BillBlog.html

Bill-Blog

Bill's 'Blog' - ramblings about various and sundry subject(s)... There are, apparently, those who are interested in a 'blog-style' dissertation which is about 98% text (with some embedded links).,

Here's a link to the main-page where you can pick a subject-area-specific link

Updated: Monday evening, 05 November, 2007:

well - LOTS to report here - it's been a LONG TIME since an update: - this is a 'copy-paste' of some text from other areas...

We have had NO Hurricane-force-winds HERE in Stuart in the last several months
We had some TERRIFIC wind for board sailing and kite boarding during October
We had some TERRIFIC bad weather for Hang Gliding during October (we never went for over a month)
Ms. May spent a couple of weeks in Italy at a wedding of some close, Hong Kong Friends and you can view her blog-site at http://www.sailormay.blogspot.com - where she has pictures and text of that momentous trip & event
Mr. Bill spent 5 days helping his sister empty her old Austin, Texas house of moldy-stuff and sending some to GoodWill and some to Storage. We were helped-out a LOT by the gang at the Servpro franchise in Austin.
Ms. Siew Mei continues to be our favourite cat - though Mr. Panda Boy gained a place in our heart for a while until his family (kids of kids of the gang next-door-to-the-east) moved away. Pictures of Mr. Panda Boy are also on Ms. May's blog-site noted above (you have to scroll-down to where is says "PB and I").
Our trash-guys (and gals, I suspect, too) have re-arranged their schedule so that our yard-trash now only gets picked-up once a week - UGH - which has cut-in-half Mr. Bill's opportunity to both stay in shape and keep the yard in shape - we can now only put-out 10 trash-cans a week instead of the prior twenty trash-cans a week - so - ugh ugh
We've applied for permits to pour a bit of concrete and are awaiting the resolution of that obstacle at this moment but hope to have concrete in by the end of November.
The USSCMC wind-weather is working again: http://www.vikingasia.org/USSCMCws/index.html
I've taken to reading a LOT MORE, lately - probably because I've been doing too little of other things - Six books of Stuart Woods, 3 of James H. Cobb, several technical books, and even some movies, of late. All this is documented in the 'Reviews' section of our web-site at: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/CSS_tree/Reviews/Reviews.html - you can click on the link to go there and read the reviews in more detail
During my trip to Austin in September, to help-out my sister, she gifted me with her old video camera. I have researched this and found that the technology in that camera, though 'dated' by modern standards is still very acceptable and useful in today's computing world. What with all our sports and other 'activities' it's been very handy to have a 'video' camera (as opposed to a 'still' camera). I'm learning as I go, to some extent, with iMovie and iDVD, but in the future you should see more video-clips available on the web, and then bigger-files available for download.
a couple of videos are already available - the 'best' is of Ms. May gybing (my) sailboard. it's here: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/CSS_tree/Bdsling/May.gybe.mov - it's a QuickTime Movie (...mov) file of about 2.5 megabytes - so think before you click and/or download... there's another that is of Mr. Bill's Kiteboarding - it's a little fancier (with some titles and some speed-up-action and such) but it's here: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/CSS_tree/KBing/KB.27Aug.v8.mov - it's also a QuickTime Movie (...mov) file about 7 megabytes - again think before you click...
more things are happening on several fronts - pictures (and now some video of some things) can be seen at the 'main' family-web-site at: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb

Updated: Saturday evening - 21 July, 2007: - well - here - there, everywhere - we've been visiting the in-laws recently and here's some text-things for you to peruse ...

This week I engage in the great American past-time of 'hurry-up-and-wait' - this is how we fly in America, hurry-up do this, do that, then WAIT, then HURRY UP some more then WAIT...!!!

anyway - that was Monday - then Tuesday morning did the same thing with Greyhound - hurry-up and wait - ugh ugh - but - the result is we're here now, and so is Ms. Huggly-Bunch - which is VERY NICE, though I must say it's a CHANGE to our normal routine:

there is little or no:

Siew Mei Quat and listening to her purr...
sun (unless you count the liquid variety)
yard-work or sweating or trash-cans to fill-up (they are only allowed to put out 2 trash cans a week, we do 20 a week in Florida!)
warmth (it's mid-July and it's still 58F at night (on the other hand that's 'good' in a way)
hang-gliding (no lift)
summer-fruit (except in the stores

However - there is a LOT OF:

rain, overcast, drizzle, wet-streets (no worrying about SPF here!)
TERRIFIC Chinese Food
Great FAMILY entertainment (live, also, (with 3 year old Jacob as the 'star'))
Shopping
Studying for my new ARRL (Amateur Radio) General Class exam (coming on 15 August)
Hiking (yes - it was VERY GOOD and I'm VERY SORE - we Floridiains are not used to 600 foot vertical in our hikes)
Computering and GPSing time to study and learn new things, there is a LOT to LEARN
Cost-Co exploration - I mean you really could spend your whole day in this store (and you wouldn't get hungry because they FEED YOU (but only in bite-sized-samples but that's o.k. you can go back for 'seconds'!)
sewing (yes - we cut and re-sewed several kitchen chair coverings (see "Domestic" section at our main web-site for pictures and more text)

anyway - more as the days continue...

Updated: Saturday_afternoon_14_July_2007: - well - Whoops - for those of you that are 'blog-readers' it's been 'Quite Some Time' since I've updated! - but - what I'll do here, is update the 'text' portions, leave the links - and you can catch-up that way...

Since 3 June - we've had these things happen in our lives...

Mr. John Hasegawa, Ms. Lily Liu, and their 5 month old son Kiyoshi (spelling?) came to visit for a week or so. They are now semi-permanently located in Emporia, Kansas; both teaching at the local University there.
Then the 'trio' went to Disney near Orlando to experience Disney and visit with John's family for almost a week
While the 'trio' was at Disney, Ms. May and I went Hang Gliding at Quest - it was quite nice - but we didn't sleep too well in the room at Quest... However the flying was nice - though only Mr. Bill flew (his first flight in his new glider). (you can link-in / view Mr. Bill's hang-gliding things by clicking here.
Then we spent a week yard-working and catching-up on maintenance items here at the house in Stuart.
Then the 'trio' and Ms._May went to Seattle for the trio's (local-Seattle-people) wedding-reception-celebration (they actually got married in Mexico last Thanksgiving - so many friends from Seattle couldn't make the trip.
Then Ms. May went to a pottery workshop for a couple of weeks
Mr. Bill finally got (had been 'eyeing' this about a year or so) something called the "SpaceNavigator" which is - in reality, a '3D mouse'. It comes from " 3D Connextion " <= link to their (generic) web-site. The SpaceNavigator works with the newerest version of " GoogleEarth " on the Macintosh OS "X" (10.4.6+) platform. This is a NEW THING - the 3DConnexion 3D mice have never worked on the Macintosh platform. However, I've been using the 3DConnexion stuff on my Windows XP PC laptop with my CAD software for about 4 years. When you work with 3D modelling software (and teach it) the 3D mouse is a VERY PRODUCTIVE tool. Link to the 3D Connexion - Googe Earth web-page. Google Earth - in case you don't know or haven't used it, is a public-service that allows one to look at aerial photos.

Then Mr. Bill will catch-up with Ms. May for a couple of weeks, to stay with and visit Ms. May's Parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew near Vancouver for a while

updated:_Sunday_morning_03_June,_2007:   It's been a week - and in the last week PLENTY has happened...

Ms. May has returned from Hong Kong (via United Airlines (or Ted as a part of United)) - and - yeah - it was late (yet again (but even later than my flight on the night of the 9th (of May)) - which actually didn't arrive in Palm Beach until about 12:40 a.m. the morning of the 10th...

Ms. May's flight didn't land until something like 01:20 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 1 June. We got to bed about 3:30 a.m. on the morning of the 10th - wow what a long day! - then we went boardsailing about 1pm. on the 10th - spent about an hour 'slogging' then the wind REALLY Kicked-in and Mr. Bill broke a boom (must have been about 10 years old (but he's written for a new piece).   Some day Mr. Bill will have replaced ALL his 20-something year old boardsailing gear...

I'd been 'watching' on the web and phoning United for several hours.   At one point her flight had 'departed' (the gate) in Chicago and her pilots were very nice to have taken the passengers on a 'scenic view of all the taxi-ways and an hour later delivered them back to the gate.    So she phoned me - but - eventually both the web-site and the phone-thing said they were 'in-flight' so I went down to the airport to pick her up!...

Anyway - it was a great day - but then some of us took 7 hour naps - we won't go into that in great detail. But now it's Sunday and I think 'we're almost normal' now, whatever "normal" is for people like us.

ALSO - this week (Tuesday, Wednesday (29th-30th) Mr. Bill drove up to Groveland, Florida and retrieved his new glider... More on the glider, and detailed pictures with this link.   Anyway - learning to do something called "tip wand installation".   One of those 'activities' in life that should be about 5% muscle and about 95% technique. I'm learning - I'm not all the way there, yet, but I'm learning.   I thought yesterday afternoon (after a HUGE rain) would be a good time to 'practice' this - so I tried, but what I didn't bank-on was that the fire-ants would be out in full-force, and they got into / onto all parts of my body (including my most 'nether' regions when I was sitting down in / on the grass (something one must do to complete the 'sprog' installation...

Anyway - I did get to practice my 'tip-wand-installation' (and removal) a couple of more times and I have decided that the removal is best done with the "Jason Method" rather than the "(Awesome) Bob Method" simply because the Jason Method is a sitting-down method and so you don't drip sweat all over the sail - and that will, over time, be better for the glider than will dripping-sweat all over it...

ALSO - lastly - a LOT OF RAIN on Friday and Saturday (especially Friday evening) and though we are not 'out of the woods' around here - in terms of drought, level of water in Lake Okeechobee, or water restrictions - the rain was definitely GOOD!...

more next time - take care - us

updated:_Sunday,_27th_May,_2007: It's been 'a while' since the last Blog-Style update:

basically what's happened is NOT MUCH:

SOME (3 short) flights at Quest Air - in Groveland, Florida... - then the wind picked-up there in Groveland, and it was too windy to fly.

THEN - 4-7 days (depending on how you count them) of 20-30 knots of wind - here in Stuart, so the boardsailing and the kiteboarding has been EXCELLENT here - (boardsailing and kiteboarding updates at the 'main-page')- where you find subject-specific links. - Anyway - I also participated at the new park at the west-end of the new Stuart Causeway bridge... - This new park was EXCELLENT - great place to go boardsailing - I haven't been kiteboarding here - but if the wind shifts it will be very good for both sports.

THEN - on 'about' Monday 28th May (Memorial Day) I'll most probably go up to Groveland for some more Hang Gliding - assuming the wind dies off (there) ??? I have about 5 web-sites that I review every morning - and so the confluence of all these should indicate what's happening here, there, and everywhere?

AND - on the evening of the 30th of May - Ms._May returns - so that will be a momentous event! -

updated: Friday afternoon, 11 May, 2007:

from Domestic.html
AND NOW - Mr. Bill is back 'home' in Stuart, Florida - the yard definitely needs me (seems as though WEEDS have happened in my absence)...

HOWEVER, I went grocery shopping on Thursday morning (since the only thing in the fridge was a quart of soured-milk and some (Chinese) soup of Ms. May's that looked like some biology experiment (green, blotchy and such?!)

So - Mr. Bill has made his own visit to the grocery store and made his standard breakfast on Friday Morning (amid Ms. May's phone-call) and what is NOT in the previously noted image is the FRESH Mango, the semi-fresh Pineapple and the banana(s).. - ALL very tasty. Tomorrow is cereal day - looking forward to more Mango too!

ALSO: found (for the second time (Lightning???)) a blown-fuse in the yard-watering-gadget. But it's now got a new fuse and a lot of TLC (to say nothing of re-programming.

I WONDER, too, about weeds - why is it that 'weeds flourish' when we are away but the grass doesn't?

ANYWAY _ there was a meowling-cat here ( small ) or ( large ) when I returned home at about 12:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. She's STILL TALKING and still hugging and still reading books with me!

from Hang Gliding page:
Spent quite some time researching hang-glider-2-meter-radio-antenna options today - some reading, some talking to radio-geeks & gurus and gurettes, some e-mailing, and so-forth - the bottom-line is this:

1.) Almost any hand-held radio transceiver (HT) will work 'in the air' (in the hang-glider) with (almost any) rubber-duckie antenna that comes with the hand-held. The fact that you are airborne 'overwhelms' the opportunity for 'huge' antenna efficiency gains... The rubber-duckie that comes with the HT could be attached to the hang-strap (to keep it 'mostly' vertical with some BNC or TNC connectors and a piece of RG 58A / U coax cable but even this creates a minimal increase in antenna efficiency...

2.) HOWEVER, once you are on the ground - a 'vertical' rubber-duckie or more 'efficient' vertical antenna helps significantly - the 'most common' of these is a 'loaded' (coil-type on the base or in the middle) telescoping antenna which can be carried in the harness..

updated: Thursday afternoon, 10 May 2007:

from Hang Gliding page:
From some of Ms. Aggie's cloth that I brought home from Hong Kong, I made a 'weatherproof' bag (or bigger-image) for Ms. May's hang-glider. This is a 'prototype' bag that will (we hope) protect the really nice bag (and the hang-glider) from weather wind, bugs, sun, and other such 'pests' when we car-top-carry our hang-gliders

Still don't know where my new glider is - Supposedly I'll get a call today and it'll be delivered to our Hang Gliding place late this week or early next week...

last updated (see top-most 'updated:' item listed above) (((rga)))