please "click here" to see his new things?!
More (random - flower - wildlife) pictures and etc. (as of Wednesday, 22 May, 2013).
Note Mr. Bumble-bee in the middle - tasting the tasty nectar (we assume?).
not sure what these are called but they have bumble-bees (noted above) and berries (noted below)
LOTS of berries - and these are near a swamp, also. I WONDER do the birds like the berries?
YES - Now even MORE confusing... these "Monsters" were done in the wood-fired-kiln, but we think they're quite cute...
(picture by Ms. May).
During Mid-May, Ms. May (yes - that's confusing - you figure it out) fired her gas-kiln, yet again. and it was both FUN and EXHAUSTING... - We fired for about 18 hours on Tuesday the 14th of May, and then un-loaded on Friday 17th of May with Ms. Ellen's help...
Then on Saturday the 18th Ms. May helped UN-LOAD the wood-kiln, and then we had a party here at our house, that celebrated Ms. May's second firing...
During that Party, Mr. Bill achieved one of his age-old goals - when he bought this house (about 10 years ago) he wanted to have 'a parking party' - having all the people to the party park in the back-yard.
SO _ here's a couple of pictures:
Then with the 'left-overs' we decided to have breakfast. Ms. May asks (about the cake we are about to eat with our bananas), "Is the container 'child-proof'?", to which I answer (having been into it last night), "No, HugglyBunch, it is ADULT PROOF." - here's 'proof' - it took bicycle tire-tools to get into it.! (semi-safely) no adults were damaged in this episode, but we haven't finished the cake, yet, either?
During May Mr. Bill finally 'finalized' the bulk of his entry into the 'microcontroller' and 'microcomputer' and 'micro-micro' experimentation world with a whole bunch of things. One of these was an Arduino (<=== Wikipedia Link) micro-controller and associated hardware, software and underwear.
The Arduino programming is primarily a simplied version of the "C" language, originally developed YEARS ago by "Kernigan and Ritchie" for Unix Programming. However, now "C" is used for just about everything. The Arduino book is very heavily "C" oriented but the 'IDE' (Integrated Development Environment (a software tool used to create software) for the Arduino board (microcontroller) hides a lot of the 'twiddly-parts' of the C language, and makes life a LOT SIMPLER to program the Arduino...
The other thing he invested in and has turned out to be both excellent FUN as well as VERY educational is something called a 'Raspberry Pi' (linux computer (for $35))... - again that is a Wikipedia Link there about the Raspberry Pi. The "Official" Raspberry Pi web-site is here.
The "Raspberry Pi" Linux computer (about 2 1/2" x 4 1/2") for only $35 US (including shipping) - an AMAZING device; see below for more details.
Here's another picture of the Raspberry Pi, this one with a US-quarter-dollar (for scale (lower-left)), and a measuring tape, and now enclosed in a 'case' that comes highly recommended. The case is recommended because without the case people tend to break-off all the cable-connectors.
This is one of those projects where the 'main item' (the Raspberry Pi) doesn't cost but $35, but by the time you finish the project, you've spent $200 in cables, connectors, power-supplies, and other such things (to make no mention of the fact that you're supposed to have a 'spare' monitor (HDMI) keyboard (USB) and mouse (USB), already 'laying around'.
The programming for the Raspberry Pi (though one can use 'real C' (for REAL PROGRAMMERS) ) there is also a terrific treatment of Python which is basically a 'scripting' language but can be used for other things...
The Raspberry Pi comes with (if you plug-in all the right things) a GUI that one can deal with much the way one deals with Windows and/or Macintosh Operating Systems...
Along with the above mentioned 'gadgets' to learn more about micro-controllers and such, and printed and e-book information I also acquired an extremely useful if somewhat limited in capabilities "pocket" oscilloscope, the 'DSO Nano' (DSO = Digital Storage Oscilloscope). It is sold by a small lab / company in Shenzhen, China (just across the border from Hong Kong). Here's the web-page for the DSO-Nano.
And - naturally, there are a bunch of books, (both printed and e-book type) that I've used. There is / are a book for almost every purpose, many of them much better than similar books of 5-10 years ago...! The (THE, maybe) way to do this is to peruse (AT LENGTH) the 'O'Reilly' web-site...
AND _ One other thing that is "newsworthy" is the 'finishing' (well, no "OFFICIAL" opening, yet, but it is WORKABLE / RIDEABLE), is the 'A1A bypass through "Seabranch State Park"... - this is something that I 'worked on' YEARS ago on the 'BPAC' (Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Committee). The 'BPAC' is an 'advisory committee' to the 'Municipal Planning Organization' (a part of the county's administration group).
This project was 'near and dear' to my heart - as I ride A1A (very dangerous) about 3-5 times a week for the past 4 years or so, and I'd always wanted a 'safer' way to do this 2.2 mile section of that road...
This is a project that I looked at 4 years ago only in my wet-dreams.
Well now it is a reality and I was part of that reality. It also really changed my mind about SOME 'government employees'. I live in a county who's people say "We Want This" and then the employees that work for the county actually go out and make it happen for us, the taxpayers. My hat is off to those people, and there were a lot of them...
IF you put your nose RIGHT UP TO THE SCREEN, you'll be able to smell the Jasmine flowers along this almost 1 mile section.
This is a 'typical' short-route where I ride, it shows the 'overall' ride-scale (it's about 11 miles north to south)
This is a 'cut' out of the upper-picture showing JUST the 'new' path through 'Seabranch State Park'
this image is 'about' 2 miles north-to-south...
The "old" path down the lower-left straight-line (labelled "1A" in this image), the 'new' path, through the park, is the purple line... The 'old' path along what we call "A1A" (called 1A in the picture) is a moderate-speed, 2 lane road with bike-lanes on either side, and though I have not, in 4 years, noted any deaths along this stretch of road, I was always nervous riding along it. NO MORE!
For the late-March / early-mid April trip to Austria, this link has more 'images', but not much text: http://vikingasia.blogspot.com
some pictures:
This is a detail of the floor in a palace in Salzburg
took a LONG TIME to climb-up this hill, but the food at the top was pretty good!
A view of the town of Salzburg ("salt" burg); looking to the south-east
Some snowboard freak - amazing the people the let-in to the snow-areas!
a picture of Ms. May and our friend
Lily in Vienna
this
is a 'track-log' from a snowboarding outing at Mutters (south of
the city-center)
Color-Matching
- the waitress really understands this concept...
the
Vienna (Austrians call it 'Wien') rental bicycle
More text and analysis and news & views will be presented herein, now that we are 'home-again' (however, - the airlines seem to take great glee in losing my snowboard bag, because it wasn't here, when we got here, and they lost it going over to Innsbruck, on the 29th of March, also... - BUT _ I TRUST THEM (why I don't know) - that they will deliver it in a day or two... (update - it WAS DELIVERED less than 24 hours after we got home!)
Something to ponder:
Both Ms. May and I have been (at time(s) in the past) part of the 'Hang-Gliding' scene. We're both licensed, and we've driven (retrievals) for several different people / competitors at several US-National and World-level competitions.
However, we'd never been to Austria. What - prey-tell - is the connection you ask?
Well here's the deal - during our roughly 17 day visit we must have seen two dozen para-gliders and a few sail-planes.
We realized that one of the world's record holders of great renown is from Austria. We now fully understand WHY he's a world record holder. It's because of the geology - geography - topography of this nation, who's bulk is in river-valleys that yield, basically - literally hundreds of square-miles of landing-zones (farm-fields) for virtually ANY sort of un-powered flight (paragliding, hang-gliding, sailplanes).
He holds world records in all three.
He's held these records (at least some of them) for over a decade, and with the landing-zones next to some 5,000 foot to 11,000 foot peaks (where the "LIFT" happens) there's just no other place that I know of, on THIS earth, that has this sort of geography / geology / topography, and it's that that yields the 'MOST perfect' place to be a para-glider / hang-glider / sailplane pilot... so - if you were to aspire to hold world-record(s) in any of these disciplines - then you should move to Austria!
Second thing to ponder:
Now that I've snowboarded in Innsbruck, Austria (and (being from Florida) I'm no whiz in the snowboard scene) I recognize that this is a WONDERFUL place to come to play-in-the-snow. We only know one 'winter' sport and it's snowboarding, and we certainly enjoy it when we can. Austria (specifically Innsbruck) makes it VERY VERY EASY. I spent time at three of the well over 100 different snow-resorts. I used Mutterer, Axamer-Lizum, and Nordketten. I also was told that "Stubai Glacier" is a wonderful place to ski-snowboard, but I never got there... - Maybe next time...
(Please note that there seems to be some disagreement about the "Nordkette / Nordketten" name... (sometimes the spelling is without the 'n' on the end, sometimes not - sometimes the 'n' signifies the tram, the cable-car, the ski-area, sometimes - well - you get the picture, huh? OH _ and for the mountain biking folks, Nordketten has an awesome downhill for you!
Two of the three ski-areas were an easy commute from the Innsbruck (central) train-station, with FREE bus-rides to the snow-areas. Nordketten is north of the town and though you can bus-up part way, MOST people will ride a tram and cable-car to that snow area.
All three were reasonably priced, and when we rented boots and other gear at Mutters and Axamer Izum, the rentals were quite reasonable, price-wise and the gear was quite good / current-year gear.
All three of these resorts used the "RFID / "Skidata" " system for lift-tickets, which makes life much easier for the customer / skiier, as well as providing data to the ski-resort area that was impossible to have with previous system(s). I'm now pursuing a book and some experiments within the RFID world.
This is what we like to do when we're tired!
and SOMETIMES, you just gotta-do what you gotta-do!
The "_WordPress_Pages_" look-alike(s) :
click on one of these: About_Bill Contact_Bill Gallery Document_Storage Miscellaneous
More on this section, also, when I find some time (I seem to have lost some time, have you found it?) - I have attempted to become a 'WordPress' expert, but I have (like my intro into many other areas) I have FAILED. - I FAIL to 'see the point' of WordPress - it seems to have TERRIFIC LINKS into / out-of the database, BUT IF YOU DO NOT NEED A Database, WHY use WordPress? - anyway - maybe I'll write more when I understand more and/or when I find a reason to use a database?
Mr. Panda-Bear's web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html