I live right here.

Anyone want some company.

Click to see its size in hand, if not the right color.

Casion EX-s500

This is not the same camera I showed you Tuesday. That camera, a Casio Exilim s2, stopped working. I think something must be loose from it being carried around for several years. I twisted it this way and that and it started up again but I became concerned that it would totally break on a trip or during a precious moment. You can’t fool around with those precious moments, they may not repeat. (Although I can think of a couple such moments that I would probably have been a lot better off if I had just skipped them altogether. Of course pulling out a camera might have insured it.) So, I bought a new pocket snapper, the Exilim EX-s500. Here is a review., not only stills but movies too, about an hour and 20 minutes worth on the 1 GByte flash. Here is a clip from a movie I made in fading light at a party tonight, just to give you a rough idea. And isn’t the photo on the left nice, not the thumbnail but the photo behind it? And that’s at reduced resolution. It will go up to 5 mega-pixels and a 2560 x 1920 format. I am pleased with my selection.

Casio EX-z750 Sony T7

I quickly narrowed the contenders down to three cameras, the Casio Exilim EX-s500 that I ended up buying this afternoon, a Casio Exilim EX-z750 and a Sony T7. The EX-z750 is fifty dollars more but has 7.2 mega-pixels. The Sony is a hundred dollars more but there are a couple of things about it that appeal to me. For one, the lens is protected with a sliding cover. For another, the lens does not telescope and it is my experience that mechanics tend to break or wear out before electronics. I have a camera in a drawer now that developed a telescoping lens problem. I found discussions on the internet where the EX-z750 had just such a problem. Ok, forget the EX-z750. Then I found customer discussions where people bought the T7 and took it back in exchange for the EX-s500, e.g. problems with photo quality in low light. A lot of my snaps are indoors so I don’t like that. Thus the EX-e500 rises to the top of the list, especially since I found no mention of problems with the lens. After reading many more reviews and discussions I decided upon the Casio EX-e500. I compared at Sears, CircuitCity, and Bestbuy, all online. I also considered other models at Sam’s Club and Radio Shack. I bought the camera at CircuitCity but found the best deal for a SD 1GByte Flash at Sam’s, i.e. $79. I would have preferred the SD Ultra, a higher speed flash, but they did not have one.

So, what happened to blogging Wednesday and Thursday? Well, Wednesday was intense preparation for the new class and Thursday was teaching the new class and resting from it. I was so focused in class that I not only did not hear the end-of-class bell but did not hear the one starting the next class either. Finally a student said “Professor, I have another class I need to go to.” As I said, focused. Then on top of that was the camera research and selection and not to mention a three week, online game I was playing that ended Thursday night in which I came in 11 out of a field of over 800 players (of course I have done it again, mentioned something I said “not to mention”). So, blogging didn’t happen.

1. For my "Small Computer Systems" class and lab:
   • Syllabus
   • Policy
   • First day lecture outline (online)
   • Created new tables for the forum database
   • Created new tables for the blog datablase
2. For the "Senior Projects II" class:
   • Updated course guide/web-page
3. For the "Internship" class:
   • Updated course guide/web-page
4. For the new "Telecommunications Fundamentals class:
   • Nothing (and this is the one that meets Thursday)

It is all online here: http://projo.ws

The class that meets this week has not been taught before, so is a new prep. It only has 3 students in it and they don’t know that I expect them to help develop the course. There will be lots of activities, e.g. web-research, experimentation, tours maybe.

Well, you all know me by now. With all that focus I had to get outside. Dan G. and I walked to lunch on this very nice day.

On the way to Subway for a sub we passed a sculpture and accepted its invitation. The chair says “sit here and remember”. Didn’t work.

On the way back from lunch we passed numerous plants. This Hibiscus is beautiful. Actually there are more than one. I think I will do more photography on campus. It is sort of my yard at work and I really like the landscaping. Maybe locating each type of growing thing and identifying it. I’ll try it at home first, returning to the pictures I have already posted and providing additional information, maybe a plant map, maybe on a separate page from the blog stream. I wish the mouse-over/pop-up worked better in IE.

I have also had an idea about a special “crossword puzzle for plants” activity. It would involve identifying plants from photos or from partial photos (for levels of difficulty) in order to fill in a crossword puzzle. More as the idea develops.

I have this really neat camera, not the Digital Rebel. It is very small, very thin and fits in my shirt or pants pocket. Thus, I am always ready for a photo opportunity. It was used for these photos.

Old man walking. I have been without a vehicle since Wednesday when an engine part de-parted. I took the car in for maintenance and walked home but stopped for lunch at a Chinese buffet. It was hot, hot, hot and me without a hat. At home I gave Kurt $6 for lunch at a gourmet restaurant of his choice, grabbed a hat, and started walking to work, looking nothing like the monkey in the picture. Remember, I’m wearing a hat. However, I am not out of sight of the house when Jeanne returns from a writing session. She and her partner are putting the finishing touches on a book, a fiction. She gave me a ride to the office where I piddled but became sincere about getting ready for classes which start Thursday, i.e. the classes start Thursday, hopefully not the preparations. It is nice living where I can walk to just about anywhere I need to go, even the hospital, if able to walk.

Way-Back: The picture above is a portion of a photo I took last summer while at a conference in Chattanooga. Click on the thumbnail for the rest of the photo.

I really like these people.

The five monkeys reminded the five of us from USM that were hanging out together of the five of us. Here are 4 of the five, Ms B., Shelton H., Dan and my other brother Dan ( i.e. Dan G. and Dan K.). The other monkey is behind the camera. We did a lot of walking and looking and got really cold crossing a bridge at night on the way to and from a restaurant and don’t you just love my long sentences. Admit it.

Went back and forth between the computer and the yard a lot today. I would fiddle with this blog trying to get the popup comments to work equally well in IE and Firfox, until I couldn’t stand it anymore and then out to the yard to find a chore. The finding part was easy as so much needs my attention. In the yard I would piddle until I got an idea or discovered a photo opportunity and then back to the house.

A chore found: For sometime I have watched this Foxtail fern burst through its pot. This is the plant I currently have on top of the plant pole, alias plant tree. Pole or tree, this is part of the salvaged, satellite-antenna structure I displayed in an earlier blog with my “beehive” plant on top. A moment of silence for the deceased beehive plant, please … … … amen. So, I divided the fern into thirds. Now I have three. Such a good feeling.

I tried to separate the fern into equal thirds (I know, redundant) but you sort of have to let the plant show you where it wants to divide. I thought of a simple division into two pieces but the plant suggested three. This reminds me of an old joke: How many yard piddlers does it take to divide a Foxtail fern? Just one, but the fern has got to want to divide. lol I’m sorry. It is particularly difficult to divide a plant as pot-bound as this fern was. It was additionally difficult because the roots did not slide easily past each other. They had all these knots on them, little nodule like things. Now what are those nodules on the fern’s roots called. Hmmm. I placed the 3 pieces in a bucket of water while I prepared their new, individual homes. This might not be necessary in light of the water-filled nodules but it is a good habit to cover or otherwise protect exposed roots from drying out.

I placed a layer of soil in each pot and then formed a hill in the middle, sort of a throne for the fern to sit on. Then I spread the roots around the throne and added soil. I think this approach helps to eliminate air pockets under the plant.

I am leaving out the discussion of some steps, such as the addition of bamboo cuttings at the bottom of the pot to aid in drainage and in order to keep too much of the loose soil from washing out the drain holes. Whoops, take that step off the did-not-discuss list. And the final step: step back and admire your work, and feel good about your self and what you have done.

Oh yea, “fern root nodules”.

We occasionally like to go up-the-road, about a 10 minute drive out of town on the highway to Jackson. There are a number of small shops along the way. The first is a country store that recently changed owners and now boasts “Shoes, Shoes, Shoes”. However, they still carry bananas for 25 cents a pound, home-grown tomatos, boilled peanuts, home-made peach cobler with icecream, and more, yum yum. We bought bananas and tomatos, and boy those tomatos were tasty. Wish we had bought more. Jeanne and Kurt didn’t mention the cobler and I didn’t suggest it. The boilled green peanuts are out of season so we were good to go with just the two items. However none of this happened on the way out. We just looked and wondered about the “Shoes, Shoes, Shoes” as we flew by at 65 mph. Why did we choose to stop on the flip side? We don’t like to leave the bananas in the hot van while we shop and we like to get home with a few uneaten.

Flip Side? Haven’t heard that term in a long time.
It was popular in the CB radio days.
And yes, I had a handle but I won’t tell.

The next country store on the right was as we remembered it, i.e. serving lunch and no shoe sale. We like to eat there as much for the atmosphere as the hot-plate lunches. It is not the good country cooking I am use to but is more of a “if we had known you were a coming we would’ve put a little more effort into this and at least cooked it slower.” But we like the outing and it is next door to our destination, “The Garden Shop”.

So, below are some pictures of The Garden Shop, inside and out. We have been shopping there for several years.

Don’t you just hate yourself for not having one of these.

Way-Back moment: Jeanne use to draw a frog cartoon called “Ribbits” that was published in the paper, then wrote a play and its music that was performed by a theatical group.

Can you believe that someone threw this away? My neighbor from across the street made it many years ago, more than 20. He is 88 now and two of his four sons visited and conducted a summer cleaning. I imagine the father made the stand for an oil-drum type barbeque. However, I can see it with a large barrel, possibly wood, laid across the top for water or nutrient-soup drip feeding. Maybe a half barrel split lengthwise with plants spilling over the edge. Philodendrums? Or something with a profusion of really tiny blooms or leaves, e.g. as with this “beehive” plant.

I took this photo in 2002, don’t remember the name of the plant. It did not survive a bad winter. Anyway, I thought it looked like a beehive and called it that. It is beautiful, especially when viewed directly or in a better photo. This was with an older camera, before the Digital Rebel.

The pipe? This was the support for an old style satellite dish antenna. It makes a nice plant tree. It is just one of two pieces of the antenna that now serves plants in my yard. Here are more pictures from the way-back machine. In the first picture I am disassembling the antenna. Hey, I’ve lost 30# since the picture. Next is how I dug the hole for the plant go-round support pole. The water jet is just a hose stuck in the end of a pipe. With the water turned on it works it’s way into the ground. A push now and then might help but don’t get distracted and forget to check back. As with all great southern efforts duct tape is involved. Finally the plant go-round itself.

I added the above paragraph after my wife cackled over my saving something from the trash. It may have reminded her of someone she has know a long time, me. So, I wanted to point out how creative and inventive I can be and how I can make wonderful things out of what others might think of as junk and how if it doesn’t happen I’ll put it back in the trash, sooner or later.

I was parked at a drive-up window today and “clunk” something fell off the car, from under the hood. I pulled forward and there it was, an idler pully, i.e. a tensioner for the alternator, water pump, and who-knows-what-else belt. That is really a funny feeling when you hear the sound, look into the eyes of the window person, and you both realize that you just lost an engine part. I am glad that as we get older and lose parts they don’t make public sounds … most often not. So, threw the part and pieces into the car and drove straight home watching the gages. It seems that every traffic light was red, and the gages too. The engine temperature started rising so I turned on the heater. Can you imagine, in this weather? Kept the acceleration low. That helped. Then the battery voltage went to the bottom of the meter, alternator not working of course! I made it home alright but the engine was really hot.

I paid $1500 for the car a year ago so I can throw it away and consider I have my money’s worth. However, repair will be less than what a one-month car payment would be. It is a 1994 Dodge Caravan and is my work car. I guess for the moment Jeanne and I are sharing the new vehicle, a 1995 GMC Safari van. I didn’t say equally sharing. Have you noticed that the wife always drives the new car? And yes, two vans. We like hauling stuff, or at least like having hauled stuff.

If you examine the reflections in the car windows you can see the ladder I used for the roof work and you can tell who I voted for in the last election. You may need to copy and past the photo into Paint (or other) in order to magnify. Of course you won’t even try just working from the thumbnail. I’m sure of it.

Thanks to the “Rurality Blog” for pointing to this neat game. Want to visit the “Rurality Blog”? See the link “Rural Alabama” in my “Yard Blogs” category on the right. I try to bring a little wilderness into my back yard but it appears from her blog that she can’t keep it out. Must be great, even with the snakes.

Showed this to my wife Jeanne and she just had to image herself and I just had to share. Then Jeanne had to do her sister Lucy and Lucy had to do Lucy and Jeanne had to do Lucy’s husband Bill, who was my friend before he was Lucy’s husband, and Jeanne did our son Kurt, and … and … will it never end?

Kurt, our oldest son.

Of course we know the ground level version of this plant as “Dandelion”.

Since I’ve discovered a new plant I guess I get to name it. So it will hence forth be called “tahpofrouf”. Click on the first picture to see where I stumbled accross such an unusual plant.

I have needed to sweep the roof for some time. A portion rests in the shade of a really big Pine Tree that drops needles all year long … it seems. I am tempted to have it cut but it provides some shade and helps define the look of the house. (I originally said “cut down” but changed it to just “cut” since the direction is not an issue.)

I allowed the needle-litter to pile up this year (and last ?), but hey, it has been hot, and the roof even hotter. I needed 4 conditions to set me into action.:

• It needed to be cool, especially on the roof.
• It needed to be not-raining.
• I needed to be home.
• and I needed to think of it and be shamed by it.

Well today those 4 became one and you can see part of the remains of my effort in the second picture. What you can not see is that I had to replace 3 shingles that were damaged. There is also some damage to the facia which I will have to also fix. This was all hidden under the needles.

My good friend Dan will not be returning to the University in the fall. He has taken a position on the faculty elsewhere. It is a good move for him as he will be able to work on a PHD in Computer Science. I will miss him. I already miss him. He was my grad-student who then joined the faculty to work with me in Computer Eng. Technology. He took away all my courses and laboratories and exceeded me in many ways (but not in all, Dan), which is what a mentor is always glad to see. I moved over for him, actually I moved all the way over to teaching Software Engineering Technology and to starting a new focus area in Telecommunications.

Dan K. and Dan G. joined the faculty at the same time and I introduced them in the beginning-of-the-term meeting. I introduced Dan G. first and then Dan K. as Danaaan, you know, with the tone you would use to a child that had just done something incredibly stupid. Over time there followed many jokes about “Dan and my other brother Dan” (meaningful to all you Bob Newhart fans). The above meeting was the same at which someone responded in a charged moment with something like “We really must drink more”, and at exactly the same time a professor stood up to leave for an appointment, and I said “Jack, he does not mean right now”. Ah good times.

Good Luck Dan and thank you Al Gore for email.