BeachWeb - January 2006
January, 2006 - well - we're here - and HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all...

IN January we'll do a 'lot of things' - but today is only the second day of January, 2006 and it's not even noon, yet, and most businesses are closed - so life is good - not a lot to do except learn more CAD-3D-parametric software tools and how to use them, read, feed the cat, read, do 3D CAD, work in the yard, feed the cat - take a nap, read some more - feed the cat(s) (again) _ etc. etc. etc. etc. ...

On the first of January we didn't do a lot except sleep late (didn't get to bed until almost 02:00 a.m. on the first - (which is REALLY LATE for us!)) - and then we went for a long walk (probably 3 miles / about 50 minutes) - then breakfast - then struggling with printing business cards (finally achieved that, though, with great success (see way below!))

Here are 'some preliminary' pictures of Mr. Bill's new Toyota Sienna CE Mini-Van - This Morning (the first day of the 'Chinese year of the Dog):

dash-board with cable for iPod (upper-right)
left front & side doors
rear-door
right-front & side doors

 it's got about 200 miles on it (I got it with 79 miles) and went kiteboarding out of it yesterday - EXCELLENT DAY on the water
- then we went almost all the way to West Palm Beach (last night) to a Chinese New Year's party at a friend's house...

a picture of miscellaneous kiteboard 'junk' - supposedly drying on the fence (but it rained about 04:00 this morning)
a picture of our morning 'alarm-clock' - wakes-us-up about 3-5 times between 03:30 a.m. and 07:30 a.m.
a picture of Mr. Bill's "Breakfast of Champions"

PS: NOW it IS Chinese New Year (Sunday, 29th January 2006 (for the westerners amongst us))  - Kung Hei Fat Choi!
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Monday, 2 January, - 2006 - here's some things I'd not thought about for a while - just some 'links' for you to peruse, in case you're interested:

Some Hang-Gliding links - to special places:


Here's a 'small' picture (click for larger  (1 meg) version) of Ms. May and her new instructor, Mr. Bo, - getting ready to go up for her last 'Tandem (instructor)' flight before she goes solo. She's going to be READY SOON - she has been told, though, she needs more 'muscle'...  

Mr. Bill has had four more flights beyond his '20 Tandem Instuctor Flights' and he needs 'a few more' to work-on the intricacies of his 'technique' - and then he, too, will be ready to solo.   Bill's ' problem ' is that they want him to 'react instinctively' to bumps, lumps, and strange happenings - and he's 'not-quite' at that stage, just yet - so a few more flights should get him there....  At this point take-offs and landings are pretty well dialed-in and performance while being towed is pretty-much o.k. - but he needs a few more flights to get things 'down pat' before they let him go...  There's a 'huge' responsibility on the instructors here, to make sure you're good at this - Obviously - unlike a lot of other sports, once you're up there alone, they can't help you much - you really do have to be 'alert' / 'aware' / 'instinctive' - etc. etc. etc. - you've got to be able to handle whatever the 'environment' throws at you and that can be a lot, even on a day that 'appears' at ground-level to be 'calm' - wind-shear layers can develop quickly and with fairly severe consequences.   So your instructor is your friend and your guidance... -

ONE MUST BE "READY" before going solo in a hang-glider...

MORE - later in the month, but for now - we'll show you how we made Ms. May's 6 year old Lexmark inkjet printer work, 'flawlessly' - the key is (as you'll note in this picture) is that someone has to 'pray' to make it work right! - it did, though, print very nice business cards, once it was properly 'prayed-to'?!



AND - here's a couple of 'news' (gnus) items:

Mr. Bill got his NEW Toshiba M60 Satellite - Microsoft Windows XP (Pro) PC this week - here's  a BRIEF run-down on it's configuration and main 'attractions' (this 'replaces' the Toshiba Satellite which was new in November of 2002 (1.6 Gig CPU / 1/2Gig RAM)... ... ...
It is now loaded with 'most' of the CAD (software) tools I have (you can view CAD stuff at the 'DesignWeb' site (see extreme lower left of the 'MenuFrame' at left))  And CAD-things on it are MUCH FASTER than the older Toshiba that it replaces...




Ms. May is now 'volunteering part time' helping out at yet another Gallery, nearby.   She and others are moving kilns, preparing web-sites / pages, painting, getting exhibits ready, and generally preparing for their opening date(s).     In another month or two we'll give you the web-address and/or you can stop by to visit them right near the railroad tracks in Hobe Sound, Florida - just south of us about 10-15 minutes.




Today (19 January, 2006 (Thursday)) we got, in the yard, in a pink-plastic bag, - a Papa John's pizza coupon - pretty slick - HOWEVER, we noted that the Coupon expired on 31 December 2005.   - Seemed a 'little-odd' to us that they would - almost 3 weeks after the coupon expires, distribute it to potential customers - Harumph?





here's, also, an 'odd' digital camera 'mistake' - couldn't figure out why this was like this (before correction).  However, after hearing from our good friend Gary Hall  down-state, looking on the Sony Web Site, and talking to the Sony people on the phone for 20 minutes - apparently it's a 'CCD problem' so they are sending me a shipping label and it appears they will fix the problem for free? (we'll see)...

Update on this: - they finally sent the label (via an e-mail) which I printed - and shipped the camera off - it's been about a week, now (today's the 19th of January) - hope we'll get it back soon...  (updated (again) on 29 January (Sunday)) - camera has still not come back from Sony, yet, but maybe next week...
last updated:  Sunday, 29 January, 2006 @ 08:00 a.m. USA-EDT;  revID: 1h