ALPS Mountaineering Catalyst 2

Picked this up from the REI Outlet with a 20% of coupon. Nice two (1+ gear) person tent with a rain fly for $112. Can't wait to take this up to the Olympics in a few weeks and test it out.

Yard work

Before:

After:

Over the course of this summer I pulled out all the grass to make a nice garden area. Put in a pond, patio, and dry riverbed. Purchased a new grill (w/ built in fridge), patio heater and table. Now I have nice retreat at the end of a hard day. Next up the backyard.

Melmont, Washington Ghost Town

Read the brief history on Wikipedia. Only a few structures remain, primarily the dynamite storage building and school house. Also near the river is a short wall of brick and stone mostly hidden from view.


To get to Melmont, travel on WA Highway 162 through the town of Carbonado and up the winding road to the the Fairfax bridge (Carbon River). Park on the far side of the bridge and walk back toward the Carbonado side.

Jump the guard rail and about 20 feet down is a trail that passes under the bridge. This is a decent size trail with horse, ATV and motorbike tracks. On the trail head away from Carbonado with the river to your right. It can get very muddy so be prepared.

Your about half way to the town when you see on the left the small building with no roof. It is said this is a dynamite storage building.

Lowering my new truck

Not really, just 1/2 yard of 5/8- gravel weighing it down.

New Truck

My new 2005 Dodge Dakota, got a good deal at the local auto auction.

Stop Disk Cleanup from compressing old files

Remove the following registry entry to keep the windows utility Disk Cleanup from trying to compress old files.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\Volume Caches\Compress Old Files

Miata

The decision has been made, I took the miata to Barrett's Collision and got a quote of around 5K to do the repair. The facility is nice and the waiting room is more like spa than your typical auto shop.

http://www.carstar.com/barretts/

Miata (to fix or not)

5 Years ago as I was in the process of buying my house I hit a car turning left into my driveway. Since then my poor miata has sat in my garage. Figuring that only the body work was damaged, I pulled the fenders, bumper and hood off. Unfortunately the uni body was bend above the drivers side tire and would have to be fixed before new panels would fit.

So the problem, spend several thousand to fix or buy another.

Specs.

1993 Mazda Miata (MX5)
133,000 miles
Jackson Racing Supercharger
All options except A/C
Hard top

Wonder Hanger

I watch a lot of late night tv and those ads that sell workout dvd's and cheap crap always kinda get on my nerves. You know the one with the clueless woman who can't chop a tomato.

But this ad was different, in one scene she has the closet packed with clothes...by my count over 50 shirts. I'm forgetting about the pile on the floor and shelf. The next shot is a closet completely organized by the wonder hanger. But wait the wonder hanger is only hanging 30 shirts.





5 garments per hanger, 6 hangers = 30

The other 20 shirts must be dumped on the floor. The camera doesn't pan down enough for us to see. Or maybe by just by cleaning the closet she realised how much stuff she could toss and that's why it's clean...just like yours would be and no need to spend $9.99

Come on I know people are stupid and I have too much time on my hands, but don't try to pull this scam, have some faith in your product.

https://www.wonderhangers.com/index.asp

Jury Duty

After postponing it for a month I went in an did my civic duty. After 4 hrs worth of waiting around an being asked a lot of questions by the judge, it was determined my services were not needed in this case.

I was selected as Jurier #3 (25 total) and spent the next few hours in the front row right next to the judge. Because this was a civil case only 8 juriers where needed so the odds of me being selected were slim.

Here's what the case was about:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/482692.html

The outcome of the case:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/492505.html

Morning commute car crash

Car crash this morning on the way to work. Remember to always keep a camera handy.

On the way home, another crash...what is the deal?!

My first GigaPan picture

Took this picture before work with my gigapan and sony w100 (8.1mp)



http://www.gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=8643

At 0.08 gigapixels, can't wait to start using the Nikon D40x (10mp) with 300mm zoom

GigaPan Beta

More than a year has passed since I saw on digg.com the gigapan. See here for more: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~globalconn/commercial_gigapan.html

Basically it allows you to take a digital camera and put it on this device can be configured to scan and take photos automatically for those cool gigapixel photos that you can zoom way into.

Tuesday I got my offer to be in the beta program and a $100 off coupon, today (thursday) it showed up at home....yea, love fast shipping!

Google SketchUp

I have been thinking about putting a gate across my driveway for the last few years. After taking a full day to learn how to use SketchUp and draw out my house, I'm pretty impressed.

The final result after 6 weeks.