Is that a palm tree, or are you just glad to see me?
December 22, 2012
commentary, geek, Humor christmas decorations, palm tree lights, unintended consequences 1 Comment
Official Training, and corruptive training
December 21, 2012
9-1-1, commentary, Personal Concord, dispatcher training, Pier 23, Pittsburg, Plan B, POST, San Francisco 1 Comment
Will photobombing Jim’s self portrait
So this week I was in the Bay area, specifically Pittsburg, California, for Dispatcher Training, as required by POST, to keep my certification current. Since Pittsburg is only a 45 minute BART ride from San Francisco, you can be sure we snuck off to see the sights, and tempt fate.
I did two things on this little excursion that I’ve never done before, and since this isn’t Las Vegas, this is (some of) the story! No names were changed to protect anyone… as my “about” says, the guilty are hung out to dry!
I’ll second this
December 14, 2012
commentary 2nd amendment, Adam Lanza, gun control, militia, Newton, school shooting 1 Comment
Dinner, and a downtown stroll
December 8, 2012
commentary, Personal downtown visalia, family, fox theatre, fugazzi's, main street stroll, rio grill Leave a comment
I have some wonderful friends. Last night three of them drove down from Fresno (well, only one of them actually drove, the other two just rode along) to pick me up for a dinner date here in Visalia. We went to Fugazzi’s, one of Visalia’s favorite bistro style restaurants. (It was packed!)
I tend to eat in places like Quiznos and Subway, so I seldom have occasion to dine at a fancier establishment. Fugazzi’s is comfortable, you don’t have to dress up, but nobody was in shorts and flip-flops. I did see a couple of tshirts with blue jeans, but most of us were dressed nicely. Black seemed to be the choice of the evening, with many men in black shirts and pants, and the women in black dresses. (Some of those men looked really hot in black!)
I ordered the salmon, and this is what they brought me:
I don’t recall getting a flower in my food before. Pretty, though, isn’t it?
And a fourth! Perhaps the most spiritual of all!
December 7, 2012
commentary, Personal church of the latter-day dude, dude, dudeism Leave a comment
My third ordination
December 7, 2012
commentary, Personal flying spaghetti monster, fsm, high priest, lgbt ceremonies, minister, pastafarians, rituals, Temple of Earth, universal life church 1 Comment
The actual certificate will be here in a week or two. This makes the third ordination I’ve received. The first was as a High Priest in The Temple of Earth, the second is a Minister in the Universal Life Church, and now as a Minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It would appear my spiritualism knows no bounds! If you need a non-traditional minister or High Priest for some ceremony, let me know. I work cheap. 😉
Eviction done, but will he stay away?
December 6, 2012
commentary, Personal eviction, tulare county sheriff, visalia police department 4 Comments
The Deputies from the civil division were here today, and served the final eviction. They arrived about 3:30pm, and by 4pm he was out the door and down the street. I fully expected to see him back before very long, and sure enough, by 6:15pm there he was.
It appears he went to the nearest store and bought some beer, because he was very much more drunk when he came back than when he left. He tried for a good ten minutes to get his key to work in the lock, but that wasn’t happening, since I changed the lock immediately after he left. He plopped down in a chair on the porch and just sat there. I had told him as soon as he started messing with the lock that I had called the police, but that didn’t seem to impress upon him at all.
The Visalia Police arrived within a few minutes of my call, and were confronted with a drunk, uncooperative mess.
Watching a balloon launch using HAM radio
December 2, 2012
commentary, geek APRS, balloon launch, Ham radio, K6RPT-12, UI-View32 Leave a comment
High altitude balloon with HAM radio. K6RPT-12
The last balloon this group launched ended up in Tunisia! This one was launched just before 7pm, Pacific Time, on Sunday December 2, 2012. As I post this blog, it’s already at 36,500′ and moving east from the launch point south of San Jose, California. The HAM radio gear in the payload is sending telemetry, including altitude, latitude and longitude, direction, speed, and other data relevant to the flight. You can watch this one by simply returning to this page and hitting ‘refresh’ or ‘reload’ to see the latest picture from my website. (Or you can watch it directly from my website, KC6YRU.NET)
You can spot the balloon on the map, it’s callsign is K6RPT-12, and it has a red circle around it.
The data is being transmitted from the balloon using a format called APRS, received by relay stations along it’s flight path, rebroadcast by those stations, then fed into the Internet by gateway radio stations. I get the information from that internet feed, and using a program called UI-View32, display the location on mapping images from Precision Mapping Streets and Traveler.
HAM Radio is so much more than morse code, or grumpy old men sitting around talking about their hernias or their views on politics! Someday, I’ll write a blog about my live television broadcasts on HAM radio!
UPDATE: My mapping software won’t follow the balloon now that it’s left the US. Watch here.
Something else I learned recently
December 2, 2012
commentary, Personal Apple, christmas tree ornaments, eden, tree of knowledge Leave a comment
I was roaming around the Internet recently, looking for information on Christmas trees for a potential blog post, when I ran across something I was totally not expecting.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, “The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to symbolize eternal life was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmastime.”
Alternatively, it is identified with the “tree of paradise” of medieval mystery plays that were given on 24 December, the commemoration and name day of Adam and Eve in various countries. In such plays, a tree decorated with apples (to represent the forbidden fruit) and wafers (to represent the Eucharist and redemption) was used as a setting for the play. Like the Christmas crib, the Paradise tree was later placed in homes. The apples were replaced by round objects such as shiny red balls.
I hadn’t heard of the wreaths and garlands histories before, but what really caught my eye was the hanging of apples on the branches of the Christmas tree.
How I spent my Christmas
December 26, 2012
Jim Reeves commentary, geek, Personal Candi Hood, Kristin Beasley, natural farming, The U Farm, The Ubiquitous Farm Leave a comment
Ubiquitously! (and then a ten hour work shift!)
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