Thanksgiving

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday (if you live somewhere that celebrates it on the last Thurs of November). While we should all try to be thankful for what we have any time of year, this Holiday allows some reflection time on being thankful.

Well, to start off with, I have good health. Then, I still have my job. Family seems well these days. My truck is running great. I have a new concrete driveway and sidewalk. Got some fresh coffee going, I've got a fridge that is about 2/3 full of food, and some home improvement projects I can do to save some cash, instead of hiring someone to work for me.

Well, life is good this Thanksgiving for me, hope it is for you as well.

Jimmie J - Champion Again!!

DOOOOD!!!

4th championship in a row!!!!

NASCAR ROCKS!!! - Here is the best athlete in the world.

DOOOOD.

He has become GOD of NASCAR.

10 Words On Racing

10 things you need to understand to be successful at auto racing:

10) Speed - obviously, since the object of a race is to be the fastest car to the finish line.

9) Acceleration - related to speed, and sometimes acceleration is more important than speed, and sometimes not.

8) Brakes - sometimes how fast you can stop is a crucial factor. Plus, short-track racing involves the brakes being used much more than super-speedways, and therefore the brakes get super hot, and how tough your brakes are against heat can be a factor in just finishing the race at all.

7) Tires - similar to brakes, since better tires help brake better. Plus, since racing involves pushing the car to it's limits to go fast, this means the better tires grip the road, the better you can go into turns without slowing down as much.

6) Fuel Efficiency - Ok, I know that's 2 words, so think of any one word that means fuel efficiency. Sometimes races come down to who doesn't have to stop for fuel as often, or who has just enough fuel to finish the race without having to lose time taking a pit stop for fuel.

5) Traction - related to tires, but this also includes the car's suspension system. Do your front and real wheels grip the track about equal, or does one or the other slip out of control at the turns? Do the tires grip the road when there's a bump in the surface? Things like that are important.

4) Aerodynamics - this includes how well air flows around the car, as well as how air flow changes when you are following another car closely vs. being in clean air with no one ahead of you. Sometimes if a car gets banged up the body panels do not allow air to flow around them as easily, and this makes the car have to push harder against the air.

3) Teamwork - auto racing is a pure team sport, absolutely. It's not just the driver, it's the pit crew, the Crew Chief and it's the mechanics in the garage, and even the company that manufactured the car.

2) Endurance - in a long race, the car must last all the way to the last lap, so if something breaks - buh-bye.

1) and the most importnat word: LUCK! Yes, even Jimmie Johnson needs a little luck sometimes.

Bread Machine Action

Yesterday I loaded ingredients into my bread-making machine, and then about 3 and 1/2 hours later - BREAD!




Hey, I geek like me will make bread using a microprocessor-controlled gadget like this. After all, we don't live on bread alone.








Bread flour mix, yeast, and water. Simple & easy. This is an Italian herb bread mix.

















First, water is put in at around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. That's around 27 degrees Celsius I believe. Second, bread flour mix on top of the water. Third, yeast on top of bread flour mix.


Then just start the engine.







This loaf came out great - filled up almost the whole chamber. Crusty on the outside, soft & delicious on the inside.
















DEEEE-LISH!!!




This was great. More bread machine mixes will follow. Plus I've found some websites with bread machine recipes.

Old Computer Motherboards

Today is Friday the 13th, and this is my 113th post.

What a coincidence. I'm feeling lucky. Strange how this blog always puts a time stamp on my posts that is west coast time, but I'm on the east coast and my PC is set to the correct time & time zone.







I have a couple old computer motherboards that have some cool chips on them. They seem to be Intel 286-based boards and they each have a 287 math co-processor on them

They do not have the main 286 CPUs, apparently they were stripped, along with the ROM chips on one board.



















The 287-3 co-processor has a nice bit of information at http://www.cpu-museum.com/ and I've even seen this and similar chips on e-bay.















Here's how RAM looked in the old days. These 2 boards have what they called 'piggy-backed' chips, since there was one chip soldered right on top of another.

It amazes me how much information you can find on the internet about old computer technology that hardly anyone has anymore.

New Concrete Driveway & Sidewalk

Well, they finally came to tear out my old driveway and part of the sidewalk in front by the road. Here are some shots of the finished concrete work. It looks like a really good job, finished nice & neat and even everywhere.

And it has a finish coat of some kind, wreaks of chemical smell. So far no bonehead tried to write his/her initials in the concrete, and it's pretty much drying out. Hope it doesn't rain today.

Drum Machine Project

Time for fixing up an old electronics project - the 2-chip drum machine.

It's a glorified metronome.

It has a timer chip and an audio amp chip. If I recall, the timer is a dual 555 timer, which is an industry standard. It makes a couple of different sounds in repetition.

Runs off 2 9-volt batteries. In an upcoming post I'll go over a bunch of rechargeable batteries I use, and the little battery charger.

Autumn Foliage Pictures

It's that time of year again - when summer is toast.


Winter approaches.

There's a chill in the air.




Sweaters & jackets are back.

And of course, lots of colorful leaves on the trees.


















Yesterday was a good day for driving around and taking pictures of the fall foliage.




















Oh, and IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON! Can't forget that.

Enjoy!

Project: Coffee Mug Picture

I was looking through my mug collection and found that I had a see-through mug that I could put a picture in.










My last blog post was a picture from one of the Mars Rovers roaming around on the planet, and it's a wide-angle shot, so I thought it would look good in that mug.





You put the picture inside the bottom part of the mug, then the top part of the mug goes in.

A Little bit of Krazy Glue goes a long way. I only stuck my thumb to the mug once during the whole process. Wow, that's about 3 times less that usual.




Here's the finished product. I don't know if it will be waterproof, so I'll probably have to wash this out carefully after using.

A Nice Mars Landscape

Yes, here's a A Nice Mars Landscape. Mars, as in the planet.

Someday we'll be able to go visit this place. But, for now, here's a picture.

3 Cats, 1 Steak - Do The Math!

I was going to wait until wednesday or thursday to do a wordless post, but when I saw this, I couldn't wait.

Link 1: http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/video-3-cats-1-steak.html

Link 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMD5FS20tTY&feature=player_embedded

Tribute To A Great Band - IRON MAIDEN!!!

I was looking at my blog and realized that I need a tribute to one of my favorite bands of all-time:

IRON MAIDEN ! ! !


Recent Video: Flight 666. They filmed a tour where they flew around the world on a custom 757 jet, complete with their logos, and Eddie, their mascot.

The jet was called Ed Force One - a force to be reckoned with, no doubt.

Some of you may be saying "WHO???" Well, they're one of the great metal bands of all time. This means they got popular without being on all the usual pop-star radio stations, and MTV, VH1 etc. They've only sold over 70 million albums in like 30 years or so. They don't need #1 songs like the Beatles had.






Then again, some of you may be saying - YEAH! I know these dudes (or blokes - they're British) and they ROCK!

Here's Dave & Adrian.





Well, you know of Wikipedia? Check it out!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Maiden



Here's Jannick & Steve.

And, last but not least, Niko!

Check out www.youtube.com and search for Iron Maiden. Search for Iron Maiden Flight 666. You will find numerous (and usually illegal) clips of the movie.

People, these guys are pros. Do not attempt this at home. Plus, their singer is the pilot of the real 757 they flew around the world in. He's a real licensed pilot, and a real kick-ass singer as well. Now that's what I call a leader.

Rock on people!

Painting Project - Part II

Well here's Part II of my recent project to paint the garage exterior.

Here I'm at the stage where all the old paint was sanded down, whatever came off easily. I'm just doing the trim at this point. I then put down my masking tape. Odd, this is one of the few times I use masking tape for it's original intended purpose.

Kinda like duct tape.








Putting down the tape is definitely worth the time & effort. Then I can paint the whole section I want and not worry as much about accidentally painting the adjacent area of a different color.

So far this is just the trim. I still have the main door to go. Looking at the weather forecasts, looks like I won't get to that until spring, unless we get some sweet warm weather at some point.

Buffalo weather for ya.

Guide To Hamburger Styles

Here's some interesting reading for anyone into hamburgers & cheeseburgers. It's from http://aht.seriouseats.com/ which is the "A Hamburger Today" section of the SeriousEats website.

You know what they say, a hamburger a day...

Here's the article on hamburger & cheeseburger 'styles', of which there are many:

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/09/a-guide-to-glossary-of-regional-american-burger-cheeseburger-styles-and-cooking-methods.html?ref=se-bb2

Mmmmm, hamburgers....

Plus, now an article that tells me more about them.

Enjoy.

Painting Project

Today I'd like to post some pictures of my latest home improvement project - painting the garage door and trim.




It's pretty bad when the paint is curling up like this. Ouch.












Time to dust off my painting shtuff.

These pictures are sort of a 'before' and in a later post I'll show the progress I've made.

The weather has not been cooperating - haven't had must rain-free weather where the temperature stays above 50 degrees (F that is - AKA 10 degrees C) for 24 hours so the paint can dry properly.

http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm - here's the link for converting between F and C temperatures.

Wordless Wednesday

Time for a Wordless Wednesday. This one is for people who can read sheet music and know Mozart.

Enjoy!

Oh, and follow your dreams.

Astronomy - Orion & Cygnus

Here are a couple really cool pictures from apod.nasa.gov.

First, Part of the Orion constellation - 3 stars on the left are easy to see at night, but then when you zoom in with some really powerful telescope - so much more. Cool. This picture is from many pictures 'digitally stitched' into one.

Plus, here's a black hole - this one I don't think is a photo. Looks like an artist's picture, but very cool anyway. Cygnus X-1 is the name. Rush made a cool song about this decades ago. They had an album, A Farewell To Kings, and their big song was Closer To The Heart. They had another song, Cygnus X-1 - great song, but no one cared about it if they heard Closer To The Heart. Oh well, I guess black holes don't make good songwriting material compared to songs about the heart. Makes sense.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Grapes - From my grapevine - HOME-GROWN!!! !!! !!! !!! !!!

Here are the first grapes pulled off of my grapevine. I believe they are Concord grapes.

I had to shoo away the wasps that apparently love these grapes.

NASCAR - MARK MARTIN - YES - MARK MARTIN!!!

OK, tonight - Mark Martin.

If you are not sure why he is on this post, go to:

http://www.nascar.com

Look for "Standings" and then "Sprint Cup".

Then look for #1 ! ! !

Motivational Poster

Here is a very inspiring motivational poster.

Wordless Thursday - 3D Holographic Image

In this post I am doing a Wordless Thursday, and I'm also going to give you something to discover in a picture. This is a 3D holographic image. You have to kind of stare into the picture, move your head towards the screen, then away from the screen, as you try to focus your vision on a 3D image embedded within the patterns.

I find if you click on the picture and look at the enlarged version of it, it's easier to see the object within.

Good luck. What is it?