Life ticking by...

Back from Burningman 2009

btd — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:04:44 GMT

I could only be there from Monday to Friday. So on the journey home I've made my photos available: http://www.dongrays.com/burningman2009 Enjoy. (I will be putting them into categories, not just "by date")

"Random album" meme

btd — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:29:33 GMT

Follow the instructions... 1 - To get the name of your band, go to Wikipedia and hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. 2 - To get your album title, go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your album. 3 - For your album cover photo, go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4 - Use a paint package (eg Photoshop) to put it all together. 5 - Post it in your blog along with these instructions and hopefully your friends will all join in. PS Mine is above. • The flickr photo was: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blubbla/3290554759/ • Wikipedia sent me to the year 136 when in the Roman empire Nurses are accorded the same level of professional courtesy and respect as doctors. • The full quote is: "We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

My Burningman ticket arrived

btd — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:38:50 GMT

It actually arrived on Thursday, but I wasn't in and it required a signature to be delivered. I like the images relating to the theme (Evolution), including Darwin, but also various creatures such as trilobytes, ancient dinosaur/turtles, but also there is a snake in the foreground - a reference to the garden of Eden, perhaps? I like the theme (at last, after a few years of difficult themes to work with), but now I have to think about what I can do - that will be theme based. I've seen various previous years art pieces and vehicles that would be perfect for this theme, I hope their artists bring them back! I hope to meet up (once again) with all my Burningman friends.

My first Christmas card of 2008

btd — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:21:44 GMT

Hooray! I got my first Christmas card, all the way from England! And I think it looks neat.

Tainted Halloween Candy!

btd — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:55:30 GMT

I feel this is a good warning to pass along: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/460.html "In China, ANYTHING made with Chinese-manufactured milk powder before September 14th was PULLED from their store shelves. In the US, this garbage is still being sold! Note: Brasscheck TV has found independent verification of all the claims in this video. Source: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/462.html Foods at risk: ANY food manufactured in China and potentially any food containing milk powder. US food manufacturers imported millions of pounds of milk powder from China before September 14th. The FDA continues to allow to be sold. This includes chocolate, cookies, cakes, and even things like packaged macaroni and cheese. Background Mike Mozart is a product designer who also runs a video blog about new developments in the toy industry. His reviews are normally light, cheerful affairs and completely apolitical. If he appears distraught, it's because he is. This is serious. Mozart has discovered that the US is the ONLY country that still permits potentially melamine-contaminated food on its shelves. Even China has removed these products from its stores. That's right. This poison that killed and injured thousands of people, mainly children, may be in US food. We're the only country that hasn't pulled it from its shelves."

My photos from Burningman 2008

btd — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 GMT

I took a few! So at my site http://dongrays.com/bm08 I put them into various categories (people, vehicles, structures, etc...) I'm not into dancing, but I do enjoy the costumes people put a LOT of effort into, so it was fun to ask to take photographs (and it made it easier as I was costumed as well), and to point them at my website (by giving them a postcard) to download their photos, print them, show them to their friends/family, whatever... my gift to them. I did however have someone think I was selling my services! And so I had to make it clear to everyone, my photos are free! A gift. I then got to thinking about other people who go to Burningman events, take photos (specifically of people) then charge them for that photo - later. Not the Burningman spirit - and I've had this happen to me - to get charged for a photo, of me (taken without asking - but I'm ok about that), at a Burningman event. Anyway, go to my website, enjoy my photos (from this year and earlier, if you want to go see). I will also upload my favorites into my tribe photo album - feel free to comment (actually, I'd love you to).

A Burningman ticket for sale: $210

btd — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:55:13 GMT

To people in the San Francisco bay area, so I can deliver it by hand, with it being so close to the event. Cash only.

08/08/08

btd — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:25:48 GMT

I hope you were awake at 08:08:08 too! Apparently the Chinese see the number 8 as being lucky, so today should be triply lucky!

Memory

btd — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:22:45 GMT

I recently upgraded Mona's computer which was suffering from a serious lack of memory for everything she used her machine for. My first attempt at getting memory failed as I didn't realize it was a Dell Dimension 4600, and thought it was a Dell Inspiron 4600 (well... it has 4600i on the front). So the first set of memory I bought I couldn't use, as her machine needed non-ECC memory. Anyway, the I have memory isn't compatible with her machine, but to send it back (with shipping) would not give me much of a credit with the place I bought it from, and the price of the right memory made it more cost effective to keep the incorrect memory and simply buy from somewhere else, which I did, and once her machine had triple the memory, it runs MUCH faster now. Anyway... I now have a couple of unused memory sticks, totaling 512Mb. They are each labeled "256Mb, DDR, 200, CL2, ECC, REG" (see the photo) and I believe they are 184pin PC1600 SDRAM style (by reading the box, but I'm obviously no expert) but I believe usable in many machines (that use ECC memory), maybe yours? Still in the packaged box, I am willing to send to anyone who can find a use for them, even if you have a way to trade somewhere else for what YOU need! It just seems a waste for me to keep them - unused. So contact me (PM on tribe, first come first served), I'll give you my address, you'll send me a self-addressed, stamped padded envelope that can take a 7"x5"x1" box that weighs: 3+3/8oz (96g). For full image of what I'll be sending, see: http://www.dongrays.com/images/view.cgi?pic=7013&ref=tribe-blog&html=1 I also request any expert on computer memory to please comment, as I'd love to learn what things like "DDR", "200", "CL2", "SDRAM" and "PC1600" means? I know "ECC" means Error Checking and Correction and enables single-bit memory errors to be fixed. But I've seen things like CL2.5 or PC2100 - what do they mean, and how are they different to CL2 and PC1600 or PC800?

Memories...

btd — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:16:12 GMT

Leave one (or more) memory that you and I had together, from recently or waaaaaaay long ago. Anything you remember! Don't send a message, leave a comment on here. Next, re-post this in your notes and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses.

Moved

btd — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:04:22 GMT

One great side effect is to get my deposit back, it's like getting rent instead of paying rent! OK... it was my money to being with anyway, but still... it feels nice. While I have moved in with Mona, it's just for a short time at her place, as when her lease expires we're moving to a place more appropriately sized for us, still in the same neighborhood as the boys go to school here, and it'd be bad to change that. In the meantime I'm using a storage unit which has a fair number of boxes (see above). But I've labeled them, so I should be able to find things.

Mona's Mom's Memorial

btd — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:10:05 GMT

April 2nd, 2008 was Mona's Mom's Memorial service. On March 15th, 2008 Mona's mom, Loretta Chapman, 65, died of pancreatic cancer. She was surrounded by many of her family, and smiled until the last moment. She only said good about people, and even a few weeks before she was still leading a knitting circle. She knew Mona would be the one to take care of it all afterwards, and Mona did, despite having had throat surgery a few weeks earlier, and also helping me move. Loretta was cremated and her ashes are in the 4 white urns you can see in the photo above, one urn for each of her children: Michelle, Dennie, Mona, and Chester. At the ceremony, the chapel was almost full of people, including some who'd come from the Los Angeles area (Loretta lived in Riverside,CA for about 7½ years). I'm glad to have got to know her, if only for a few months. If you want to say anything to Mona ( http://people.tribe.net/ec0330e8-781f-46c1-8050-0723ee588324 ), feel free to comment here (I'll make sure she'll read it).

Who's been looking?

btd — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:58:35 GMT

Yay I now have 10,000 views. But who? I believe it's 10,000 unique people viewing me, as if the same person looks again and again, the view count doesn't go up. I've been on tribe since March 2005 (which is about 1100 days ago), this means on average 9 people view me. So I wonder who they were? I hope they liked what they saw!

Stars re-aligned

btd — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:51:23 GMT

Today is my birthday, and it's a special one, not because I'm a multiple of ten years, but because my Sun, Moon, AND ascendant are all in the same zodiac houses as they were when I was born (at the same time I was born). Some questions: a) is that rare? b) what does it mean? I should check which other planets are in the same houses too...

plɹoʍ uʍop ǝpısdn

btd — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:32:26 GMT

lɯʇɥ˙dılɟ/ɯoɔ˙pɐɟʌǝɹ˙ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ :punoɟ ı ǝʇısqǝʍ ʎzɐɹɔ sıɥʇ uı pǝʇsǝɹǝʇuı ǝɹ,noʎ ɟı http://www.revfad.com/flip.html

Granddaughter first steps

btd — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:31:40 GMT

Modern technology is great, that my daughter can catch on film and within a day send me a movie of my granddaughter's first steps, even though we live so far apart! See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVYCcjIMd1A She's managed it a few weeks before her birthday. Reminds me of a song by Squeeze, called "Up The Junction", which has the verse: This morning at 4:50 I took her rather nifty Down to an incubator Where thirty minutes later She gave birth to a daughter Within a year a walker She looked just like her mother If there could be another which has been one of my favorites, the rhyme, rhythm, and succinct description of a child being born and becoming a toddler.

Electronic wizardry

btd — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:53:26 GMT

So after buying the parts in October I finally built an 110 volt AC electrical isolator (with switchable inverter) of my own design. The reason for this device is so my x10 remote switches, which have to be connected to my normal house electrical supply, can switch on/off appliances connected to the electrical supply from my UPS (battery powered interruptible power supply). It is a simple circuit where the 110v controls a relay which either connects when on, or connects when off a 110v plug to a 110v socket, depending on the direction of a toggle switch. I set it up so when the x10 device is off, the electric supply (from my UPS) runs my network devices. When the x10 device is on, the network devices go off. I do it that way so if the house loses power the UPS still powers the network devices, and my computer has connection to the Internet, and my phone still works. I also wrote a little program that monitors my network devices, and if they have an issue (ie need resetting) then computer will automatically send a signal to turn on the X10 (ie turn off the network devices) wait 5 seconds, and then turn off the X10 (ie turn on my network again) which should make everything come back to normal. Each part works by itself, but does it all work together, automatically... time will tell. PS An x10 firecracker enables RS232 communication from a computer to up to 256 electrical devices, to control power to lamps and other appliances.

Romance vs human rights

btd — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:34:58 GMT

Here's a photo of the ring I gave Mona ( http://people.tribe.net/ec0330e8-781f-46c1-8050-0723ee588324 ) today. Yes... an engagement ring. Why "Blue Topaz"? • Blue Topaz is the birthstone of December, Mona's birth month. Hey... but it's not a diamond? • Of course! We have both learned over the years that diamonds are a marketing scam by DeBeers, with the price held high by their control of the supply. Also, and I think more importantly, diamond mines are frequently controlled by oppressive African militias, who violate the rights of the workers, killing or maiming them and their families, including such horrors of cutting off babies limbs if the worker did not meet a quota. The money these torturers make go to buying yet more weapons to keep their position of power. I feel people should boycott buying diamonds. I would like to see people wearing diamonds to be seen as bad a people wearing fur. Symbols of love do not have to be expensive, and should not cause another human suffering. Many jewelers will claim their diamonds are not "blood diamonds" (or "conflict diamonds"), but the reality is they cannot tell, especially when there are fake documents. So it is safer to boycott the whole issue, and just don't have anything to do with the diamond trade. A long while ago I created a tribe called "Conflict Diamonds" http://tribes.tribe.net/conflictdiamonds Think about joining it, or just read the information there on the topic. ------------------------------------------------------- Did someone die for that diamond? Just one story about this issue: "Amnesty International -- Blood diamonds are still a reality" (see: http://www.amnesty.org.au/home/spotlights/blood_diamonds_are_still_a_reality )

Juniper Bonzai

btd — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:51:44 GMT

After an early morning two hour meeting, back at my desk I find a big box, opening it, inside I find a miniature tree. It is my Valentine's Day gift from Mona, and how nice! She also got me a musical card. So this tree is apparently a "Juniper Bonzai" - and I didn't know there were different types of Bonzai. The word "Bonzai" to me conjures up a Japanese TV show where suddenly the host shouts "BONZAI" to the participants, so I assume there's a meaning to the word, apart from small tree. Anyone know?

My Burningman tickets arrived

btd — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:38:26 GMT

What more needs to be said. Although a $12 fee for signature confirmation delivery (via USPS) seems a little high, especially when they've already charged a $4.95 "convenience" fee. But I love the extreme camping, interacting with intelligent people in deep philosophical discussions, seeing (and attempting) weird and wonderful creations, dressing up and seeing others costumes, and just having fun. Note the above image is the Burningman ticket for 2008. Visit http://www.burningman.com for details on what is Burningman.

Anyone voting in the USA...

btd — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:29:32 GMT

A video with a demonstration of how to rig a Diebold voting machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx5YyiyWOH4 A video of an under oath testimonial from a voting machine programmer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzY2tnwExs

I won!

btd — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:39:07 GMT

What did I win? An iPod! My belief that I never win things has now been shattered. I was at work, in a quarterly meeting where all employees are told of the company news and future plans & direction. I wasn't the only winner, others won an iPod nano, two extra one day vacation "passes", and a $100 gift certificate. Interestingly, I was only thinking earlier that I need to replace my CD player that I have in my car, which has lived through 5 Burningman trips, and HOURS of driving in the boiling hot[¹] to the freezing cold[¹]. It still works but some of the buttons don't always work, also I had to disable the auto-shut-off when the lid is opened, sadly it adds (to the audio) a weird noise when skipping between tracks, and has always been a little bulky being placed between the front two seats. So my wish was granted. Now I need a car charger for it and a case to protect/carry it. [I won an 80Gb iPod, which can play music, videos, TV shows, podcasts, and store photos. It also has games, a calendar, multi-timezone clocks, has alarms, contact list, and can be a stopwatch. Front is black plastic, rear is chrome plated.] FYI: An MP3 CD data disk holds about 600Mb, which is about 10 hours of music. The iPod I have stores 80Gb (or 80,000Mb) of data, which if completely full of music would total about 55½days, but it can also hold photos and video, which will consume so much more storage space, so it's unlikely I'll ever have that much music. I'll probably start downloading music videos, instead of just the audio. If you have an MP3 CD player, then a hint (when you burn CDs) is to have many folders (or albums) each with about 20 tracks in them, to make it easier to get to a specific track much faster. eg: a) click FWD-ALBUM a few times, to go to the folder b) click TRACK-FWD to go to the track instead of potentially pressing the TRACK-FWD button hundreds of times. Perhaps simply label the folders A-E, G-K, ... for the song titles, or group by artists, or music styles. ________________________________________________________ ¹ I have an in car thermometer which one time showed a maximum of 157°F (70°C) after a very hot summer day in Las Vegas, and minimum of -40°F (-40°C) in a particularly cold winter in Minnesota. The player didn't work when it got excessively cold.

What they should teach at school

btd — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:25:00 GMT

This may not be the exact book I once found at an ex-GF's place, but if not this one, it was extremely similar. I thought it interesting that she made sure I didn't read it, so when I saw this advertised on Amazon I just had to get it. While it is humorous there are too many elements of truth. My lesson learned and think others should know too: • Don't support a future partner until they make a full commitment by their actions, not just their words, such as an act of allowing you to live together. I learned the hard way that supporting them before they move, just enables them to continue to not move, but still lets them drain you of your resources, and emotions. Don't let someone sponge off you!

One sandwich short of a picnic

btd — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:39:44 GMT

Today. I suddenly realized that: • tribe friend A has been referring to tribe friend B and not someone else • tribe friend B has been referring to tribe friend A and not someone else Not only that, but also: • tribe friend C has been referring to tribe friend D and not someone else • tribe friend D has been referring to tribe friend C and not someone else Yes. I've been unaware, somehow not making a connection! BUT when I read back old posts, blogs, comments on photos, now it's so obvious, but being honest, it wasn't obvious to me... at the time! No wonder my posts/replies to blogs/comments on photos have all so been totally ignored. There I was noticing I'd make a comment, but silence came back, yet others made comments, and they got replied to. I was thinking of asking why I've been so ostracized, but now it's obvious. They all must think I'm "one sandwich short of a picnic!" Doh!

New bed

btd — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:58:37 GMT

The bed I have (which was the spare bed prior to my divorce) is about 21 years old. It's had some home repairs, and although it is a good bed, it's time has come and gone. I've always wanted a 4 poster bed, and in the last 3 or 4 years I've had my eye on a 4 poster bed (at Cost Plus World Market). Interestingly it turns out that Mona (my girlfriend) has ALSO wanted the very same bed for a while, and with her recent move she's also been just getting by with a poor bed. So with a sale on, we've decided to get the bedframe and we needed a new mattress, so we got one made of memory foam. Our first big purchase together. We put it together last night. Ahhh... luxury! • Bed: http://www.worldmarket.com/lev/4/productId/2931/index.pro • Mattress: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11214008 • Mona: http://people.tribe.net/ec0330e8-781f-46c1-8050-0723ee588324