring.
Spring is when my allergies kick in. Spring brings thunderstorms and lightning and the annual "You're going to bill me for flipping the switch on that surge protector" complaints.
Spring is when other people open their windows, and when their lives intrude on mine.
Spring brings back insects and unpleasant smells.
Spring is the ugliness of new life - having not the lushness of summer nor the color that comes in withering. Spring is bald patches in trees.

[mubs]

Beautiful! Thanks!

[Buck]

That is a breath-taking picture Steve, thanks for sharing that with us.

[Groltz]

Thanks for comments guys.

Here are a couple more taken around the same time as the first. These aren't reduced, though.

Pics.zip (4.2Megs) (http://www.groltz.storageforum.net/images/Pics.zip)

[jtr1962]

Spring means summer's not far behind, and I hate summer with a passion. Summer for me basically means being confined to an air-conditioned room for 3 months since I lost my ability to cope with heat(not that I had that great an ability before) after I helped my neighbor with his kiddie entertainment business for a few summers. I few days of working in the middle of the street when it's 105°F in the shade will do that to you. Besides the heat you also have all sorts of insects, the smell of rotting garbage, fat people in skimpy clothes letting it all hang out, and last but not least good old New York smog. You can keep summer(and late spring for that matter). Air conditioning is a half-assed solution to the heat as well since you alternate between periods of freezing and sweating as it cycles on and off to maintain the room at a supposed constant temperature. Why can't air conditioners just throttle down the compressor and fan as the temperature approaches the set point? My thermoelectric freezer does that. The engineering is almost trivial.

[The JoJo]

WOW!

Nice view you've got there Steve. Thanks for the pic.

[blakerwry]

Spring means summer's not far behind, and I hate summer with a passion. Summer for me basically means being confined to an air-conditioned room for 3 months since I lost my ability to cope with heat(not that I had that great an ability before) after I helped my neighbor with his kiddie entertainment business for a few summers. I few days of working in the middle of the street when it's 105°F in the shade will do that to you. Besides the heat you also have all sorts of insects, the smell of rotting garbage, fat people in skimpy clothes letting it all hang out, and last but not least good old New York smog. You can keep summer(and late spring for that matter). Air conditioning is a half-assed solution to the heat as well since you alternate between periods of freezing and sweating as it cycles on and off to maintain the room at a supposed constant temperature. Why can't air conditioners just throttle down the compressor and fan as the temperature approaches the set point? My thermoelectric freezer does that. The engineering is almost trivial.

could you just hook the compressor up to a rheostat?

[jtr1962]

could you just hook the compressor up to a rheostat?

That wouldn't work at all. You would need a huge rheostat capable of dissipating a few hundred watts(which incidentally would counteract the effect of the AC unless you put it outside). Besides that, as you reduce voltage the compressor's torque goes down, and at some point it will just stall. The best and probably only way to throttle down a compressor is the reduce the duty cycle(i.e. percentage of on time) of the voltage so that when the voltage pulses on it is at full voltage(and hence full compressor torque) but since the duty cycle is less than 100% the speed(and therefore cooling power) is reduced. This works better with a DC rather than AC motor, although it can be done with an AC motor with increased complexity in the electronics. I've already made power packs to drive HO trains which pulse the motor. You can get full torque and very low(minutes to go one inch) speeds. With a simple rheostat or even pure regulated DC the motor just stalls at some point.

My thermoelectric freezer works on the same principle I just described except that I use an LC filter to convert my duty-cycle modulated square wave back to pure DC, which is what the thermoelectrics require(pulsed current shortens their lifespan). Unlike the compressor there is no worry about stalling, so in theory a large rheostat would work as well except that it wouldn't be amenable to automatic comtrol, and would waste power besides, whereas my power supply is up to about 97% efficient.

[Bartender]

Since it is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere again, I took a few new pictures for this season. They can be found here. (http://www.hlmcompany.com/flowers20.php) There are only four pictures to enjoy, hopefully I'll be able to take a few more later on in the season.

I also took a nice picture of Jake the Dog, that can be found here. (http://www.hlmcompany.com/jakethedog.php)

[Buck]

Also, great work with your WD history: a valuable resource in the making. I'll make a link to it from the redhill site shortly.

That has been updated too. It finally reflects WD's ATA history through 2002.

[Handruin]

Very nice Bartender. I love the colors in this picture:

http://www.hlmcompany.com/images/flowers20.jpg

The picture of Jake the Dog, is fantastic! :mrgrn:

[Dozer]

The best part about spring for me--spring rain = running rivers. This is me "side-surfing" at the Hiwassee River:

http://www.eastchattanoogalumber.com/IM001043.jpg