Blinky Lights and Shiny Objects

In a bit of amazing luck, I'm typing this right now from a hotel guest computer in Edinburgh, Scotland. I've always wanted to visit Scotland, especially after seeing London. Work is paying for this trip, so I could attend a design review by one of our subcontractors here. The meetings are over as of today, but I'm staying a few extra days on my own dime to do sightseeing. The city has hills and old stone buildings everywhere. It seems like there are dozens of "small" cathedrals scattered around. I saw Rembrandts and Van Gohs in the National Gallery a few hours ago. The scotch whisky selection at the pubs is encyclopedic - one coworker who grew up in this area helped me choose a few to try the last two nights. I'm taking notes of which ones I've got to get from Binny's once I'm back home. Yes, the exchange rate sucks. (It is pretty close to 2, so at least the math is easy.) The weather has been rainy, but at least my eyeballs aren't fre...

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a gift card from my parents to RoadID.com . They sell laser-engraved ID products that you can wear in several different ways. I bought the ankle ID, and since there was some money left on the gift card I also got a wrist strap and a shoe pouch. The stainless steel ID token can be switched between the different products. It came in the mail this week, and I'm very happy with the quality of the items. I haven't actually used it yet, considering I'm not addicted enough to running to be outside in this weather. But I know I'll use it all the time when spring gets here. I've got my name, birth date, town, state, zip, country, two phone numbers for Brian, one phone number for Jessie, contact lens warning, and NKA listed on the tag. I decided to get the regular rather than the online version. My main reasoning there was that I sometimes run or walk in places without cell phone coverage, and it would defeat the purpose of the I...

Since I only found out about this because I'm subscribed to the RSS feed from dpreview.com , I figured I should pass it along. Apologies if your standard news source has already warned you: US Department of Transport announces restrictions for Li-Ion batteries Travel Alert Starting January 1, 2008 Spare Lithium Batteries No Longer Allowed in Checked Baggage. From what I can tell, here is how it affects me: -I can not put my spare batteries in my checked luggage, especially since I'm not going to check the equipment that uses the batteries. -I need to check if the batteries I'm using are quantity limited, if they are, my travel companion gets to carry a few. -Each battery will be carried in its own plastic zip-top bag. -I'm going to follow the carriage rules for other types of rechargeable batteries as if they were Lithium, to avoid harried baggage checkers pitching innocent batteries. If a few plastic bags save me a few minutes of grief in the security line, I think i...

Digital Photography Workflow, Part 1 What Your Software Can't Do: I'm planning to make a series of posts about digital photography, mostly about what happens after the pictures are taken. I grew up shooting with film, getting the rolls processed wherever it was cheapest. Now, the level of control I have with shooting RAW digital has me spoiled for anything else. My strengths in photography are dynamic compositions and capturing interesting moments. My weaknesses are exposures and patience. I like to set the camera up once per location, and just shoot without thinking much about settings. I hate using filters. RAW is perfect for me. Here is what your software can't do, even when you start from RAW: 1. If it is out of focus, it will always be out of focus. Use on-camera preview to make sure you hit focus on important shots while you still have a chance to retake them. Be familiar with how your lenses behave with your camera's autofocus. Be ready to switch to m...

Remember that post a while back about the really long walk, and the fall colors? Well, a few days later I twisted my leg funny while wearing high heeled boots at work. I took about three weeks before it felt normal enough to exercise again, but by then I had gained about five pounds. Yuck. I was NOT happy. Since about March of this year I've really been trying to reverse the direction of slow and steady weight gain that was happening to me. I'm in great physical shape, unless you look at my weight or my body fat percentage. Both are higher than they should be, in the "health risk" section of the charts for my height (5'5") and gender. The American Heart Association No Fad Diet didn't help me lose any weight, but the lifestyle changes did succeed in leveling off the number on the scale. As long as I exercised, I was pretty good at balancing things to stay at steady state. But steady state isn't my goal, and gaining more was not fun. So the wee...

My actual job is to be an Opto-Mechanical Engineer. I enjoy it a lot, and I get plenty of satisfaction out of seeing my designs turn into real objects and function how they are supposed to. The past two months at work have been a bit strange, because I got to do something completely outside of my regular job description. The Security Department put on a play this year for the first time. I volunteered to direct. We just finished up on Monday, after playing to THREE packed houses in the company auditorium. This was no skit - it was a 45 minute, original, one-act play. A lady in the Security Department wrote it, to help increase awareness of the Counterintelligence Threat. As far as we know, this is a first for our location, our division, our sector, and possibly for the whole company. It has been recorded to turn into a DVD to share with other locations. Being a director is only about 30% telling actors what to do on stage. The other 70% is the rest of the stuff that is needed ...

Here is a re-run of what I put into the Christmas cards last year. It is a side-dish recipe that was very popular with the whole group at Thanksgiving dinner. The results are almost sweet-and-sour, with lots of fiber and nutrients to make up for the butter and sugar! (I did submit it to Ocean Spray's recipe contest this year - no love from that...) I created this recipe for Thanksgiving 2006, because I wanted to make something related to Candied Yams, just not so sweet. I also was tempted by the display of fresh cranberries at our local produce store. Eventually my brain put the chocolate and peanut butter together, and I came up with this. It is a great dish for when there is a lot of activity in the kitchen, because you can just turn off the heat if you need to ignore it for a while, then come back later. It will turn out fine. It also only takes one pot and one spoon. I still don't know what to call it; how about CRandied Yams? zest of 1 large orange (I used a Navel...