BeachWeb_August

just a few pictures of things, in no particular order...

a morning sunrise looking west-south-west to see something more interesting (ground-fog in the trees) than the sunrise (which was really boring this particular morning...)

a local 'cycling-trail-friend'...

found this yellow hibiscus flower along the cycle-trail, very unusual, most of the time these flowers are pink?

Today is the 8th of August, a Friday, and my tricycling this morning was short because I was 'attempting' (notice I did NOT say I'd succeeded) to stay ahead of the RAIN... it was NOT supposed to RAIN until this afternoon... - I KNEW I wasn't prepared, so I went south, and then south some more - until I ran into RAIN, then came back, north, until I was OUT of the rain... - then went West, then east, then north again (back into and out of the rain) - and - GENERALLY tried to stay ahead of the 'storm', but again, was less than successful. I put-on my rain-jacket, but that only made me too HOT, then took it off and I was too COLD - but eventually got home and dry and well - you get the picture... Tomorrow things may go better...

I watched a movie, today, (like most afternoons) - "3 Days to Kill" It is both what you think it is about, but it is also NOT WHAT YOU THINK - and SEVERELY NOT LIKE IT's TITLE!... it is INCREDIBLY FUNNY what Kevin Costner (as the villan and the hero) will do - it Stars: Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Neilsen, Amber Heard
Another of those movies where I 'perceive' exactly the correct people were cast in exactly the correct roles...

Today is the 7th of August, it's a NICE day here in (southern-Florida (Paradise, if you will?)) - I'm 'just back' from a lengthy tricycle ride where I met a cycling & rowing friend who just happened to be rollerblading this morning, down near "Jupiter" a small town south of where we live... He's originally from 'up north' but he's semi-retired, here, now, and likes our summers a LOT!

AND - Last night I was looking for 'time-to-kill' and came across this 'documentary (style)' movie on Netflix. - it's called 'Maidentrip' (all-one-word; IMDB link). It is the story of Laura Dekker (<== Wikipedia Link), and her circumnavigation, under sail, when she was 14-16 years old.. The movie includes a large amount of video-footage taken ON the sailboat WHILE she was sailing, by Laura. Somewhat by definition, if you're sailing SOLO around the world, there will be no one there, on the boat, to take video. BUT the 'documentary-style' movie is also very very well done and does have some other video in it. An amazing lady, an amazing story.. The movie has it's own 'home-page at: http://www.maidentrip.com. Laura has a 'blog' at: http://www.lauradekker.com. (On this web-site she claims that the Facebook and Twitter accounts in her name are NOT hers.) her blog-web-site has a lot more information, and a lot of videos, some of which are in German, and some of which are in Dutch.

Kiln-Firing has also occupied our time, a LOT over the past weekend. We - as always, learned a lot, sweated a lot, and got tired a lot, but it is always fun, stimulating and ultimately enjoyable... - here's 'a brief (24 second)' video

Other things: - if you've not read this book or seen this movie then you should - and it's a Netflixable movie and 'most' decent libraries have the book... The story - originated by Mr. Woodrell, is a basic human story about protecting one's family 'basically against all odds'. The author does an admirable job of showing us what the 'human-nature' story is like for one 16 year old girl in the US-Ozarks. Definitely one to read and/or see.

the "#include" problem:

- a societal / personal problem: We have recently found out - via friends & such e-mailing / Facebooking / etc. with us about a couple of situations that remind me (being, basically, a "software-jock" (and little else)) of what I have termed (in my involvement in software recently to achieve goals in the 'OmniTemp' situation) the '#include problem' ...

In the software world - even for those of you who don't understand software or what we do, you can understand this basic concept... - In order to "re-use" software that we have written before (or someone else has written and we want to 're-use') - we sometimes do what "C" programmers (and "C++ and all the other 'C' variants call) a Pound Sign Include (#include) option. That merely copies-in some code that we wrote previously, or that someone else wrote and we want to use..

SO - here's the thing - without LOOKING at that code (which-of-course we can do) we have to TRUST (and this is KEY!) - the person or organization that offered us that code, we have to 'build a perception' that that code is worthy of our use. BUT, here's the 'gotcha' - and the way I extrapolate that concept to other things... - WHAT IF the person or organization you got the code from TRUSTed someone else with a #include in THEIR CODE.? Hmmm... - and WHAT IF That OTHER PERSON or organization TRUSTed someone even further removed from your realm...

Now you have trust upon trust upon trust - and can you REALLY TRUST all those people?? (some of whom, I'm certain, are no longer in the roles they were in when someone TRUSTed them...)

OK., - now - let's get to the real POINT of this 'story'... - Let's assume you have a young child with an allergy, and let's assume you TRUST the restaurant (or grocery-story (or vegetable stand)) to tell you the TRUTH (TRUST) when you ask questions about the allergy. AND - let's ASSUME (we all know about that) that the TRUST you put in that person or store or whatever, is built upon THEM TRUSTing a Supplier, and that SUPPLIER has put their trust in someone else - maybe a farmer or a farmer-coop...

- WOW - beginning to see the light here, huh, and the light is DIMMER each time we TRUST!?

OK., now let's assume your young child really wants a 'live' pet. And so you do some research - and some more research - and you buy the pet for your young child and then you discover that the store where you bought the pet TRUSTed some vet to tell them (so they could tell You (the customer that the pet was healthy- but - in fact the pet was NOT HEALTHY, and soon dies. - How does all this influence you, your young child, the relationship the pet-store has with 'government agencies' and etc. etc. etc. etc.

The BOTTOM-LINE here is TRUST - and it is especially TOUGH when we have to TRUST someone or some organization we do NOT KNOW PERSONALLY - so we TRUST someone that we THINK is trustworthy?

TOUGH CALL - especially tough when it involves one's children (or spouse or parent) or someone else dear to you!?

I call it the #include layering problem - because I'm not sure I TRUST all those people who wrote all that software that I depend on..

but I know that PARENTS face a worse fate and my hat is off to them!

We had a SEVERE problem in Late July, - we had our 27 year old (Amana) microwave went south for the summer (and is NOT likely to come back...) - so - we did what any internet-connected-family would do - we researched this issue on the 'web' - wherein we were deluged with different models, colors, sizes, features, and found that we could spend $114 or $1599 (or (theoretically)) anything in-between...

Bottom-line was we finally (after procrastinating quite some time), chose to buy a $269 GE at Lowe's and found, though, to our great dis-satisfaction that the BOOK did NOT come with directions on how to set the clock (so we faked it and it worked) - and it did NOT COME with an additional 'memory chip' for us to plug-in our left ear to remember all the commands - I suspect the BOOK will have to suffice until we learn to remember... - no doubt we'll muck something up along the way...

AND - along another front, Mr. Bill's still doing "OmniTemp" (see it's web-page by clicking to the left on "OmniTemp"...) - and he continues to make progress (with learning and implementing Python things!)

AND: - I discovered something about RAIN that I didn't know - when it RAINs in your yard, the WEEDS (which out number the grass about 1,000 to 1) grow WAY FASTER than the grass does... - AND NO AMOUNT of trash-cans (to put out for the 'yard-trash-pick-up' (ON Wednesdays)) - can take the amount of trash that I could clip / cut / chop / remove from the acre of land we have... - If it weren't for Ms. May's contribution - then there's no way we could keep up with the 'rainy-grow-season' that we're in right now...

New Technology: - yeah I'm still on this 'kick' that I've found, lately that 'newer technology' really is BETTER, - amazing what things one discovers (like the microwave noted above?!?!?!?!) - well in this case it's Software... I've just gotten re-sucked-into the significantly NON-paying 'gig' of designing pottery-kilns - and it's a terrific pastime as it really makes me work-hard (mentally) to do things I've not done before with the CAD tool I use, something called "Rhinoceros" (or Rhino3D for short)... - ANYway - it's been a long time since I've used their Macintosh Version (they're supposedly going to release this in another year or so). - I have been using this tool, off and on for about 8-10 years and at first it was Windows XP (and other Windows prior to that) - for the past 2-3 years they've had a 'Work in Progress" Macintosh version and it's been a year or so since I've used either... - Well - again - newer technology - now I need to READ UP because they've changed a LOT in both the Macintosh and the Windows version(s) and so I need to LEARN MORE!... - AND Apple's newerestest Macintoshes have something called 'Retina Display' which is WAY different than previously used displays and has created 'havoc' in the graphics world because it's 'not normal'... - ANYWAY - something else NEW to learn!

Cycling: - continues to go well. I'm practicing for the "Labor Day" thing in Sebring - attempting to get up to 60 miles a day - Sebring will be 66 miles a day for 3 days... I'm mostly using the TriceQ / tricycle these days - with a modified seat-cover to handle my 'winged-scapula'... - I had to do 'shoe-surgery' to prevent (my (new)) right shoe's 'toe' from impacting my odd-man-out big right toe... However the shoe-surgery seems to have worked, I can now do four hours on the trike without much hassle... Except the new shoes are hotter than the old ones - but, then, newer technology you know?

book reviews (not much here, this month)...

- on the other hand - if you haven't tried "The Second Book of General Ignorance" (Lloyd & Mitchisnson (Crown Publishers (New York) 2010)) you should - VERY good! and this is their second book - the first one is on-hold at our library, it seems to be as good as this one... This book is about all those things you THOUGHT you knew as 'fact' but, 'in fact' you do NOT KNOW... - like who are the people most affected by 'sugary drinks' (you thought kids, sorry, it's parents...) - and - what about who/what killed Gengis Kahn, and - oh: Vikings didn't wear honed helmets, and bank-notes are not made of paper, and bats are NOT BLIND and - well -well you get the idea?

There is another book, I used to have it a LONG time ago - it's called: "The Encyclopedia of Ignorance" by: Duncan & Weston-Smith (1987) - it's also VERY GOOD _ there's a lot more 'science' than 'everyday' things in this one, but also a very very good read - makes one feel a little small, though, as it points out things we really OUGHT to know, but don't...

AND - ALSO finished "Winter's Bone" by Daniel Woodrell (as noted in the top-section of this web-page...) - but - well this time READING it was more enjoyable since I'd seen the movie, now I think I've read the book once and seen the movie 3 times - I continue to be 'haunted' by the author's understanding of this very tough subject-matter and of the director's 'skill at getting the right people in the right roles. a STUNNING story in both book and film...

Mr. Panda-Bear's web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html