The Who, What, Where and Whys

I just thought I'd share a quick note about Amazon shipping.

I ordered something from Amazon yesterday afternoon about 4:30, selected whatever the free shipping option was and hit purchase.  I decided to work from home this afternoon so I headed home after lunch and what I ordered was already on the porch!  Less than 20 hours from order to delivery.  That's good service! 

Look mom I'm on TV! 

Saturday at the NC State football game (which they WON btw!) a bunch of friends and I got a close up on ESPNHD.  This was right after ECU picked off a Wolfpack pass and ran it back for a touchdown.  I am looking up at the Jumbotron watching the replay.

Close up!

The Wolfpack pulled off a victory in overtime 30-24 over 14th ranked ECU!

Apparently we were on TV a couple more times but I haven't gotten the still shots from those times  yet.

Just a quick note to let folks that I haven't seen lately (like months) that I'm still alive.  I've had a pretty busy couple of weeks recently with the Hunter's Pistol/Smallbore Hunter's Pistol National Championship (held in my hometown) and my sisters wedding, held near my hometown.

Those trips equaled 3,195 miles of driving over 59 hours and 17 minutes for an average of 53 MPH and 28 MPG. :)

So I'm home now and I will be doing laundry and cleaning the house for the next couple days. :)  Fun, fun, fun...

Unfortunately due to high winds in the upper atmosphere we had to scrub todays balloon launch.

This is the predicted flight path based on November 17 12 Zulu weather data from the daily soundings that they do out of the Greensboro, NC airport.

I think we would have had a hard time with 2 things.  One keeping up with the balloon in the car since it was suppose to travel over 220 miles and 2 finding after it splashed down in the ocean. :)



Stay tuned for updates on future launch dates...

Since my brain is apparently made of swiss cheese and I can't remember anything I will post
one more time...I know...I know... I never post anything and the all of sudden I post three times
in one day...crazy isn't it?

So here is a picture that I took with my spiffy new camera. 

Photograph

It was of the flower girl at the wedding I went to this last weekend.  If I could Photoshop the
guy in the background out it would be even better. :)  

Cameras are cool!  I need to work on taking portraits as well as keep figuring out all the different
settings on the camera.  So far I've learned something new every time I have take pictures.  So
I'm sure I will be boring everyone with more pictures soon.  :)

So some of you have seen the balloon project that I am working on.

The blog is here so check it out!

This Saturday looks like it's going to be the launch date.  We have got almost everything
we need fabricated and assembled.  We will put the finishing touches on the payload tonight
and pick up the helium tank tomorrow.

So check back often for updates and if we can find the payload after it crashes back to
earth we will have some pictures and maybe a video or two.

We hope to have a blog update with all the new modeling we have done to see if we
can predict the landing location, well other people wrote the software we just have
some folks that do weather for a living on the project who were able to give us some
ideas of how to make the model better.

YaY!

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Very High
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very High
Pride:	High

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

Shocking....

Yay!

Today I bought some new toys! 

I bought a Canon 40D, a Canon 24-105L IS lense and the battery grip for the 40D.

I didn't realize how much I missed my old camera until I bought the new one. 

Now who wants to go take some pictures!?!?!?! 

Some folks had been asking about the high altitude balloon project that I'm working on with a group of friends so I decided to repost the blog information and add a link to the feed that auryn29a created.

Project-W.A.R.P.E.D BlogSpot Blog

project_warped - Add this as a friend to get all the latest updates.

Enjoy!  We hope to have a launch date set soon!  We will update the blog with all the latest information and pictures.

So while I was in Myrtle Beach, SC last week playing golf I got a surprise visit from one of our eight legged friends.

When I went to put my golf club back in the bag after teeing off this little guy (Linked for Sami).  I usually don't
mind spiders but when they are bigger than the golf head cover they are climbing on then I get concerned. 
It's a good thing the guys behind me noticed it and warned me before I put my hand down next to it.

The spider is a "Banana Spider" which is an orb-weaver spider.  They make some very cool and large webs.
Their venom is potent but not harmful to humans.  Similar to the Black Widow Spider venom in nature it is
much less powerful and the area around the bite usually clears up in 24 hours.

See golf is fun AND educational. :)

If this spider had crawled on me I would have probably had a heart attack!

As I was walking back to my car this afternoon after meeting my folks for a late lunch (after my conveniently scheduled lunchtime meeting and wading through hundreds of emails I let pile up during my time off) I noticed that the sun was already on it's way down and had that late afternoon orangey glow.  Where did the year go? and can I get some of that time back?  Like all the time I spent on an airplane? :)  Or maybe all the time I spent trapped in a conference room.

I love fall, but I do miss the long days of summer....

Thought I'd share some of the interesting, funny, stupid stuff I've found or been shown on YouTube lately.

Thriller - Prison Version - Wow these guys are good...

You Touched My Tra La La - NSFW (well maybe with the volume turned down) - Strange, very strange, Swedish pop song.

Flight of the Conchords: Business Time! - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Rubens Tube - Physics is cool!

Another Rubens Tube - Physics is still cool!

Okay, One More Rubens Tube - Good Detail

Bouncing of a Jet off a Newtonian Liquid Surface - One of my buddies brother is the narrator for this video, plus it's cool. :)

Non-Newtonian Liquid - It's ALIVE!!!!!

Okay enough for today. :)  Enjoy!

Hi gang!  Just wanted to post a quick note and tell everyone that I am still alive.  I've been up to my eyeballs with work and other fun stuff that feels like work that I haven't been able to out to see folks.

I hope to be wrapping a few things up soon so you *should* see more of me soon. :)

Apparently I spend a lot of time in my head...that would explain why I don't meet a lot of single women...there is so much random crap crammed inside my head there just isn't any room for them.  *laugh*

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world.  So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time.  You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all...  But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others.  Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Wow apparently I need to stay home more...

It's been a while since I updated LJ so this is a huge rambling post. :) I’m sure you are all used to this from me by now. :) Okay here we go.

Two weekends ago I did a whirlwind trip to visit some folks in Northern Virginia and visit my folks in Pennsylvania. Thursday I drove up to NoVA and stopped in at a friends house for some a beer then had dinner with my friend Shannon. I crashed and my buddy Chris's house Thursday night and on Friday Chris and I played a round of golf at Brambleton Golf Course.After the round I headed up to Pennsylvania to visit my folks.

Saturday morning my dad and I played golf at Waterway Hills Golf Course. I shot my best score ever! I shot an 86. My previous low score had been 92. *whooo hoooo* Sunday I headed back down to NoVA for a cookout at some friends house. As it usually happens with that group of friends I ended up having a few beers, a couple shots, a few more beers, a lot more shots and then I had to stay over since I was in no shape to drive back to North Carolina. :) Monday I got up at the crack of 11:00am and drove back to NC just in time to head over to another cookout with some friends.

Last weekend on Saturday I played golf with some buddies at Wil-Mar Golf Course. It's a really nice course. Then it was off to lunch at Cloo's Coney Island Hot Dogs. They have the best sweet tea around! All the food is good and the staff is great. Then after lunch I headed of to Scott and Christy's Wedding Shower. It was nice to see them again; I hadn't seen them in a long time, after that if was off to a co-workers house for a poker tournament. I did okay but didn't make it to the final table this time. It was a good turnout. Twenty one people played.

Sunday I went and competed in a Hunter's Pistol/Smallbore Hunter's Pistol Silhouette Match at the Durham County Wildlife Club. I haven't shot competitively since 2005 so I didn't have very high expectations of how I would do. In the SBHP competition I scored 28 out of 40 which was a pretty okay score for just getting back into competition. With the HP I scored 32 out of 40 and tied for match winner with two other people. I had to compete against them in a shoot-off to see who the winner was. The shoot-off went two rounds and I ended up winning by scoring 7 out of 10 hits. That was the first time I have ever been the overall winner at a Silhouette competition.

Sunday I also joined the ranks of the truly lazy. I shopped for groceries online at Harris Teeter. I decided to give it a try and see if they bought the same things I would and how the produce and such turned out. Well that and the fact that it was free. :) I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I put all the things I wanted in my virtual shopping cart, told them what time I wanted to pick up the groceries and then went over to the store at that time and someone brought my groceries out and put them in my trunk. So the total time it took me to get groceries was 27 minutes if you count the time online and the time driving to the store, waiting for them to bring the groceries out and then driving home. Not too shabby!

Whew! Okay I think that's enough for today ;) Or atleast for right now...

No no no, not THAT weekend update... *MY* Weekend Update.

Friday night I went to Greensboro and had dinner with my brother and his wife. We went to a new restaurant in the Friendly Center which was called Bravo! It was really nice. Good food, good service and an overall great atmosphere. Since I was going to go play golf at Tot Hill Farms Golf Course bright and early Saturday morning, I decided to crash on their couch and get up and leave from there since it was 35 minutes closer.

Golf was a blast. It's such a pretty golf course. Lot of challenging holes. I was pretty much worn out after playing. But as they say no rest for the weary. Once I got back to the house it was time to hop in the shower and then cruise on over to jenndorff's mom's house for the "1st Annual Steve Pahner Scleroderma Strawberry Daiquiri Party". It was an awesome party, lots of good food, good drinks and good conversation! Plus they raised over a thousand dollars for the Scleroderma Foundation!

The next day it was off to the California Pizza Kitchen for jennydevil's birthday party and then we went to see the new movie "Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer".

Then to wind down the weekend I headed over to my neighbors house and had some sushi. MMMMMMM sushi.....

So all in all a good weekend. Busy but good.

Well I am back in LA again. Seems like just last week I was here...oh wait that's because it *WAS* last week!

At least Delta has a non stop flight from RDU to LAX. :) WHOOO HOOOO!

I've also flown enough with Delta this year (about 32,000 miles in 3 months) to start getting free upgrades to first class. That makes the flight so much more bearable. The flights from RDU to LAX are almost always empty. The flights from LAX to RDU are almost always packed. The LAX to RDU flight is a "red eye", it leaves at 10:40PM Pacific time and gets into RDU at 6:30AM Eastern time. Upgrades on those flights are key. I got one last week but I'm not sure if I'll get one this time.

LA is cool. Very cool right now actually. It's about 62 degrees and overcast. So much for sunny California.
I got the strangest rental car from Hertz. I got a 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4x4. Cause if there is ever a place you need 4 wheel drive it's downtown LA. It's kind of fun to drive though.

I was thinking about buying a Jeep as a second car to haul my bike, skis, the fireworks launcher I am going to build, you know normal stuff. This will give me a chance to see how I like it.

Well I am off to the hotel to workout then get something to eat.

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So being down here in the south and my love for sweet tea I was curious as to just how bad for you sweet tea is. How does it compare to other bad for you drinks like soda? So I decided to do a little study and see if I could get to the bottom of this great mystery. For my study I choose "Cloos' Coney Island" as my test restaurant.

Here is how they make tea:
The brew 3 gallons of loose leaf tea at a time.
They add 4.5 cups of sugar to the tea.
There are 770 calories in a cup of table sugar.
So if I do the math:

4.5 cups of sugar x 770 calories per cup= 3465 calories per batch (3 gallons) of tea.
3465 calories / 384 ounces = 9.0 calories an ounce.

A can of regular 12 oz can of Coca-Cola is 140 calories or 11.6 calories per oz.
A 12 oz glass of sweet tea x 9 calories per oz = 108 calories

So Cloo's sweet tea is better for you than soda. ;)

Now use it to wash down a chili cheese dog with fries and maybe it's a toss up...

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