O.K., So October is nearly over, in case you were sleeping a few weeks ago; we had a 'fly-by' (close-call) with Hurricane Matthew
And - again - in case you were sleeping, Seattle and the Pacific Northwest had a close-call with a Typhoon!. -
But - we all fared well - and not much happened except a LOT of yard-work, which I'm STILL trying to 'catch-up-on'!
Pictures here
in this sub-directory: http://www.vikingasia.org/Misc/BHa
Out with the old (like 25 years old) - in with the new ones - maybe an improvement - maybe not - ask my back in a month or two, so far though, the new ones SLEEP WELL!!!!
AND the above is a result of a stop at the Ikea place down around South Miami, that we stopped-at on the way back from the Florida Keys - where we spent a few days for Ms. May's Birthday... - BUT _ Mr. Bill got a chance to go kite-boarding and it was awesome good... - Still Picture Here and Video-File Here
Pokemon GO progress / setbacks / status: there's a new 'Computer Game' called 'Pokemon Go'- and it is 'taking the world by storm' (assuming you believe the "Press"?)....
(a picture of 'Ms. Oddish'- - then Mr. Pikachu - just a couple of the MANY Pokemon Go characters.
- So - Well - We figured, that - (AGAIN) life would by-pass us by - the technologically challenged... At this moment, Mr. Bill it attempting (with LARGE BATTERY SUPPORT to make the most of his early-morning tricycle-rides (except this past couple of weeks, he broke his left little toe (thanks to NOT doing what his wife suggested( Maybe I should listen to her more often, huh?)) - to get things from the PokeStops and upgrade his 'Level' (he's now at Level 21 (as of sometime about 20Oct16) - probably get to 22 within the next month or so - level 21 requires twice as many points as level 19 (meaning you have to "WORK" twice as hard!)...
- and learning (some) about things like 'eggs' (and incubators) and 'GreatBalls' (as opposed to 'regular' PokeBalls), and incense.
It turns out that 'leveling-up' helps a lot - but there is / are a lot of things that change as you 'level-up' - so - it's both complex and challenging - and there is a definite 'trade-off' with things like the balls (and ball-types) that you use to 'capture' Pokemon characters and the ways that you trade-off what you carry in your 'bag' and what species of Pokemon characters you capture, which ones you 'trade' to the 'Professor' for more 'candies' - etc. etc. etc. etc. - like MANY things in LIFE, there is ALWAYS a 'trade-off'!...
The deal with Pokemon Go is LEARNING and Trade-Offs - very useful to know about both!!!!
and just ONE of the PokeMon Stop 'logos': we found in Bonita Springs (while running from Hurricane Matthew)... - PokeStop
Since Mr. Bill has been 'home-alone'(to some extent) recently; he and his bears have watched a bit of TV on the computer / internet. Some of the 'concepts' presented in books have made their way into some TV shows, mostly disguised as 'Terrorist' shows and themes. I'm not sure that 'Terrorists' threaten us as much as these TV shows would have you believe (but I also am not sure they don't, either?) - but I have found these to be INTERESTING TV-shows:
"Quantico" - the lead character is a very famous Indian actress, who I think does a pretty darned good job, here.
"Person of Interest" - a show which has now been cancelled, but you can find if you look for it - their 'basic tenet' concerns facial recognition, but they are 'mostly' fairly (technically) accurate
"NCIS" has dipped it's pen into the 'societal' / 'social-media' thing with the last season and I 'perceive' that there is a major change coming to the cast of this show, in the near future, but who knows? (I predict that Mark Harmon will leave the show, and the Emily Wickersham will take-on a much more high-profile-role.
HCF - this is really an OLD (VERY (VERY) old at this point, 'assembler-command' - HCF means 'Halt and Catch Fire' - it is like a 'no-op' in the computer-world (in 'assembler' language), and for those of you who I've already 'left behind' - don't worry about it - you wouldn't understand ANYWAY... - This show will only 'make sense' (especially in it's first season) to those who REALLY know / understand computers - it's about the VERY (VERY) early days of the PC and such - VERY good, but VERY esoteric... In later seasons it becomes more about the PEOPLE, so in that realm it is more like a serialized 'soap-opera' - but in the early seasons it's very much about the technology.
THOUGH, I must admit the two episodes - one about Cam's marriage, and then 'theoretical' loss of her company and about Joe also losing his company - the 'thought-processes that will go into what comes after these two bomb-shells will make the next few episodes (4 October being the next one) VERY INTERESTING to watch!
One show that I really liked, recently has to do with 50-75 years ago in the UK, "The Bletchley Circle" - VERY VERY interesting statement of what women did during the war in the UK (when most of the men were off doing 'combat' duty. a Companion to this would be the Alan-Turing movie starring the famous British actor Cumberbatch.
OVERALL a LOT of "NEW" shows, (and some old-ones) now explore the 'Terrorist' basis, and fundamentally throw 'privacy' out the window in favour of saving the country from Terrorists. I'm not sure that this is a 'valid' thing, but then I'm not sure it's not, also. The other thing that MANY of the 'new' shows seem to have in common is the use of 'background-songs / music', and I'm not sure I like that, either?
==================================================================
I've also been watching a lot of Netflix (both streaming and DVDs) - and one I came across recently was "The Cat Returns" from the same studio (Studio Ghibli) that produced "My Neighbor Totoro" -which is EXCELLENT. - ANYWAY - 'The Cat Returns" has a very interesting song sung over the 'closing-credits' - now WHO sits-around and listens to the music for the closing credits, much less reads them. - Well - DUH - apparently I didn't have enough-else to keep me busy so I did this and I heard the tune and so-on and so-forth: - look this up in your favourite method / browser / whatever?: Artist: Ayano Tsuji Song: Kaze Ni Naru (sometimes spelled Kazeni Naru) - means "Becoming the Wind" in English - - Well - enough for the easy stuff - I'm now trying to learn to sing the song in the 'native' Japanese - turns out there are a LOT of resources out there to help a (dumb (pitch-un-aware))
type like me to learn this stuff - wish me luck!)
=====================================================================
AND - hadn't ridden the tricycle since I broke my toe (9 September) so I rode on Saturday 8 October and here's the link.
AND - speaking of Cycling, the "Cycle North Carolina - Mountains to Coast 2016" (cycle-event that I was supposed to attend) ended today (theoretically) at "Atlantic Beach, NC".
So- WHAT you ask, he didn't go ANYWAY - why do we care?
well GUESS WHAT - that is where Hurricane Matthew was on 08 October? - Hmmm??? - If I had left my car in Atlantic Beach, NC, it would now be between 1 and 2 meters under water
- so MAYBE it is a 'Good Thing' that I broke my toe and did NOT go to North Carolina for this 450 mile in 7 day cycle event, huh?
some music to listen-to / ponder: (YouTube link)
Pottery-Kiln Design, modeling, etcing...
Yet another "Pottery-Kiln" was going up in early October, near Bisbee, Arizona. here's a picture - here's just one more picture
Yet another "Pottery-Kiln" that was never built - here's just one picture
AND - AND
- AND
- if you want to see something REALLY OLD (LONG BEFORE the concept of the Go Pro!) - you can click on this link to an OLDIE (but a goodie) - this video was done in 'about' 2002 (14 years ago? (we think (Ms. May is videoing, I'm sailing (or trying to?))) but we're not sure...??) - click-here
- if you want to see something REALLY OLD (LONG BEFORE the concept of the Go Pro!) - you can click on this link to an OLDIE (but a goodie) - this video was done in 'about' 2002 (14 years ago? (we think (Ms. May is videoing, I'm sailing (or trying to?))) but we're not sure...??) - click-here