Beach
Web - May 2008 and in Hong Kong
Well - the last few days of May, 2008 I spent driving up, here, to Highland Aerosports,
in Ridgely, Maryland, for the "East Coast Championships" - a big
hang-gliding event. I won't compete in this event - but I did get
a chance at a short-flight on Friday, 30th...
Then the wind picked-up too much for safe flying - and so I
drove around the area to get familiar with 'pick-up-spots' (and also visited some kite-boarding spots...
I'm here mostly to do retrievals for some friends from Florida.
I'll use their truck (or maybe another) to pick them up after they
"land out" - that is - they start from here at Highland Aerosports in
Ridgely, Maryland, and land at a different location in pursuit of a
'goal' which is usually set 15-50 miles from the start-point.
Most times most of the pilots will 'make goal'. However,
sometimes they stop-short when they can't find lift, so you end up
picking them up from some random agricultural field where they've
landed... Radio, GPS, and driving skills are necessary for this
'job' / 'role'. Ms._May and I worked on this last year for some
competitions in Florida and it was both fun and educational. I
hope it will be so, again, this year...
However, if the hang-gliding competition gets "blown out" (too
much wind for safe flying), I did bring some kiteboarding gear, so -
perhaps - I'll get a chance to do some kiteboarding..
Right 'now' it's Saturday morning the 31st, and though the competition
hasn't started, - people arrived last night - I'm sure more will arrive
today, and there's a 'mandatory' pilot's meeting tonite in preparation
for tomorrow's first official day. Normally people would go on a
'practice' flight today, but the weather doesn't look too good for
flying? - so maybe while others are arriving I'll go kiteboarding...
Sunday, 25th: - kiteboarding was good (if gusty) for over 2 hours on the 16 meter kite...
Sometimes on a hot-muggy-day one just HAS to watch a movie...
and a picture (copied from the TV with the iPhone) of the 'main' character, Mr._Totoro
RAIN!
a bit of rain falling off the roof and all OVER the yard! (mango tree to the right)
Rain gauge showing just shy of 2 1/2 inches (63 mm) in one afternoon / evening (23rd)...
The day before we got just over 3 inches .... WONDERFUL STUFF!
Yesterday AND today we had RAIN RAIN RAIN (3"
yesterday - about the same today) - Wowie Zowie Batpeople - this
is GOOD GNUS! This area has been in 'drought' conditions for
WEEKs and now we have some RAIN! This is GOOD for the YARD and
the trees, shrubs, plants, grass and other 'living' things...
Additionally - earlier this week we had EXCELLENT Kite-boarding (even
if the wind was GUSTY out of the WEST) - it was a good day for
runs of 2-3 miles up and down our section of the river...
I greatly enjoyed my 9 meter kite. There were 2, 3, sometimes 4
other people out (with lots of different colored kites).
Ms._Hannah said, "If we can't kite well at least we'll look good."... -
it was an excellent day - Wednesday, at 'East Island' (north side) with
Ms._ Hannah, Mr._Mike, and ran into Mr._Scott, who I hadn't seen
- in what, at least a couple of years. A couple of other people I
saw on the water but didn't know who they were... - and South of the
bridge there were 3 or 4 more kites...
And earlier in the week I was in Jacksonville, for _Mom's_ oral surgery
and that went well and so did the drive up and back - very nice -
pleasant, not too much traffic.
WELL (Saturday, 17th):
"Jet_lag" 'sets-in' but Mr._Bill (being back in Florida) - is 'attempting to adjust' quickly - by:
- yard-working, trimming, auto-watering, raking, irrigation-sprinkler-re-programming
- kite-boarding ( day-1_small day-1_large and/or day-2_small day-2_large )
- Kiteboard details:
day-1: 13-18 knots; SE; 16 meter kite; 2 hr, 10 mins; average
speed 'approximately' 25 knots; <<<>>>
day-2: 13-18 knots; SE; 13 meter kite - 1 hr, 20 mins; average speed
'approximately' 21 knots
- kite-boarding "STUFF" rinsing, drying, and re-loading (into the mini-van)
- grocery shopping - Publix (our favourite) and "Milam's" used to be "Stuart Fine Foods"...
- cat-petting, cat hugging, cat sleeping with me (really helps)
- sleeping (in general, but not 'regularly')
- e-mailing friends, relatives, and business associates
- house-cleaning / vacuuming
- cooking food, at various times of the day and cleaning up the kitchen
- re-organizing computer-files & folders & hard-disks and backups and so-forth...
- updating web-pages
Eventually I'll get over this 'jet_lag' and then I'll be more 'normal'
(whatever that means)... Jet-Lag is a funny-thing - many times it
takes but 2-3 days to 'recover' - but going to Hong Kong this time it
took me closer to a week - I've now been back on the North American
continent, now, for five nights and I don't even begin to feel
'adjusted' yet? - I guess a lot has to do with 'attitude' and a
lot has to do with 'environment' - it's been REALLY HOT here (it was
REALLY HOT in Hong Kong). I've been exercising in the yard, and
kiteboarding but neither seems to have much effect on my 'recover'.
I've been petting the cat a lot - that, too, seems to have
little effect, but it does keep her from talking incessantly!. - ANYWAY
_ I WILL RECOVER, but I guess it's just a question of WHEN?
One THING that helps with Jet-Lag is reading - whether it's " eBooks "
(on-line with your laptop (or even a desktop)) computer (and Adobe's Digital Editons (a stripped-down (and 'encoded') version of Acrobat Reader) or whether it's real, bound, paper books....
One book that I have just (barely) finished-up was by one of my favourite authors (Remember the movie "The_Bone_Collector" with ( IMDB link) Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie). The author is - Jeffery Deaver - this book is called " The Broken Window
" and it's recent (copyright 2008 (ISBN: 978-0-340-93723-5)).
This is an exceedingly 'topical' book mostly about the business of
'data-mining' and how one who is not so 'ethical' can use the data in
the proliferation of data-mining companies to both 'steal identities'
as well as to murder people with a great deal of 'isolation' of the
killer. A very 'theoretical' book, but one who is trained in
computers, knowledge-bases and data-mining can easily see how the
'theory' in this book could EASILY be put into practice for nefarious
purposes. A 'scary' book to say the least - a book who's time is
NOW, and if you didn't 'worry' about identity theft and data-mining
before you read this book you WILL WORRY about it AFTER you read this
book...
note this book "MAY NOT" be 'available' in the USA
until sometime in June - I bought my copy in Hong Kong (for the
airplane ride back to Vancouver) - there are several references to the
June release date on web-sites far and wide (like Jeffery
Deaver's web-site and on Amazon and Barnes & Noble)... don't
be surprised if you can't get it "Right Now"...
Note, also, that Ms._May has some very interesting and insightful things on her ' blog-site '.
Vancouver, BC, CANADA: on Monday_12th May, Mr._Alex retrieved me
from the airport and we went to a very very nice park nearby "Garry
Point Park, Richmond, BC, CANADA" (you can put this string into 'Google
Earth (or Google Maps)). Anyway - great place to go kiteboarding ( small view of beach and larger view of beach ) - and I saw the world's UGLIEST SHIP, VERY EMBARASSED to find it was called " Florida Highway " - (or bigger file) Yuch!.
But the park was nice and the kite-flying was EXCELLENT. We used Mr._Bill's & Ms._May's " 2.2 square meter " HQ Kite
". We also saw some guys with kite-buggies. Makes me
want to buy a kite-buggy - something I've always wanted but never
managed to get around to... - there's not much place, here in Florida,
to use them - ON THE OTHER HAND - they could WELL be used at the
hang-gliding flight-park(s) when there's TOO MUCH WIND for Hang
Gliding? - Hmmm???
Pictures from Ms._May's trip to China, with friends Lily & John & Kyoshi... these will come later...
Some Hong_Kong_things from our trip there...
Mr._Bill helping our sailing friend Mr._Mark get his new (Big
(60 foot plus) boat away from the dock on Sunday, 11th at the
Hebe_Haven_Yacht_Club. On Saturday, the 10th Ms._May and I raced with Mr._Mark on his " Magic_25
" sailboat in 'Shelter_Cove' the 'racing-area' for most of the sailors
in Hong Kong. The Magic 25 was built by Hobie (the same people
that made the (exceedingly popular) Hobie Cat. However, Hobie
'seems' to have abandoned the Magic 25 in recent years. That
doesn't mean they didn't build an excellent, fast, fun racing boat.
there's a fleet of 'about' 12-15 boats on this body of water in
Hong_Kong.
went to visit some friend(s) at what USED to be parts of Motorola - On
Semiconductor and Freescale Semiconductor, both in the 'Science Park'
here in Hong Kong. The 'OLD' Motorola building is a bit off to
Mr._Bill's right shoulder, across the harbour, and where we used to
live is off on the other side of the harbour between us (new
construction just barely visible at what would have been 'above' the
hill above our old flat.
Then later on Thursday evening met-up with some of my ex-colleagues and staff at an EXCELLENT Thai restaurant!
our friend the 'wolf' in sheep's clothing!
Ms._Sam_and_Ms._May at lunch...
- More pictures
later ...
We don't have a lot more to report at this point (Wednesday, 7th) but there are a 'few' more pictures:
More things from Hong Kong -
The '(2008) Olympic Flame Relay' was here in Hong Kong yesterday,
and the number of people watching was monumental... - But it brought up
a question we have:
Question of the Day?!:
HOW do you get an 'open flame' onto an airliner to go from country to country?
There is a big display about this ((2008) Olympic Torch Relay) in the
Kowloon Park Sports Complex, and they 'sort of' answer this question.
( click for small or large image )
BUT - this is NOT a 'complete' answer - so we want to hear from you! ( larger picture here )
Some other pictures...
Today is Friday, 2 May... Hong Kong is GOOD! -
we found the Starbucks coffee shop with the absolute best view in the
world - on the harbour - though we didn't BUY Starbucks, Ms. May took a
picture of me trying (un-successfully) to get into one of the 15 or so
wi-fi networks - 90% of which seemed to be 'locked'.
be careful when clicking on the above image for a 'real (LARGE) image' - it's HUGE!
Also - sending e-mails out seems to be a 'REAL' problem for those of
you familiar with TCP/IP the outgoing SMTP server issue is a 'real'
problem with one sitting on 'random' wireless networks - those of you
NOT familiar with TCP/IP networking - don't worry about it - I can
still use Hurricane's "Webmail" pretty flawlessly!..
we enjoyed wandering around this place called 'Langham Plaza (Place / Mall)' - very unusual place
(where later today) we'll drop off a (Nikon) camera lens to be repaired.
We had lunch & conversation with some good friends and their 2 1/2
year old who was exceedingly well behaved, across the street from this
massive plaza-office-shop complex that is almost two city blocks.
Today is Thursday, The First of May...
We arrived in Hong Kong last evening, so it was Mr._Bill's first
airplane flight with "e-Books" and they are pretty awesome.
Getting the e-Books thing set-up on my new Mac Book Air was more
trouble than reading e-Books. One has to 'be careful' about
choosing a platform, an e-Book format, etc. etc. etc. But the
built-in battery on the Mac Book Air lasted the better part of 7 hours
(of admittedly on and off use) on the airplane. On the other hand that
left about 6 1/2 hours of noise, conversation, people moving about
- the bottom-line is I got not one wink of sleep - but - well -
that's airplanes for you, huh?
However, for long airline flights the 'e-Book paradigm' is definitely
the way to go. Not only does one signifcantly reduce both the
bulk and the weight of one's carry-on-luggage, BUT - one increases the
'options' one has to read; PLUS the 'text-size-is-variable' which helps
with those of us who are definitely "Over the Hill" and need a little
eye-strain-help!...
AND: - secondly - the local-country-code-SIM-card in my unlocked Motorola V551(J) cell-phone works
like a CHAMP! - I had this old phone un-locked in January, just for
this trip - and so the 'waiting-game' is over - I've now tried it and
it works, well.!!!
last
updated: 06:22 a.m. - Saturday morning - Ridgely, Maryland, 31 May,
2008; revID: 1q
