AgentZ Posterous - WARNING: may contain Pete's Pompous Pontifications

March 14, 2009

Ahhhh Springtime

Yes, spring is in the air. That also means yardwprk on a weekly basis is back on the schedule.

Best yet, it means our vegetable garden will be going in.This was a couple of weeks ago prepping the garden for planting.

Tomorrow we add the amendments and actually plant the veggies. Ummm, can almost taste the vine ripened tomatoes already!

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March 11, 2009

Images from Death Valley

As I promised...

Got most of the images reviewed and posted to my Flickr account. I'll tease you with a few here and then I'll give you the link for the entire set.

From Mesquite Dunes day 1.

Scottys Castle

Mosaic Canyon

Artists Drive

Salt Creek

Zabriskie Point

Dantes View
A complete slideshow is at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentz92505/sets/72157615117956196/show/ Hope you enjoying viewing them as much as I enjoyed shooting them. AgentZ

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March 10, 2009

Just spent a few days over in Death Valley. Stayed at the Panamint Springs "Resort". If you've ever stayed there you'll know the term "resort" is a stretch. What we did find was an extremely friendly staff, a clean room, and great food.

We got in Sunday and after checking in headed for Darwin Falls. Its not as easy as they make it sound. To reach the falls from the bottom we would have to have had a machete and chain saw it was so overgrown. We decided to forgo the 12 mile off road trip to the top and then hike down. We decided we much rather try something else.

That something else was the Mesquite Dunes at Stovepipe Wells. We hiked out to the dunes and I set up the camera and tripod. Sally, my dear wife, was so patient, God love her. After the dunes we headed back to Panamint and had dinner at the restaurant. The food is on the pricey side but after a day of hiking and touring, it was worth every penny. Sally had a regular burger and I had the "Cardiac Arrest"; Angus burger, blue cheese and crisp bacon, all the trimmings and a healthy serving of excellent fries.

Monday it was off to, originally, the "Race Track" until I saw the small print on the map that said you had better have heavy duty off-road tires due to the razor sharp rocks. Having combo on/off road tires on the FJ Criuiser I imagined us stuck 28 miles out in the desert with 4 slashed tires. It was an easy decision to visit Ubehebe Crater and then Scotty's Castle. From there is was off to Badwater and Artist Drive. It was a bit of a hike out to a viewpoint for Artist Pallette but well worth it. Shot a panorama of it. A quick stop at Zabriskie Point and then back to Panamint where I had a bowl of the chili (awesome with a glass of Blue Paddle beer) and Sally had their spaghetti dinner (with italian sausage).

Today, a quick trip to Salt Creek, a stop to shoot a cool abstract piece of lava, shooting of a panorama from Zabriskie Point, another panorama from Dante's View, a cool 30 mile cross country 4 wheel drive cruise through Greenwater Valley and popping out of the parks southeast corner near Shoshone and dropping into Baker for the trip down I15 home.

I will be processing images this week and will be posting as I work on them.

Stand By...

AgentZ

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March 3, 2009

What a weekend

Had a blast this past weekend.

Started out early Friday to try to beat the "headin' out of town" crowd. It worked, for the most part.

It was a supply run and work weekend. Had a couple of pounds of fudge in the Cruiser, A half sheet of 1/2" (technically 13mm) baltic birch plywood (for a new desktop), some ebony stain, and my power mitre saw.

Friday night was easy, dinner at Senor Sanchos (Jason had his regular Firestone Double Barrel) and Josh and I tested our luck with a couple of Blue Tarantula Magaritas. Headed for the kids house and sat out under the stars and did a few snorts of some of the finest Grappa I've had on any continent. It had been gifted to me after a photo shoot on Thursday by the company owner. He said it was made the old world way and was tripled distilled. You could taste the love that went into it. I thought Stacey was going to hurl a few times but she had on her big girl panties and hung in there.

Jason has taken on the Project (capitalization intentional as it is a major project) of updating their kitchen. He had already pulled all the cabinet doors and was priming them when we arrived. The mitre saw was so we could buy some decorative trim and add a frame to the door fronts to add a little architectural interest. By the end of th day Saturday we had all the doors framed, primed and most painted (thanks to Sally and Stacey who stepped in to assist). Saturday night we were the guests of Gianni and Kati Manucci (proprietors of Wild Coyote Estate Winery and Bed & Breakfast). I thought Gianni would enjoy the Grappa so I brought it along. We did a few shots for desert.

We headed back and met Josh at Jason's and we sat out under the stars shooting the shit and smoking a couple of Bella Costa Vintage Reserve cigars (okay, just me and Jason. Sally and Josh aren't big cigar smokers).

I can't tell you how much I enjoy this time to unwind and just hang with my boys. They are a couple of remarkable men. Its obvious their mother did something right....

Sunday morning it was time to trim some bead board to face the cabinet ends and then over to Josh's to help him move furniture and assemble his new computer desk. Moved his dresser to the back room, moved his 36" TV (tube type, did I mention I'm getting too old for this shit) and then put the new desk together.

Last I saw he was happily reassembling his computer as we did the long drive back to the L.A. rat race...

AgentZ

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February 22, 2009

Finally in my New Office

Last weekend I spent most of the weekend disassembling, moving, arranging and re-assembling my office. We moved it from the back laundry room (its big about 10x22 feet) out to the bedroom (about the same size) just off the living room. It puts me closer to the kitchen (yeah), the door for deliveries (normally they're already headed down the drive by the time I can get out to the front), and the bathroom is only 5 steps instead of 25. I also have much more room to hang photos. There is still a blank wall (off to the right) for more prints.

Only thing left to do is pull CAT5 for my desktop. I'll probably keep the laptop wireless as its in and out all the time.

AgentZ

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February 9, 2009

I can't be the only one...

Can you tell the difference between these two cards?

Besides the one on the right is the new labeling Sandisk is using?

Here's a hint. The one on the left is about 2 years old and works flawlessly.

The one on the right is one of 4 cards I purchased that not one worked out of the package. Some my computer would not recognize when inserted in the card reader. Some the camera would not recognize when inserted in the camera. After formatting all of them both the camera and computer would recognize them.

That wasn't the end of the problems however. Below is a screen shot of Canon's "Digital Phot Professional". All four cards exhibited the same symptoms. The black rectangles are RAW images files that are corrupt and the software can't preview or open. The grey boxes with the X's through them are corrupt JPG and RAW files.

Okay, well some of them do preview. Unforntunately, that's all you get is a preview. In the image above you can see one of the previews highlighted in grey. That files was selected for editing.. The preview is fine but, when you open the image this is what you get:

But those aren't the only differences either. Sandisk claims on the packaging the ULTRA II is a 100X card. First, it not as fast as my 4 year old 80X LEXAR and it not as fast as the the older ULTRA II. It won't take as many images in a row in burst mode (same exact scene) and writes cache to the card slower.

Lets hope Sandisk makes good on this. However, I think I'll be looking for a new source for my CF cards in the future.

AgentZ

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Filed under // Brand New Compact Flash Corrupt Sandisk Ultra II

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February 6, 2009

New Hardinge Multi-tasking GS-Series Turning Center at Machinery Sales Co.

We are pleased to announce the West Coast premier of the new HARDINGE GS200MSY multi-tasking turning center.

It will be featured at the Machinery Sales Open House on February 18th and 19th. Factory representatives will be on hand.

Follow the link for more information:
http://www.masconews.com/pages/hardinge_gs_msy_introduction.html

AgentZ

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February 4, 2009

The Joy of Cooking

Did one of my favorite activities today.

I cooked.

I started at about 6:45 this morning. Sally had bought a pot roast, about 2.5 pounds. I whipped out my one of my Henckels knives and ran it across the diamond sharpener and hone to make certain I had a good edge on it.

Took out a bowl and added some flour and season salt. Set aside a paper plate and started hand trimming the roast. I carefully coated each piece with the flour mixtue and set it aside on the paper plate.

After the meat was completely trimmed and floured I took out an onion and diced it up and set it aside.

Took out the skillet, added enough oil to lightly cover the bottom and got it nice and hot. Whipped out the tongs and started adding the pieces of meat leaving plenty of room so they wouldn't stick to each other or start steamimg the meat. Browned all the pieces and added a little more oil and dumped in the onions. As they started turning translucent I added some minced garlic. Just as the edges of the onion were carmelizing I dumped the onions into the crock pot, opened a bottle of Sam Adams Octoberfest and used it to deglaze the pan. Reduced the beer a little and dumped it into the crock pot. I added another bottle of Sam Adams, put in the meat, set the pot to high and went to work.

Around 10ish I went out and peeled the russets Sally had bought and cut them into about a 1/4" dice. Took 12 ounces of baby carrots and cut them in 1/2 or 1/3's depending on their size and diced 4 stalks of celery. I intentionally waited to added the vegggies because I wanted them tender but still retaining their shape. I like potatoes in stew that still ahve a little bit of tooth to them.

I mixed up 2 cups of beef broth, opened an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and dumped them and the veggies into the meat, onion, and beer mixture. After mixing everything up I tasted the broth and decided a touch of sea salt, some paprika and fresh ground pepper medley would add a nice touch.

Left the crock pot on high and walked away until about an hour ago. Ummm Ummm Good!

Sally must of liked it as she's taking some for lunch tomorrow. I still have left over chili from Sunday so I may have to vacuum seal some of this and save it for that rainy day they are forecasting for us this weekend.

Can't wait because it usually even better after it sits overnight.

AgentZ

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February 4, 2009

Lost Generation ?

This is a real cool video I found in a posterous blog I subscribe to. It was made for an AARP contest yet is clearly aimed at the young people of today (future AARPer's).

Very clever:

AgentZ

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January 31, 2009

In Search of an Identity

Recently Sally (my lovely wife of almost 28 years) has been going through
old family photos for both a project she's working on and to post to her
Facebook page to share with the nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and
grand-nephews scattered around the country.

It been like a time machine taking me back to some great times and relighting
memories of times and loved ones who have passed on.

Its got me looking at my past and where I came from and how I got to be
where I am today.

I'll write about some of those journeys during future posts.

One of the things I realized recently is that I was a geek (in the modern
sense of the word) before the language evolved to give that tag.

Wikipedia says:
Formerly, the term referred to a carnival performer often billed as a wild
man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken, bat,
snake or bugs. The 1976 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary included
only the definition regarding geek shows.

The word geek is a slang term, noting individuals as "a peculiar or
otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed
with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics,
gaming, etc." The definition of geek has changed considerably over time,
and there is no longer a definitive meaning.

Julie Smith defined a geek as:

"a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little
kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented
by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his
computer took him to as cyberspace-somewhere exciting, a place more real
than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager's room in
his parents' house".

Okay,growing up, there weren't computers. But, I did read all the major science fiction writers extensively. Asimov, Ellison, and Bradbury were my favorites. they always gave me someplace to escape to.

Other definitions include:

A derogatory reference to a person obsessed with intellectual pursuits for their own sake, who is also deficient in most other human attributes so as to impair the person's operation within society. Not me, really! And not most people I know that I would consider geeks. But, there are a few that are borderline....
A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. GUILTY!
A person who relates academic subjects to the real world outside of academic studies GUILTY!
A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who passionately pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance.GUILTY!
A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest. GUILTY!

A more recent school of thought sees Nerd as being a derogatory phrase, whilst Geek is simply a description. It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum, of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.

More in future posts...

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